The Man in the Mirror: Self-Awareness as Social Awareness

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5 word format

document in english

psychology

school essay

date published 19/10/2007

review : not yet assessed

level : Advanced

requested 5 times

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Summary

Much of the realm of psychology, especially in the disciplines of neuroscience and cognitive studies, is focused on identifying the unified characteristics of human thought and behavior. The brain is studied extensively: years upon years of theories and experiments have yielded an accurate map as well as concrete functions for each individual structure, most recently those of the cerebral cortex. The consistency of the modern brain is helpful in determining what specific occurrences are in fact abnormalities: much like standardized criteria for mental disorders are necessary for correct diagnosis and distribution of medication. And this is what makes the lesser-known focuses on personality and social psychology all the more interesting. A common person automatically draws a line between psychology and insanity. Yet everyday psychology, the interactions between populations and the self-awareness individuals uphold as the fundamental element of being human, goes ignored in a society increasingly fixated on the negative. An individual is more than a brain and genetics, but so often the individual is forgotten in matters of the mind. There is uniqueness to each and every person, a personality that will never be expressed again, a self that is alone in its composition. Sigmund Freud’s theory of the psychodynamic personality accounts for many of these peculiarities that are, in essence, the souls of humanity. The focus of social psychology on self-consciousness formed through the eyes of others solidifies the relationship between the self and society that develops a blank personality into the true portrait of an individual.

Table of Contents

One of the oldest and most controversial methods of exploring human personality is the psychodynamic theory first outlined by Sigmund Freud.
Freud and his followers at the time viewed human beings as basically 'asocial, forced into society more by necessity than by desire' (Gray 595).
Contemporaries of Karen Horney, Alfred Adler and Erik Erikson, contributed also to the idea of the personality changing in accordance to individual and societal desires and influences.
The optimal psychodynamic theory of personality needs to accept both the unconscious and the conscious
Social psychology has long sense studied the influence of others on the formation of the self.
The looking-glass self often seeks appraisal, a phenomenon explored by Charles Cooley in numerous experiments.
In such a way, the looking-glass self is deeper than a mere acceptance of traits and behaviors believed to be perceived by others
Sigmund Freud failed to acknowledge human beings as social creatures, yet luckily his followers addressed this connection in a way that established psychodynamic theory as an acceptable explanation for the mystery of personality