Abstract
We discuss the concept of self with a focus on understanding it from a micro, meso, and macro level of analysis. At the micro level, we focus on the self in interaction, emphasizing role-taking, self-presentation, and self-esteem. At the meso level, we address how the self is embedded within various groups including corporate and categorical structures. At the macro level, we discuss how the organization of society facilitates the development of particular “kinds” of selves, focusing on postmodernist and cultural perspectives on the self. We propose avenues for future research at each of these different levels of social interaction and organization. This approach allows us to advance a view that acknowledges the self as reflexive, cognitive and affective, rational and emotional, and, more importantly, reveals how the self is inextricably linked to micro and macro level processes.
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Notes
- 1.
Our reflection as to the reactions others’ have to us, in contemporary terms, are called reflected appraisals. Reflected appraisals or how we think others see us is one of the main ways we come to understand who we are in identity theory (Burke and Stets 2009).
- 2.
Early research in this area began by simply asking individuals to list their identities using the Twenty-Statements Test (TST) that asked the question “Who am I?” (Kuhn and McPartland 1954).
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Cast, A.D., Stets, J.E. (2016). The Self. In: Abrutyn, S. (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32250-6_17
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