Self

Self and Other

The unabated interest in and speculation about one’s own and others’ self-processes (i.e., either alone or as a comparison) are of life-course interest and especially so when the other is different from the self in some way. Social and physical variation among humans represents differences from perceptions of self as a function of gender, race, ethnicity, faith group, body type, developmental stage, immigration status, inferred socioeconomic status, or other sources of difference; they precipitate both possibilities of intense social distance as well as interest in closeness.

Evident is that the construction of the self is social. It takes place in communal contexts beginning at birth (e.g., initially as parent–infant bonding and broadening to attachments to significant others such as siblings and kin). In fact, compared with later periods of the life course when an independent sense of self is the goal (i.e., as late adolescents wishing to show competence and independence from family, a young adult seeking a work-linked identity, or as middle-adulthood individuals seeking to be viewed as an effective economic provider), the child at birth is different. An infant is initially challenged to separate out a sense of self versus nonself (i.e., selfhood separate from the parenting figure[s]). Thus, the self-formation process begin as an unavoidable aspect of socialization; it represents and accrues a particular character given experiences had in progressively more complex situations. The social, psychological, and physical character of the navigated contexts plays a foundational role. In fact, more recent work suggests that particular individuals’ group or individual experiences and social standing may be challenged by intergenerational trauma (e.g., the group’s adverse experience of slavery, colonization, or immigration), which impacts subsequent generations as added psychological challenge. At the same time, others’ long-term experience with unearned and significant supports associated with group membership may be handicapping [Page 1918]of coping competence; unacknowledged privileges may become linked with inauthentic self-perceptions, inadequate experience for practicing healthy coping, and unrealistic life-course expectations. From a critical race perspective, some theorists suggest that the dilemma is that there might not always be wages or social advantages associated with Whiteness (i.e., Caucasian group membership).

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