Ego and Group as Mirror

Symbolic Interaction

(Group as a mirror)

The ego, the self, the soul, the nature of the person are all words indicating the identity of the person that interacts in society. It has been shown that the interaction in society generates the human, the Swedish writer Vedberg, L (2012) writes in her book that the body’s birth is biological, but the human’s birth is social. The ego designed through the interaction outside in the world. The self is developing through the interaction with the group in a process called social playback. Where the self reflects itself by seeing the reaction and attitudes of others ie. That the self is influenced by the group’s attitudes and traditions. E.g. As poets symbolize the truth when it is said that a child who is criticized learns to condemn. Another poem says a child who gets beaten, learns to fight.

The self throughout life strives for people who think the same and make her feel good. The self loves people who say yes and agree with it. All of us have different roles in the world and if we change roles we will end up in a different position, which means that we will experience the world from a different perspective. The self is constructed in two stages of development, the play stage and the reflection stage.

During the play stage, these roles are examined through specific actions with other people. In the reflection stage you become more organized, which means that more advanced roles occur. We have double egos experience, one side of us such as feeling and thinking and other side that has existence in the eyes of others as objects and through reflection in others, we become more aware of ourselves.

In all the cultures it says that the self is designed according to the group’s attitudes eg. In the middle eastern it is said “tell me who are your friends, then I can tell you who you are” ie. The social experience greatly influences our thoughts and feelings and how we behave. The behaviour never comes from anything, there is always something behind the behaviour. The behaviour is a result of interactionism that occurred throughout life with interaction with others in groups. 

Reference

Svedberg, L (2012). Grupp psykologi (femte uppl.). Lund Studentlitteratur.