ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the concept of self by suggesting the meaning it takes on in the framework of a theory of symbolic interaction, a theory that has long been of major importance in sociology. Commitment and situational adjustment are clearly of great importance, and each is congruent with a symbolic interactionist approach to the self and adult socialization. The chapter explains nature of a few mechanisms of change in the self: situational adjustment, through which much of the day-to-day variation in behavior can be explained; commitment, through which the development of long-term interests arises; and involvement, a process of shutting out of potential influences. It concludes effects of social structure by making the essential jump from the socializing institution, which may be taken as an extreme case, to social organizations generally, any of which can be analyzed as though it, in effect, were attempting to socialize its participants.