Sociocentric thinking

Monitoring Your Sociocentric Tendencies

Afaf alqahtani / 201400221

Faten ALnassar /201302248

Outline

Introduction.

The Nature of Sociocentrism.

Sociocentric Thinking as Pathology.

Social Stratification.

Sociocentric Thinking Is Unconscious and Potentially Dangerous.

Sociocentric Use of Language in Groups.

Disclosing Sociocentric Thinking Through Conceptual Analysis.

Revealing Ideology at Work Through Conceptual Analysis.

The Mass Media Foster Sociocentric Thinking.

Freedom from Sociocentric Thought: The Beginnings of Genuine Conscience.

Conclusion.

Introduction

Living a human life entails membership in a variety of human groups.

Nation, culture, religion and family.

Each group to which we belong imposes some level of conformity on us as a condition of acceptance.

The Nature of Sociocentrism

uncritically accept as right ad correct whatever ways of acting and believing are fostered in the social groups to which we belong.

It becomes clear to us if we reflect on what happens when, say, an adolescent joins an urban street gang.

With that act, adolescents are expected to identify themselves with a name that define who and what they are, a way of talking, a set of friends and enemies, Gang rituals in which they must participate, expected behaviors involving fellow gang members.

Sociocentric Thinking as Pathology

It is destructive as egocentric thinking, if not more so, as it carries with it the sanction of a social group.

we find a native and uncritical dogmatism implicit in its principles in both cases.

As egocentric thinking functions to serve one’s selfish interest, sociocentric-thinking functions to serve the selfish interests of the group, as egocentric thinking operates to validate the uncritical thinking of the individual, sociocentric thinking operates to validate the uncritical thinking of the group.

Social Stratification

Sociocentric systems are used in complex societies to justify differential treatment and injustices within a society, nation, or culture.

According to Plotnicov and Tuden (1970), each has social groups that are ranked hierarchically, maintain relatively permanent positions in the hierarchy, have differential control of the sources of power, primarily economic and political.

Sociocentric Thinking Is Unconscious and Potentially Dangerous

Sociocentric thinking, like egocentric thinking, appears in the mind of the person who thinks that way as reasonable and justified.

just as egocentric thinking is self-deceptive, so is sociocentric thinking. Once they have internalized a self-serving ideology, they are able to act in ways that flagrantly contradict their announces morality without noticing any contradictions or inconsistencies in the process.

Sociocentric Use of Language in Groups

Sociocentric thinking is fostered by the way groups use language.

Groups justify unjust acts and ways of thinking through their use of concepts or ideas.

In sociocentric thinkers’ life, we can find many self-serving uses of language that obscure unethical behavior.

Disclosing Sociocentric Thinking Through Conceptual Analysis

Concepts are one of the eight basic elements of human thinking.

They form the classifications, and implicitly express the theories, through which we interpret what we see, test, hear, smell and touch.

the ability to identify the difference between ideological and nonideological uses of words, concepts, and the ability to accurately analysis the network of technical meanings of words that define the basic concepts within a discipline or domain of thinking.

Revealing Ideology at Work Through Conceptual Analysis

People often have trouble differentiating ideological and nonideological uses of words.

Capitalism, an economic system in which all the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit, originally under fully competitive conditions.

Socialism, any of the various theories or systems of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing in the work and the products.

Continue..

Communism, any economic theory or system based on the ownership of all property by the community as a whole.

Democracy, government in which the people hold the ruling power either directly or through elected representatives, rule by the ruled.

Oligarchy, a form of government in which the ruling power belongs to a few persons.

Plutocracy, government by the wealthy and a group of wealthy people who control or influence a government.

Patriotism, love and loyal or zealous support of one’s own country.

Terrorism, use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate and subjugate, especially such use a political weapon or policy.

The Mass Media Foster Sociocentric Thinking

The mass media and press in a country tend to present events in the world in descriptive terms that presuppose the correctness of the self-serving worldview dominant in the country.

As sociocentric thinkers, we think of our nation and the groups to which we belong in largely favorable terms. It follows, therefore, that the media will present in largely unfavorable terms those nations and groups that significantly oppose us.

Freedom from Sociocentric Thought: The Beginnings of Genuine Conscience

Without a clear understanding of our sociocentric tendencies, we become victims of the conformist thought dominant in social groups, and we become potential victimizers of others who disagree with our group’s ideology.

Once we see the many patterns of social conformity in our lives, we can begin question those patterns. As we become more rational, rebel-to-rebel nor we neither conform to conform.

Exercise

What is egocentric and sociocentric self?

Egocentric Self - each person is seen to be a separate entity with inherent characteristics - which are seen to originate and reside within an individual - to act differently depending on who you are with is seen as dishonest - as suggested in the expression, "be true to yourself”

Sociocentric Self - personal identity not autonomous but relative/conditional - depends on social context, who one is with (or referring to) - personal qualities not embedded in the person but embodied (manifested) in concrete social settings - assumes/realises people are not autonomous and self-contained packages of traits but part of a social matrix

Video about Critical Thinking Overview

Conclusion

Living a human life entails membership in a variety of human groups. Moreover, such membership usually generated sociocentric thought. This holds independently of whether they are speaking of nation, culture, profession, religion, family or peer group. We find ourselves participating in groups before we are aware of ourselves as living beings. We find ourselves in groups in virtually every setting in which we function as persons.