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The “Self” is a social product. It is created by how significant others (Family, friends, age peers…etc.) view you depending in the roles that you play at a given situation. Significant others are going to define and validated your identity by comparing your action to standards created by the “shared culture”, which is often repressed in the mass media and social institutions. As “the conventional understanding” known as culture will created the standards of the social world, significant others will place you in roles and relationships that will be construed around these social standards. A person will have multiple roles, which are going to be different from one another, to such a degree that each role is going to repressed just a fraction of your persona. Then, how much do you know a person? You may think you know your friend, coworker, classmate and so on. However, you just know the role that they are playing in each situation. To truly understand a person, one need to see the behavior of that person in different scenarios in which he/she plays a variation of roles. For instances, I see/defined myself mostly in two main roles: college student and family member. In both roles, I am being successful because my significant other verifies this concept. The fact I came from a single mother family, means that I must work to help my mother with the bills. In this sense, I am a “good” son to my mother because I am following this social norm. Again, the fact that my grade point average is 3.8 means that I am a merit student because I have proven myself as a successful student to the college and professors, which means I may not validate my identity; I may believe that I am a good student (or son) but my significant other must validate my role by my performance. Thus, I am going to be define by my actions and those actions are going to be validate by other people, which is going to create my persona and sense of self.
In college, I decided that I will be a merit student. I knew that to achieved this goal, it was necessary to show that I deserved it. Since, I been working hard to keep my high-grade point average. At the beginning, I did not think of myself as an intelligent student. I was just putting the time and work into my studies. However, my professors and classmate thought that I was. I was doing my homework, participating in class and getting good grades on my exams. They saw my performance and concluded that I was intelligent, and with time I stated to believe it myself; “When an individual plays a part he implicitly requests his observes to take seriously the impression that is fostered before them. They are asked to believe that the character they see actually possesses the attributes he appears to possess, that the task he performs will have the consequences that are implicitly claimed for it, and that, in general, matters are what they appear to be”. In the process of wanted to be an excellence student by acting like one, a became one by the validation of other people - I was defined and identified by this role. Thus, the way people see me though these impressions/roles shape my sense of self.
We play many different roles. I am a student, a son, a brother, a worker …etc. Each one of these roles are a part of my “Self”. However, they are not the whole part of how I am. I will behaver in a different fashion when I am with my family or friend than when I am at work. For instance, at my work I will act and speech more professionally. On the other hand, with friend I could act foolish. I will also be able to express my opinion more freely with my friends than in my job, which means that my boss will not know me in the way than my friends know me, and vice versa. “... this mask represents the conception we have formed of ourselves- the role we are striving to live up to – this mask is our truer self. The self we would like to be… our role becomes second nature and an integral part of our personality”. These roles will have some aspect of myself but these roles alone are not going to create the self. It is the combination of these roles that create the sense of self in an individual. Thus, the “Self” is create by the sum of the social roles of a person. However, one role may take over the other roles. In my case the roles that take over my personality are college student and son. I play other roles such as friend, gamer and basketball player but these roles are not important in this point of my life because I need to put the time and energy in college and work. Another example is the transformation of Jessica Hunter who “was a shy and awkward girl who struggled to make friends at school. Then, at age 14, she reinvented herself online as Autumn Edows, a goth artist and model. She posted provocative photos of herself on the Web and fast developed a cult following.” She gives more priority to the role of Autumn Edows (Social media) than to the roles of daughter, high school student, teenage etc. Then, the self is a combination of roles but one role may represent more of yourself than another role.
“The personal fronts” are the items that “…most be intimately identify with the performer himself and that naturally will follow the performer wherever he goes. As part of personal fronts include: insignia of officer or rank; clothing; sex; age…”. These fronts will play an important role in the development of the self. Let’s go back to the example of me being working to support my family, in which the social class is the personal front. Now how will my persona will be different from a college student in the upper-middle class. This person will not ready need to work, therefore his main roles will be different than my roles. He may put his energy and time in other roles such as being a friend, an athlete, an officer in a club, party boy…etc. Since, the roles of individual will change because of the personal fronts it can be say that the personal fronts will shape the self by placing norms in an individual, which are determine by characteristic outside of individual control.
To conclude, the self is formed by the sum of roles that are validated by significate others and the personal fronts of the individual. However, some roles will be more important than other in forming the self, which means that some roles are going to represent more the self than others.