Symbol Status and Personality: When We Should See Beyond Cultural Symbolism? (Human Development)

Here is something you may find of interest. There is a book I just finished reading called 'Symbol, Status, and Personality' by S.I. Hayakawa. The researcher does a lot of discussion on language and thought. Granted its a 1953 book but it is still beneficial in understanding underlining symbols of language (I like the era. We were actively building and discovering then. It led to great things for Baby Boomers and then a little bit in my generation and mostly just the possibility to the younger generation. We have a great platform but need to use it to maximize opportunities. Its hard to get everyone thinking beyond the symbols in which they have come to define themselves to those things that are rudimentary to societal development.). 

In the chapter on the Fully Functioning Personality it talks about culture and symbolism. The fully functioning personality is not a conformist. He or she can take from their culture what is practical and beneficial but is not emersed in that culture without awareness. I think of it like fish in a fish bowl. They have no idea what is outside of their fish bowl because they can't see past the mirror (Little cultural awareness and little self awareness.). 

The mirror is where we mix what we understand on a deep neural level with what we see in our environment (Seeing in terms of understanding information through all of our senses.). That is often encoded through symbolism that are culturally laden with basic assumptions of our childhood (A type of cultural imprinting and programming). 

Because these symbols are deeply rooted they are hard for the average person to differentiate the stimuli, the symbol, competing symbols, what is theirs, what is someone else's, etc. In other words, what we understand in the world is based in these deeply encoded symbols and how we interpret happenings of our environment from a personal and social negotiation level.

We do this all the time. For example, we assume that if we drive a Porsche (which I had one and I miss the car because it was a classic. It was very old and didn't cost me much.) that we are worth more or that we drive an old junky pick up (next on list) we are worthless. The same for clothing, wealth, friends, etc. (They have value in maintaining our social status in turn our survivability dating back to the beginning of social life but they are highly symbolic. This means that different cultures have different symbols manifesting basic social needs of each society. They are similar in orientation even though they look different in each society.) 

As we become wiser (i.e. developed in personality and perspective) we begin to gain experience with various scenarios. If you mix development traits, exposure, education/experience, self-reflection, etc. you will find there are a few that can step above their culture to some more essential cross cultural life "truths". You can find more information about this topic of self-actualization at 'Maslow’s Unacknowledged Contributions to Developmental Psychology' and 'Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration and Giftedness:  Overexcitability Research Findings'