Meads Theory of Social Behaviorism

Sociologist George Herbert Mead believed that people develop self-images through
interactions with other people. He argued that the self, which is the part of a persons
personality consisting of self-awareness and self-image, is a product of social experience. He
outlined four ideas about how the self develops:
1. The self develops solely through social experience. Mead rejected Freuds notion that
personality is determined partly by biological drives.
2. Social experience consists of the exchange of symbols. Mead emphasized the
particularly human use of language and other symbols to convey meaning.
3. Knowing others intentions requires imagining the situation from their perspectives.
Mead believed that social experience depends on our seeing ourselves as others do, or,
as he coined it, taking the role of the other.
4. Understanding the role of the other results in self-awareness. Mead posited that there
is an active I self and an objective me self. The I self is active and initiates
action. The me self continues, interrupts, or changes action depending on how
others respond.
Mead believed that the key to self-development is understanding the role of the other. He also
outlined steps in the process of development from birth to adulthood:
Cooleys Theory of the Looking-Glass Self
Like Mead, sociologist Charles Horton Cooley believed that we form our self-images through
interaction with other people. He was particularly interested in how significant others shape
us as individuals. A significant other is someone whose opinions matter to us and who is in a
position to influence our thinking, especially about ourselves. A significant other can be
anyone, such as a parent, sibling, spouse, or best friend.
The socialization that we receive in childhood has a lasting effect on our ability to interact
with others in society. In this lesson, we identify and discuss four of the most influential
agents of socialization in childhood: family, school, peers, and media.
Socialization
How do we learn to interact with other people? Socialization is a lifelong process during
which we learn about social expectations and how to interact with other people. Nearly all of
the behavior that we consider to be 'human nature' is actually learned through socialization.

And it is during socialization that we learn how to walk, talk, and feed ourselves, about
behavioral norms that help us fit in to our society, and so much more.
Socialization occurs throughout our life, but some of the most important socialization occurs
in childhood. So let's talk about the most influential agents of socialization. These are the
people or groups responsible for our socialization during childhood - including family,
school, peers, and mass media.
Family
There is no better way to start than to talk about the role of family in our social development,
as family is usually considered to be the most important agent of socialization. As infants, we
are completely dependent on others to survive. Our parents, or those who play the parent role,
are responsible for teaching us to function and care for ourselves. They, along with the rest of
our family, also teach us about close relationships, group life, and how to share resources.
Additionally, they provide us with our first system of values, norms, and beliefs - a system
that is usually a reflection of their own social status, religion, ethnic group, and more.
Schools
The next important agent of childhood socialization is the school. Of course, the official
purpose of school is to transfer subject knowledge and teach life skills, such as following
directions and meeting deadlines. But students don't just learn from the academic curriculum
prepared by teachers and school administrators. In school, we also learn social skills through
our interactions with teachers, staff, and other students. For example, we learn the importance
of obeying authority and that, to be successful, we must learn to be quiet, to wait, and
sometimes to act interested even when we're not.
Alexander, like other children, might even learn things from his teacher that she did not
intend to teach. For instance, he might learn that it's best to yell out an answer instead of
raising his hand. When he does so, he gets rare attention from the teacher and is hardly ever
punished.
Family

First emotional tie

Greatest impact on socialization process
First place to learn language, norms, and values of the culture
May be problematic

Parents/Guardians may reproduce negative modeling that they experienced as a child

Schools

Opens the door to a new social world

Provides importance that society places on gender and race
Provides information to individuals understand themselves and others
Provides skills to function as a citizen and a worker
Exposure to inequality
First experience of economics and social status
Reduces opportunities for control and makes children feel less competent

Peers

Influential from late childhood through adolescence and early adulthood

Learn how to form relationships without adult supervision
May encourage good and bad interests
May guide short term choices
Change behaviour and personality to be accepted by peers

Mass Media

Represents impersonal communication directed at a certain audience

Major type of secondary socialization
Influences peoples behaviour through modeling and imitation
The mass media can create and influence/control perceptions of what is important in

society selecting and stressing particular topics, views, interpretations, and themes.
Advertising secretly manipulates the audience

Human society is much dependent rather than animal society; therefore Aristotle says
man is a social animal. As the human infant comes into the world as a biological organism
with animal needs whereby he is moulded into a social being and he learns social ways of
acting and feeling; without this process of moulding, the society could not continue itself, nor
could culture exist, nor could the individual become a person. This process of moulding is
called socialization.
Meaning of Socialization
Socialization is a process whereby individuals are made aware of behaviors that are expected
of them with regards to the norms, beliefs, attitudes, and values of the society in which they
live. Socialization helps the individual face the realities of life, through the appreciation of
their culture practices. The agencies of socialization are the social institutions that pass on to
the people these norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes. Socialization may be differentiated

from sociality and socialism. Sociality is a quality, socialization is a process. Socialism is a

theory of future structure of society.
Socialization may also be distinguished from maturation.
Maturation
refers primarily to the physical and chemical processes of development over which man has
comparatively little control.
The importance of socialization process
Socialization is entirely based on social interactions. Creating an understanding in respect of
society and culture and personality development are two important components of
socialization process. Basically, a particular member who enters into a society newly should
have an understanding about the society and its culture. It is compulsory at least to learn basic
needs such as the manner of taking meals, dressing, etc. Further, an individual should know
the manner the interactions are made in his society. He has to behave according to the
expectations of the society as well.
Factor of the process of socialization
Socialization is the process of learning group norms, habits and ideas. There are four factors
of this process of learning. These are imitation, suggestion, identification and language.
a)Imitation:
- imitation is copying by an individual of the actions of another.
Mead defines it as self
-conscious assumption of anthers acts of roles.
b)Suggestion:
- suggestion is the process of communication resulting in the acceptance with conviction of
the communicated proposition in the absence of logically adequate grounds for its
acceptance. It may be conveyed through language, picture or some similar medium. The
suggestibility of the child is greater than that of the adult because in childhood he is devoid of
maturity and reason.
c)Identification:
- in his early age, the child cannot make any distinction

between his organism and

environment. Most of his actions are random. They are natural reactions of which he is not
conscious. As he grows in age he comes to know of the nature of things which satisfy his
needs. Such things become the object of his identification.

d)Language:
- language is the medium of social intercourse. It is the means of cultural transmission. At
first the child utters some random syllables which have no meaning, but gradually he comes
to learn his mother-tongue