GEORGE H.

MEAD

The Social Self

George Herbert Mead

-1863

-Born in Massachusetts during the Civil War

-Father was minister , descended from a long line of Puritan farmers and clerygem

-Father taught at Oberlin College (Ohio)

-Mead attended Oberline College (Coser 1977:341)

George Herbert Mead: Th Social Self

The Self: the part of individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image

Social Self Theory is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions

The self is no there from birth, but it is developed over time from social experiences and
activities

Mead’s Theory of the Social Self

 Development of the Self- the key is learning to take the role of the other
o Imitation-Infants
o Play- Young children
 Involves assuming roles modeled on significant others, people – like
parents – who have special importance for socialization
o Games-Older children
 Requires a child to take the roles of several others at once and change
roles when needed
 o Generalized other- adults – widespread cultural norms and values we use as a
reference in evaluating ourselves
 Everyday life demands that we see ourselves in terms of cultural norm as
any member of our society might.

ME I

Social, conforming Creative, active,

responsive

SELF

Created by the interactions of

the I, the Me, and the
Generalized Other.

Generalized Other

Viewpoints, attitudes,
expectations of socity as a
whole.
Mead’s Theory of the Social Self
 Self Has 2 Parts : The I and The Me
o By taking the role of the other, we become self-aware.
o “I”- active side of the self that operates as subject , being active and
spontaneous; subjective (self-image)
o “Me”- the objective side of the self that operate as an object and is formed by
the way we imagined others see us; objective (self-awareness)
o All social experience has both components: we initiate the action (I) and then
continue it based on how others respond (me).
 LEV VYGOTSKY
(1896-1934)

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Who is Vygotsky?
 Lev Vygotsky was born in Russia in 1986.
 He died at the young age of 37 from tuberculosis.
 Due to his early death, most of his theories where left undeveloped, although some of his
writing being translate from Russian.
 His work in the last 10 years of his life has become the foundation of much research and
theory in cognitive development.

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD)

About the theory
 Vygotsky placed more emphasis on social contribution to the process of development
 He focus on the connection between people and the sociocultural context and which
they act and interact in shared experience
 According to Vygotsky, human use tools that developed from a culture, such as speech
and writing, to mediate their social environment. Initially children developed those tools
to serve solely as social function, ways to communicate needs.

ZPD AND SCAFFOLDING

Scaffolding
 Scaffolding refers to providing contextual supports for meaning though the use of
simplified language, teacher modeling, visual and graphic, cooperative learning and
hands-on learning .
 Scaffold is the way the adult guides the child’s learning via focused question and positive
interactions.