SOCIOLOG

Y
Presented by: Benjamin. Paula
Mead and social self
George
Herbert
Mead
Who is George
Herbert Mead?
George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher,
sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the
University of Chicago, where he was one of several
distinguished pragmatists.
 Mead was refereed as “a seminal mind of
the very first order” (Dewey, 1932, xl). Yet
by the middle of the twentieth-century,
Mead's prestige was greatest outside of
professional philosophical circles. He is
considered by many to be the father of the
school of Symbolic Interactionism in
sociology and social psychology.
The “I” and the “Me”
 George Herbert Mead's theory of the self
distinguished between two aspects: the "I" and the
"Me."

The "I" is the impulsive and creative aspect of the

self and the "Me" is the socialized aspect of the
self which is composed of internalized norms and
values and is ever mindful of its social reflection.
Mead's Theory of Social
Behaviorism
 Four ideas about how the
self develops:
01 02 03 04
The Self Social Knowing Understanding
Others’ The Role of the
Develops Experience Intentions Other Results in
Solely Consists of Requires Self-Awareness
Through the Imagining the
Social Exchange of Situation from
Their
Experience Symbols Perspectives
Development of Self
Development of the self goes through stages:

1.Preparatory/imitation stage – children initially can only

imitate the gestures and words of others.
2. Play stage – (beginning at age three) children begins to
formulate and play the roles of specific people.
3. Game stage – (in the first years of school) children learns
the rules that specify the proper and correct relationship
involving different people with a variety of purposes.
Three activities develop the self
• Language develops self by allowing individuals to
respond to each other through symbols, gestures,
words, and sounds.
• Play develops self by allowing individuals to take on
different roles, pretend, and express expectation of others.
• Games develop self by allowing individuals to understand
and adhere to the rules of the activity.