THE SELF AND THE

DEVELOPMENT OF
THE SOCIAL WORLD
Faith Rubio, RPm
GEORGE HERBERT
MEAD
The connection of the emergence
of the self and its development
as a member of the society
became an interesting study for
George Herbert Mead.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
He expounded that since the individual belongs to a certain
social groups / social structure that follow a certain social
order, the individual bases his sense of self through the lens
of the society (Palean et. al, 2018). In Mead’s Theory of self,
he claimed that “the individual sees himself as the focus of
everything until such time that the self emerges because of
the influence of those who play a prominent role in their
self-development” (Palean et. al, 2019 p. 28).
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
He believed that people develop self-images
through interactions with other people. He
argued that the self, which is the part of a
person's personality consisting of
selfawareness and self-image, is a product
of social experience.
MEAD’S DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF
THE SELF
According to Mead, the self is developed with the presence
of individuals and by learning to interpret situations by
“taking on the role of the other.” This is done through stages:
➢ imitation (gestures, words),
➢ play (specific roles),
➢ games (multiple roles), and
➢ generalized other (role of the group).
MEAD’S DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF
THE SELF
Mead believed that there is a specific path of
development that all people go through. During the
preparatory stage, children are only capable of
imitation: they have no ability to imagine how others
see things. They copy the actions of people with
whom they regularly interact, such as their mothers
and fathers.
MEAD’S DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF
THE SELF
This is followed by the play stage, during which
children begin to take on the role that one other
person might have. Thus, children might try on a
parent’s point of view by acting out “grownup”
behavior, like playing “dress up” and acting out the
“mom” role, or talking on a toy telephone the way
they see their father do.
MEAD’S DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF
THE SELF
Meanwhile, during the game stage, children
learn to consider several roles at the same
time and how those roles interact with each
other. They learn to understand interactions
involving different people with a variety of
purposes.
MEAD’S DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF
THE SELF
For example, a child at this stage is likely to be
aware of the different responsibilities of people
in a restaurant who together make for a smooth
dining experience (someone seats you, another
takes your order, someone else cooks the food,
while yet another clears away dirty dishes).
MEAD’S DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF
THE SELF
Finally, children develop, understand, and learn the idea
of the generalized other, the common behavioral
expectations of general society. By this stage of
development, an individual is able to imagine how he or
she is viewed by one or many others—and thus, from a
sociological perspective, to have a “self” (Mead 1934;
Mead 1964 as cited by Introduction to Sociology, n.d.).
VYGOTSKY’S
SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY

Lev Vygotsky believed that social

interaction plays a critical role in
children's learning. Through such
social interactions, children go
through a continuous process of
learning (Cherry, 2020).
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL
THEORY
His theory talks about development, social
interaction, language and culture. This explains
mainly that socialization influences human learning
processes. As a consequence of socialization, it
seeks to describe consciousness or perception.
Which means people speak to their friends or adults
for the sake of conversation (Sincero, n.d.).
THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT.

According to Vygotsky, this "is the distance

between the actual development level as
determined by independent problem solving and
the level of potential development as determined
through problem-solving under adult guidance
or in collaboration with more capable peers."
THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT.

" Essentially, it includes all of the knowledge and skills

that a person cannot yet understand or perform on their
own, but is capable of learning with guidance. As
children are allowed to stretch their skills and
knowledge, often by observing someone who is slightly
more advanced than they are, they are able to
progressively extend this zone of proximal development.