Mead

and the
Social Self
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Social constructivism argues for a
merged view of ‘the person’ and ‘their
social context’ where the boundaries of
one cannot easily be separated from
the boundaries of the other. (Stevens
1996)
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Social constructivists argue that the self
should not be seen as a static entity
that stays constant through and
through. Rather the self has to be seen
as something that is in unceasing flux,
in a constant struggle with external
reality and is malleable in its dealings
with society.
THE SELF AND CULTURE

• According to French anthropologist

Marcel Mauss, every self has two
faces: personne and moi
THE SELF AND CULTURE
• Moi refers to a person’s basic identity,
his body,and biological givenness.
• Personne is composed of social
concepts of what it means to be who he
is. Has much to do with what it means
to live in a particular institution, family,
religion, nationality and how to behave
given expectations and influences from
others.
George Herbert Mead
• He is well-known for his
theory of the social self,
which is based on the
central argument that
the self is a social
emergent.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

• The social conception of the self

entails that individual selves are
the products of social
interaction and not the logical
or biological preconditions of
that interaction.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

It is not initially there at

birth, but arises in the
process of social
experience and activity.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

•For Mead, mind

arises out of the
social act of
communication.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

•According to Mead,
there are three
activities through which
the self is developed:
• Language allows individuals to
take on the “role of the other”
and allows people to respond to
his or her own gestures in terms
of the symbolized attitudes of
others.
• During play, individuals take
on the roles of other people and
pretend to be those other
people in order to express the
expectations of significant
others.
This process of role-playing
is key to the generation of
self-consciousness and to the
general development of the
self.
“All the world’s a
stage, and all the
men and women
merely players.”
In the game, the individual is
required to internalize the roles
of all others who are involved
with him or her in the game
and must comprehend the rules
of the game.
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

•George Herbert Mead is

also well-known for his
concept of the “I” and the
“me”.
According to Mead, the self
has two sides.
• The “me” represents
the expectations and
attitudes of others (the
generalized other).
It is the organized set
of attitudes of others
that the individual
assumes.
It is the
socialized aspect
of the
individual.
It represents the learned
behavior, attitudes, and
expectations of others and
the society.
The “me” is
considered a phase
of the self that is in
the past.
The “me” has been
developed by the
knowledge of society and
social interactions that
the individual has gained.
The “I” can be
considered the
present and future
phase of the self.
It represents the
individual’s identity
based on response to
the “me”
The “I” is the response
to the “me,” or the
person’s individuality.
• It allows the individual to still
express creativity and
individualism and understand
when to possibly bend and
stretch the rules that govern
social interactions.
•existence in
community comes
before individual
consciousness.
• One must participate in the
different social positions within
society and only subsequently can
one use that experience to take
the perspective of others and thus
become self-conscious.
SELF IN FAMILIES

* TRAITS
*CHARACTER
*VALUES
*MORALS
GENDER AND THE SELF

*MACHISMO CULTURE AND

PATRIARCHY
*LGBTQI
THE SELF AS PRODUCT OF
MODERN SOCIETY
How Mead Matters Today
What others think of us, the
perspective of others we gain
from being a part of the
conversation of gestures, are
absolutely necessary for us to
even have a sense of self.
How Mead Matters Today
We think of ourselves as
individuals, to be sure, but we
are only able to do so by
virtue of being a part of a
larger social community.