LJ- UNIT – 4 – SOCIO

Briefly acquaint yourself with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

about George Herbert Mead https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mead/

Afterwards read a couple of pages from these excerpts from the following
work by this
author: https://web.archive.org/web/20070814013629/http://www2.pf
eiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Mead/MINDSELF.HTML.

Please discuss this reading assignment in light of the reading materials for
this unit.

Reference:

Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self & society from the standpoint of a social

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behaviorist. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

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Answer:
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George Herbert Mead was an American Philosopher and social scientist born on February 27,
1863, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.He is best known for his theory of” I” and” Me.” He is
known by many to be the father of the school of Symbolic Interactionism in sociology and
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social psychology, although he did not use this nomenclature. His most influential ideas was
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the emergence of mind and self from the communication process between organisms, as
discussed in Mind, Self and Society. He had drifted away from his religious belief to become an
activist. His work was mostly published posthumously by his students from his lectures and
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students transcription (Mead, 1934).

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He sees self as a social and as biological; the" self" grow as we age. A human personality
develops through interaction and the reaction of interaction. Language and mind are
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interconnected the mind develop when it recognizes the vocal gesture. This interaction aids in
development of personality and moulds us to what we are today, and help in generating the
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image of our personality, that is composed of self-awareness and self-image that

develops through interaction. The self is linked to self-consciousness and it develops by playing
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a role that is taking the attitudes or perspectives of others. The idea of “I” and “Me” I in his
theory represents an ego, “I” gives a sense of freedom of initiative to know our” self” much
better .Through experience, we become aware of ourselves and situations and how to react when
they occur." I" is not ego it is the source of spontaneity and creativity. ‘Me" develops from

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 system of behaviour, so practising a series of behaviour brings about transformation (Mead,
1934).

Sociology is the main idea of Meads theory as for him the "I" and "Me" is also due to action and
interaction. His idea brought about transformation of social conditions that give rise to pain and
suffering. He emphasised on seeing the past action as an experience and setting our today's goal
and action in addressing emerging challenges. Science to him is an important aspect from the
pre-recorded time which may help in solving problems besides the current mathematical
approach in solving our problems (Mead,1934).

His theory is more realistic for it revolves around the human behaviour which develops as a
result of interaction in this social environment giving rise to action and reaction that develops
into personality (Mead,1934).

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Reference:

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Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society from the standpoint of a social behaviourist.Chicago,
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Ill: Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mead/
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