Brought to you by

Dr. Urmila Yadav

Background
 Born on February 27, 1863 in South Hadley,
Massachusetts
 His father was a minister in the Congressional Church
and taught the art of preaching at Oberlin Theological
Seminary
 His mother also taught at Oberlin but later became the
president of Mount Holyoke College
 Mead attended Oberlin at the age of sixteen,
graduated in 1883
 In 1887 Mead attended graduate school at Harvard
University, studied physiological psychology
More Background
 Mead quit graduate school and accepted a teaching
position at University of Michigan in 1891
 In 1893 Mead was invited to teach at the University of
Chicago, this is where he spent the rest of his life
 Died in 1931 at the age of 68
Intellectual Influences
 William James: James Principal of Psychology re-
examination of the relations between individuals and
society. Mead perspective of “habit” was also influenced by
James, “Individual acquires a new nature through habit.”
Another critical aspect of James’s psychology was his
rethinking of the role of consciousness, had an effect of
Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society.
 Charles Darwin and Evolutionism: Darwin’s
presentation of evolution helped free him from his
religious beliefs. He also influenced Mead in his
philosophical and psychological beliefs.
More Intellectual Influences
 German Idealism: “Romantic idealists utilized the
self-not-self process in experience, and identified this
process with the subject-object process” Mead learned
that there is no consciousness that is not conscious of
something.
 American Pragmatism: “Rejected the ideas as
absolute truths and regard all ideas as provisional and
subject to change in light of future research.” Truth
and reality do not simply exist. Pragmatists believe
that humans reflect on the meaning of a stimulus
before reacting.
Concepts and Contributions
 Pragmatism: The extension of the scientific method
to all areas of intellectual inquiry, including
psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Provides
intellectual justification for social action.

 Symbolic Interactionism: Suggests that people cope

with the reality of their circumstances according to
their comprehension of the situation.
More Concepts and Contributions
 Mind, self and Society: Mead’s attempt to understand
individual social experiences in relation to society.
 Argued that there can be no self, no consciousness of self,
and no communication apart from society.
 1) Mind- process, not a thing. Reflects the human
capacity to conceive what the organism perceives, define
situations, evaluate phenomena, convert gestures into
symbols, and exhibit pragmatic and goal-directed behavior.
 2) Self-Actors reflect on themselves as objects (able to
be object and subjects) It has a development and is not
initially there at birth.
 3) Society-Cannot exist without minds and selves.
The organization of human experience and behavior.
Mead suggests that the self
is composed of two parts:
 The “I” and the “Me”: According to Mead, the self is
composed of two parts, the “I” and the “Me”, both are a
part of an individual’s self concept and the self is the
dialogue between the two.
 “I” is spontaneous, unsocialized, unpredictable, and
impulsive aspect of the self. The subject of one’s
actions.
 “Me” develops gradually through interaction and
internalization of the community, it monitors the “I”.
When an individual fails to conform to the
expectations of society, they are under the influence of
the “I”.
Identifies three stages of
development:
 Development of Self: The development of the self takes place
through several stages
 1) Imitation stage: As skills are developing, babies learn to
play based on observing and imitating (Copying or trying to
copy the actions of someone elsetheir parents.) Imitation
implies learning (positive and negative rewards)
 2) Play stage: at this stage the child has learned to use
language and meanings of certain symbols. In this stage they are
not only acting out but allowing their imagination to let them BE
that person.
 3) Game stage: child must now be capable of putting
herself in the role of several others at the same time and be able
to understand the relationship between those roles.
 4) Generalized other: Conception of multiple statuses and
roles
In short….
 Mead believes people take the role of the other by
progressing through three stages. In stage I the infant
is all "I". The "me" begins to develop through play in
stage II and fully develops as the child learns to
respond to the generalized other in stage III, taking
into account the broader social community.
 Significant others or persons with whom an individual
has intimate and long term contact facilitate this
process. This self-awareness makes it possible for
people to position themselves within larger social
units.
More Concepts and Contributions
 The Act: the response to a stimulus is not automatic because the
individual has choices of behaviors in which to react.
 1) Impulse: gut reactions or immediate responses to certain
stimuli. The “need” to do something.
 2) Perception: People use their senses as well as mental
images in attempt to satisfy impulses and must choose the one
most beneficial to them.
 3) Manipulation: Once an impulse has been manifested
and the object has been perceived, the individual must take
some action with regard to it.
 4) Consummation: The individual has followed through on
a course of action and can consummate the act by satisfying the
impulse.
More Concepts and Contributions
 The Social Act: “A social act may be defined as
one in which the stimulus sets free an impulse that
then triggers possible reactions from those found
in the environment.”
 Emphasized the importance of the vocal gesture. The
individual that sends the vocal gesture can perceive it in
a different way then the person receiving the gesture.
 Mutually understood gestures become significant
symbols
 Common gestures lead to the development of language.
More Concepts and Contributions
 Mental Processes of Intelligence and Consciousness:
Intelligence is defined as the mutual adjustment of the acts
of an organism. Human intelligence is more advanced then
other animals, therefore humans can carry on
conversations. Communication allows for reflective
intelligence, allows a human to inhibit action temporarily.
 Language: Language has its origin in gestures. Gestures
are important because of their social properties. This
affects and coordinates behavior between two or more
individuals. People that share the same language possess
the ability to take the role of the other and understand the
other’s behavior.
More Concepts and Contributions
 Science and Social Progress: Science provides a clear and
effective way to test ideas on how to improve future society. For
Mead, scientific analysis eliminates bias and dogmatic thinking,
making it separate from Christian thought. Mead attached
Darwin’s evolutionary principles to social organization and
societies.
 Ethics: “Solving moral problems requires creative intellectual
effort and consideration of all values relevant to the given
situation.” “The value relation is an objectively existing
relationship between subject and object: but it is not equated
with cognitive relation. Value-relations and cognitive relations
are distinctly different.
 Social Theory: The approach on macro theory is based on
evolutionary models and the relationship between people and
their environment.
Relevancy
 Mead’s form of pragmatic social sciences has an
enormous potential for development and elaboration.
 Biggest contribution from a sociological perspective:
symbolic interaction theory. Considered one of the
“big three” sociological theories. It has been and will
continue to be a dominant theory in the field.
 Theories continue to be influential in contemporary
symbolic interactionism, social psychology, and
sociology
Limitations
 Development of the self is dependent on interactions
with others, implies the less interaction with others
then the less the self is developed making it
controversial.
 His intense focus on the social act (individual focus)
can limit the view of how society works and a whole.
 There is noticeably less detail and precision in macro
facets of Mead’s theoretical system than in the micro.
Theories of Development:
Charles Horton Cooley
 Cooley’s concept of self development has been
termed “Loking glass self” concept. According to him,
man develops the concepts of self with the help of
others. Man does not come to form opinions about
himself unless and until he comes into contact with
other people and knows their opinions about
himself. He forms the concepts of himself on the
basis opinions held by others about him.
 Thus when our associates call us intelligent or
average, tall or short, fat or thin we react to their
opinion and form the same opinion about ourselves
as they have formed.
 In other words,just as the picture in the mirror
gives an image of the physical self. So the
perception of others gives an image of the social
self. The knowledge about ourselves comes to
us from the reaction of other persons. These
other comprise our social Loooking –glass
through which we form the image of ourselves.
 Cooley maintains that the self develops in a
three stage process he calls the looking glass
self
• We imagine how our actions appear to others
• We imagine how other people judge these actions
• We evaluate ourselves based on presumed
judgments of others
Example :
 Suppose that whenever you enter a room and
approach a small group of people conversing together,
the member promptly leave the room with lame
excuses. This has taken place several times. Would it
not effect your feelings about yourself?
 Or, if whenever you appear, a group quickly forms
around you, how would this attention affect your
feelings about your self-feelings? Thus we discover over
selves through the reactions of others about us. This
self knowledge is first gained from parents and is
modified later by the reactions of other individuals.
 It may also be referred that the reactions of the people
about us are not similar or may misjudge their
reactions. An ego-boosting remark may be a mere
flattery. Thus, the looking- glass self which the
individual perceives may differ from the image others
have actually formed. There is often a significant
variation between the individual perception of how
others picture him and the views they actually hold.
Theories of Development:
Freud
 The theories of Cooley and Mead presume a basic
harmony between the self and society according to
Cooley , society and individuals are not separate
phenomena but are simply collective and distributive
aspects of the same thing.
 Sigmund freud the father of psychco –analysis does
not agree with this concept of self and society are not
identical. He has explained the process of socialization
in term of his concept of ID. EGO & SUPER EGO
which constitute the three system of mind.
Theories of Development:
Freud
 Freud suggested that the personality is made
up of three parts which are inherently
conflicting:
id– drives and instincts
superego—represents society’s norms and
expectations
ego—mediates conflict between id and superego
The id is the organ of untamed passions and
represents instinctive desires.
The ego acts with reasons while
the super ego acts with ideals and norms.
 Sigmund Freud believed that the personality
develops in infancy as the child is forced to control
his or her bodily urges.
 Freud’s model of the personality is divided into three
parts:
 The original, unsocial zed urges arise out of the id.
The norms, values, and feelings taught through
socialization belong to the superego,
and the ego is one's conception of oneself in
relation to others.
 Freud believed that the ego is formed as a result of
conflict between the infant's basic biological
urges and society's need for a socialized person.

 Freud has compared the id with the horse
and the ego with the rider.
 He says “ the function of the ego is that of
the rider guiding the horse, Which is the id.
But like the rider, the ego sometimes is
unable to guide the horse as it wishes and
perforce must guide the id in the direction it
is determined to go, or in a slightly different
direction.”…it is out of this conflict between
the ego and the id that psychosis develops”.
(1) Cooley’s Theory:
Cooley’s concept of self development has been termed
“looking-glass self’ concept.
 According to him, man develops the concept of self
with the help of others.
 Man does not come to form opinions about him
unless and until he comes into contact with other
people and knows their opinions about him.
 He forms the concept of himself on the basis of
opinions held by others about him.
 Thus when our associates call us intelligent or average,
tall or short, fat or thin we react to their opinion and
form the same opinion about ourselves as they have
formed.
 In other words, just as the picture in the mirror gives
an image of the physical self, so the perception of
others gives an image of the social self.
 The knowledge about ourselves comes to us from the
reaction of other persons. These other comprise our
social looking-glass through which we form the image
of ourselves.
There are three principal elements of the looking-glass concept:

 (1) Our perception of how we look to others;

 (2) Our perception of their judgment of how we look;
and
 (3) Our feelings about these judgments.
 Take an example. Suppose that whenever you enter a
room and approach a small group of people conversing
together, the members promptly leave the room with
lame excuses.
 This has taken place several times. Would it not affect
your feelings about yourself? Or, if whenever you
appear, a group quickly forms around you, how would
this attention affect your self- feelings? Thus, we
discover ourselves through the reactions of others
about us. This self knowledge is first gained from
parents arid is modified later by the reactions of
other individuals.
 It may also be referred that the reactions of the
people about us are not similar or we may
misjudge their reactions. An ego-boosting remark
may be a mere flattery.
 Thus, the looking-glass self which the individual
perceives may differ from the image others have
actually formed.
 There is often a significant variation between the
individual’s perception of how others picture him
and the views they actually hold.
(2) Mead’s Theory:
G. H. Mead has given a sociological analysis of the
process of socialization. According to him the self
develops out of the child’s communicative contact with
others.
The new-born infant has needs like those for food and
clothing that press for satisfaction.
The mother satisfies these needs and the child comes to
depend upon her and ‘identifies himself with her
emotionally.
 But in course of time the child differentiates himself
from his mother and then he has to integrate himself
and mother into a new social system,
 a two-person, two-role system, with the child taking a
subordinate role to the superior role of the mother.
Then the child repeats the process for his father.
 He differentiates his father from his mother and
 then integrates him into the social system.
 In this way the number of ‘significant others’ increases
for the child; and the child internalises the role of
these others.
 He puts himself in the role of the others and then
responds to his own words and acts in terms of the
meaning they would convey to the other person. In
this way the self develops and grows.
 An essential characteristic of the self is its reflexive
character. By this Mead, George H. means that the self
can be both subject and object to itself. It can reflect
upon itself, or in other words, it can be self- conscious.
Man can do so only through assuming the role of other
persons and looking at himself through their eyes.
 He learns to imagine how he appears to others and how
do they judge this appearance. Then he reacts himself
to this judgment as he imagines it. Thus by adopting
towards himself the attitude that others take towards
him, he comes to treat himself as an object as well as
subject.
 But acquiring the attitudes of others towards himself is
not sufficient for the individual. He explores and finds
out others’ attitudes toward him. This is very necessary
for him; otherwise he could not predict or control what
happens to him. The child learns at an early age that
one of the most important ways of controlling his
destiny is to influence the feelings of others towards
himself.
 The attitudes can be known only through the
mechanism of symbolic communication. He must
learn to utilize the symbols by which attitudes are
communicated, so that he can conjure up the attitudes
of others in his own imagination and in turn
communicate his own reaction to others in the light of
what he imagines to be their attitudes.
Questions
 What do you mean by socialization ?
 Explain the process of socialization giving some
illustrations.
 What are the various agencies of socialization?
 Briefly describe the various theories of socialization.
 What are the various stages of sociali?zation