Chapter 5: Mead's Theory

George Herbert: Transition to a Modern Social Psychology of Communication

George Herbert was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist and had been regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.

George Herbert comes out with an idea called symbolic interactionist which refers to the emergence of mind and self from the communication process between organisms. According to Mead, a self is “that which can be object to itself” and only humans have and are, selves. The self arises when the individual becomes an object to themselves. Mead argued that we are objects first to other people, and secondarily we become objects to ourselves by taking the perspective of other people, and thus through language we become other to ourselves. Humans learn to see themselves from the standpoint of their co-actors. It is through realizing ones role in relation to others that selfhood arises.

Besides that, Mead also distinguished several phases of socialization, notably the “play phase” and the “game phase”. The former stage occurs when the young child begins to take the role of individual significant others. The child takes different roles he/she observes in "adult" society, and plays them out to gain an understanding of the different social roles. For instance, he first plays the role of policeman and then the role of thief while playing "Cops and Robbers," and plays the role of doctor and patient when playing "Doctor." As a result of such play, the child learns to become both subject and object and begins to become able to build a self. However, it is a limited self because the child can only take the role of distinct and separate others; they still lack a more general and organized sense of themselves.

For the “game phase”, the individual must take the role of the generalized other. It is required that a person develop a self in the full sense of the term. Whereas in the play stage the child takes on the role of distinct others, in the game stage the child must take the role of everyone else involved in the game. Furthermore, these roles must have a definite relationship to one another. It is also notes that in the game stage, organization begins and definite personalities start to emerge. Children begin to become able to function in organized groups and most importantly, to determine what they will do within a specific group.