George Herbert Mead
and Symbolic Interactionalism
Why do people identify with
socially constructed identities?
George Herbert Mead, 1863-1931
• A philosopher and
psychologist, studying with
William James at Harvard and
William Wundt, at Leipzig
• Taught at the University of
Chicago with John Dewey
• Never published a book: his
lectures were collected by his
students and published after
his death
Pragmatic Philosophy
There are four main tenets of
pragmatism
• First, to pragmatists true reality does
not exist "out there" in the real world,
but is actively created as we act in
and toward the world.
• Second, people remember and base
their knowledge of the world on what
has been useful to them and are likely
to alter what no longer "works.”
• Third, people define the social and
physical "objects" they encounter in
the world according to their use for
them.
• Lastly, if we want to understand
people, we must base that
understanding on what people
actually do.
Symbolic Interactionalism
Three arguments of social interactionalism:
• Human beings act towards things on the basis of the
meanings those things have for them.
• The meaning of those things is derived from, or arises
out of, the social interaction that one has with one’s
fellows.
• These meanings are handled in, and modified through,
an interpretive and self-reflective process used by the
person in dealing with the things he or she encounters.
We use meanings as instruments to guide and choose
our actions.
Play and Organized Games (a la Mead)
• “The I” and “the me”: p. 145 (1, 2)
• Roles in a game; actions are regulated; symbols
are shared by participants, p. 150 (2)
• Social groups are like games; “the generalized
other,” p. 152 (2)
• Crucial to the development of the self
Mead has a Melanesian view of the
self
• The partible self: p.
146 (1)
• Society is prior to self,
p. 156 (1)
Why do people vary?
• Back to the conversation between the “I”
and the “me”: p. 158 (1)