George Herbert Mead's Social Psychological Theories: An Analysis, Revision, and Integration
Abstract
This paper will analyze various factors concerning
Mead's theory of the act and the development of the self
in order to show which aspects of his theory are
universal or applicable to all men in all cultures and
which are particular or mainly applicable to the people of
the West who speak languages descendant from Greek origin.
The position taken. in this paper is that Mead's Philosophy
of the Act most likely is universal as is his conception
of the development of the personality and the generalized
other. An attempt is made to show how the personality
and the generalized other develop from the act by means of
the stage of play in which the individual learns the roles
of the society and the stage of the game in which he learns
how to integrate these roles into a socially accepted pattern
by anticipating the reactions of others to his behavior.
Mead's concept of self as. consisting of the "I" and the "me" will not be held however, to be universal but particular
especially to Western cultures. Finally implications will
be made as to possible areas of research with Mead's theory.