SOC 201: Classical Sociological Theory

Unit-3: European and American Phenomenological theory in Sociology:

(a) The Chicago School: G.H. Mead and Symbolic Interactionism;

Mead is the most important thinker in the history of symbolic interactionism

and his book “Mind, Self and Society” is the most important single work in
that tradition. The names of William James, C.H.Cooley and john Dewey
figure prominently in the development of interaction, but Mead brought their
related concepts together into a coherent theoretical perspective that linked
the emergence of the mind, the social self and the structure of society to the
process of social interaction. Mead always gives priority to the social world
in understanding social experience. To Mead, the social whole precedes the
individual mind both logically and temporally. He maintains that the social
group comes first and it leads to the development of self conscious mental
states. Mead considers the act to be the most ‘primitive unit’ in his theory.
In analysing the act, Mead comes closest to the behaviorist’s approach and
focuses on stimulus and response.

Mead identified four basic stages of act which are dialectically interrelated.:

1) Impulse- The actor's reaction to stimulation.

2) Perception-The actor searches for, and reacts to, stimuli that relate to the
impulse.

3) Manipulation-The actor takes action with regard of the object.

4) Consummation-Taking action to satisfy the original impulse.

Mead's focus is on the development of the "self." Mead traces the genesis of
the self through the play and game stages of childhood. The self has two
phases-the "I," which is the unpredictable and creative aspect of the self,
and the "me," which is the organized set of attitudes of others assumed by
the actor. Mead is considered to be one of the originators of the field of
symbolic interactionism.

Gestures
While the act involves only one person, social act involves two or more
persons. The gesture is, in Mead’s view, the basic mechanism in the social
act. As he defines them, “gestures are movements of the first organism
which act as the first stimuli calling forth the (socially) appropriate
responses of the second organism”.

Significant symbol: A significant symbol is a kind of gesture that only

humans can make. Gestures become significant symbols when they arouse
in the individual who is making them the same kind of response (it need not
be identical) they are supposed to elicit from those to whom the gestures are
addressed. Only when we have significant symbols can we truly have
communication.
Significant symbols also make possible symbolic interactionism. That is
people can interact with one another not just through gestures but also
through significant symbols.

Mind, self and society:

Mind is not defined by Mead as a process and not a thing, as an inner

conversation with one’s self, is not found within the individual, it is not
intracranial but is a social phenomena. Mead also looks at mind in
pragmatic way. That is, the mind involves thought processes oriented
towards problem solving. The real world is rife with problems and it is the
function of the mind to try to solve those problems and permit people to
operate more effectively in the world.
Much of Mead’s thinking in general, and especially on the mind involves his
ideas on the critically important concept of the SELF. The self arises with
development and through social activity and social relationship. The self is
dialectically related to mind. On the one hand, Mead argues that the body is
not a self and becomes a self only when a mind has developed. On the other
hand, the self, along with its reflexiveness, is essential to the development of
mind. It is impossible to separate mind and seld, because the self is a
mental process. The general mechanism for the development of the self is
reflexivity, or the ability to put ourselves unconsciously into other’s places
and to act as they act.
Play stage: It is the first stage. During this stage, the children learn to take
attitude of particular others to themselves. However, they lack a more
general and organized sense of themselves.
Game stage: It is the next stage in which the self develops in full sense. In
the game stage, the child must take the role of everyone else involved in the
game.
The game stage yields one of Mead’s best known concepts, generalized
others, which represents the attitude of entire community. Taking the role of
generalized others allows for the possibility of abstract thinking and
objectivity.

Mead termed this process of using symbols or language covertly imaginative

rehearsal revealing his conception of mind as a process rather than as a
structure. Much of Mead’s analysis focuses not so much on the mind of
nature organisms but on how this capacity first develops in individuals.
Unless mind emerges in infants, neither society nor self can exist. In
accordance with principles of behaviourism, Darwinism and Pragmatism,
Mead stressed that mind arises out of a selective process in which an
infant’s initially wide repertoire of random gestures are narrowed as some
gestures bring favourable reactions from those upon whom the infant is
dependent for survival. With this development, gestures now denote the
same objects and carry dispositions for all the parties to an interaction.
Gestures that have such common meanings are termed by Mead
Conventional Gestures. By reading and then interpreting correctly
conventional gestures, individuals are able to imaginatively rehearse
alternative lines of action that will facilitate adjustment to others. Thus by
being able to put oneself in another’s place, or to take the role of the other to
use Mead’s concept, the covert rehearsal of action can take on a new level of
efficiency since actors can better gauge the consequences of their actions for
others and thereby increase the probability of cooperative interaction.

For Mead, the self is far more than an internalisation of components of

social structure and culture. It is more centrally a social process and a
process of self interaction in which the human actor indicates to himself
matters that confront him in the situations in which he acts, and organises
his action through his interpretation of such matters. Mead makes a
distinction between gesture and symbol. Gesture is a social act that
operates as a stimulus for the response of another organism engage in the
same act. Symbol is a significant gesture which conveys a meaning to which
only human beings can respond. Only man is truly using symbol. Symbol
making animal, i.e, animal symbolism. Symbolic interaction as meaningful
communication occurs primarily through the capacity of individuals to take
the role of the actor or simply role taking.
Mead identified two phases of the self, which he labels the “I” and the “Me”.
The “I” is the immediate response of an individual to others. It is the
incalculable, unpredictable and creative aspect of the self. “Me” is the
“organized set of attitudes of other which one himself assumes”. In other
words, “Me” is the adoption of the generalized other.
Mead used the term society to mean the ongoing social processes that
precedes both the mind and the self. Given its importance in shaping the
mind and self, society is clearly of central importance to Mead. At another
level, society to Mead represents the organized set of responses that are
taken over by the individual in the form of the “Me”. Thus, in this sense,
individuals carry society around them, giving them the ability, through self
criticism, to control themselves.