George Mead as the Father of Social Psychology and Symbolic Interactionism - Essay Example

George Mead Introduction George Mead is an American social theorist and philosopher who is on the prism of the ical pragmatism of scholar’s works. He is regarded to have a seminal mind amongst the first minds of thinkers in the mid twentieth century. He also established a prestigious professional class amongst his peers in the philosophical circle. At the same time, majority of philosophers appreciate his work and refer to him as the father of social psychology and symbolic Interactionism. There are others who claim that that his work is attributed to the relationship he had with John Dewey. Through his work, one will realize that the two influenced each other but Mead established most of the contributions of the original theories. This theory is referred to as the development of self-realization through establishment of communication. This work has helped Jurgen Habermas to come up with his own theories in the recent years. Some of meads works have been surrounded on the development theories based on metaphysics and actions of nature. These actions are related to temporality and emergence of issues in the present and future being influenced by the present occurrence (Mead and Filipe 34). His contribution to the scholar’s works is titled Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. This made him famous but was published after he had died. Early Life He was born George Herbert Mead in 1863 on the 27th day of February in South Hadley, Massachusetts. His mother Elizabeth Storrs Billings was a reputable religious woman who was also a teacher. He was the son of Hiram Mead who worked in Congregational Church as a minister before moving his family to Ohio in 1869. This was contributed to his interest in engaging in the faculty at The Oberlin Theological Seminary. He was offered a post of chairing Pastoral Theology and Sacred Rhetoric during the time he was teaching homiletics. From 1879 to 1883, Mead attended Oberlin College and matriculated to Harvard from 1887 to 1888. While he was in Harvard, he had the opportunity of studying with Josiah Royce who is a philosopher that inspired majority of his work (Mead and Anselm 18). He also met with William James though they never studied together. After the death of his father, his mother took over from him and taught at Oberlin for almost two years. In 1890, she later transferred from the school to become the president at Mount Holyoke College up to 1900. Mead had a different perception from his parents as he decided to become a non-believer and a naturalist after he had completed college. This sometimes did not do well with his livelihood since he had religious teachings from his parents and community. He wanted to work as a Christian social worker though he wanted this to be his career. However, after sometimes he realized that this was problematic for him. In his letter, he stated that he was having a problem with being a Christian. The letter explains, I shall have to let persons understand that I have some belief in Christianity and my praying be interpreted as a belief in God, whereas I have no doubt that now the most reasonable system of the universe can be formed to myself without a God. But notwithstanding all this I cannot go out with the world and not work for men. The spirit of a minister is strong with me and I come fairly by it (Aboulafia 43) (Shalin 1988, 920–921). This meant that he was not ready to work as a Christians and he could not understand the reason why people could for human beings. In as much as he was fighting his religious beliefs, he remained as a spiritual activist. This made him participate in the march of women’s suffrage as he was in the main act as he gave a progressive support of the cause. His naturalism beliefs is said to have been influenced by the works of Darwin. This is believed to show his synthesize of the work of Darwin, Dewey, Hegel and James. He had the opportunity of teaching and studying in Europe from 1888 to 1891 engaging in Wilhelm Wundts research. From 1891 to 1894, he taught with Dewey at Michigan University (Aboulafia 63). Later in 1894, he was given an appointment at University of Chicago after Dewey was appointed as the Chairman. Majority of Mead’s career was spent in Chicago. Contribution to Works of Sociology During the time he was teaching, Mead was also involves in coming up with social beliefs that contributed to the human perception of life. He was guided by the principles of ‘Mind, Self and society’ (Blumer and Thomas 45). This principle is interpreted to indicate that the life and character of a human being is determined an environment that people have similar characteristics towards each other. His principles are further developed by the belief that an individual can only change if he has the urge of doing so. These works can be broken into smaller establishments. Language and Mind Mead developed this principle and Dewey since it is believed that the two had intellectual trajectories, which were similar. They all believed in the philosophical works of Hegel whom they viewed as a democratized individual. The Hegelian philosophy distinguished the beliefs of the relationship between community and self. These notions developed from the Hegelian notion and perception actualized the conflicts and negation of interpretation of problematic situation being covered in a simple nature (Mead and Filipe 82). These issues are given importance in their teleological contribution though they remain reduced in the historical perception of anticipatory experience, which is based on being goal oriented. Some of the scholars also refer to this perception as communication and mind. The theory is described in his 1934 work titled Mind, Self and Society. He explains that the mind of an individual and self can be established during a social process. He looks at this idea through the essence of communication and social order (Mead and Anselm 72). This is seen to be different from the psychological exposure, which interprets this to be developed through the experiences of the individual. According to his beliefs, the human psychology is developed through the social processes. As an individual’s develop self-consciousness, they would have to be given in terms of experience. This means that the social process is being structured through the experience of the individual. On the other hand, the mind of an individual would be developed through the social process it is encountering through interaction and communication. This means that the mind of a person cannot be understood if it is parted from the essence of communication. Communication in this regard can be actualized from two perceptions (Mead, 23). The first perception involves giving conversations of gestures whereby the communication of the person is done through actions. The second communication involves significant gestures of conversation, which is sometimes given as language. Action Mead believed that the mind is developed from an act of communication, which is governed by the social structure. This concept of social interaction is important in development social philosophy rather than the study of the theory of the mind. He gives an expression to this in his theory of “mind, self, and society”. This is ascertained by the philosophy of act developed through the standpoint of social beliefs (Mead, 40). These beliefs are interactions of individuals who have the same values of philosophy. This philosophy is developed from two perceptions. The first perception involves the model known as the act-as-such. This involves the organic activities that can be found in the society. This is sometimes referred to as philosophy of act. The second model is known as the social act, which involves the social activities taking place in the community. This has always been seen as the elements, which the people in the society can interact with and interpret through the human experience. This is actualized through the integration of social environment and social process of behavior. This can be developed through the relationship between physical-biological environment and individual organism. According to Mead, the human perception of life is encouraged or thwarted by the environmental issues interacting with them (Mead, 56). This means that if an individual were living in a society that people act positively, he would be in a position of being successful. The same applies to an individual that lives in a society that people have negative perception of life, as he will not be in a position of attaining success. Work Cited Aboulafia, Mitchell. The Cosmopolitan Self: George Herbert Mead and Continental Philosophy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Print. Blumer, Herbert, and Thomas J. Morrione. George Herbert Mead and Human Conduct. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2004. Print. Mead, George H, and Anselm L. Strauss. The Social Psychology of George Herbert Mead. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956. Print Mead, George H, and Filipe C. Silva. G.h. Mead: A Reader. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2011. Print. Mead, George H. Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviourist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Print. Read More