'I' and the 'me'

Last updated

The 'I' and the 'me' are terms central to the social philosophy of George Herbert Mead, one of the key influences on the development of the branch of sociology called symbolic interactionism. The terms refer to the psychology of the individual, where in Mead's understanding, the "me" is the socialized aspect of the person, and the "I" is the active aspect of the person. [1]

Contents

One might usefully 'compare Mead's "I" and "me", respectively, with Sartre's "choice" and "the situation". But Mead himself matched up the "me" with Freud's "censor", and the "I" with his "ego"; and this is psychologically apt. [2]

Characteristics

The "Me" is what is learned in interaction with others and (more generally) with the environment: other people's attitudes, once internalized in the self, constitute the Me. [3] This includes both knowledge about that environment (including society), but also about who the person is: their sense of self. "What the individual is for himself is not something that he invented. It is what his significant others have come to ...treat him as being." [4] This is because people learn to see who they are (man or woman, old or young, etc.) by observing the responses of others to themselves or their actions. If others respond to a person as (for instance) a woman, the person develops a sense of herself indeed as a woman.

At the same time, 'the "Me" disciplines the "I" by holding it back from breaking the law of the community'. [5] It is thus very close to the way in a man Freud's 'ego-censor, the conscience...arose from the critical influence of his parents (conveyed to him by the medium of the voice), to whom were added, as time went on, those who trained and taught him and the innumerable and indefinable host of all the other people in his environment—his fellow-men—and public opinion'. [6] It is 'the attitude of the other in one's own organism, as controlling the thing that he is going to do'. [7]

By contrast, 'the "I" is the response of the individual to the attitude of the community'. [8] The "I" acts creatively, though within the context of the me. Mead notes that "It is only after we have acted that we know what we have done...what we have said." [8] People, he argues, are not automatons; Mead states that "the "I" reacts to the self which arises through the taking of the attitudes of others." [9] They do not blindly follow rules. They construct a response on the basis of what they have learned, the "me". Mead highlighted accordingly those values that attach particularly to the "I" rather than to the me, "...which cannot be calculated and which involve a reconstruction of the society, and so of the 'me' which belongs to that society." [10] Taken together, the "I" and the "me" form the person or the self in Mead's social philosophy. According to Mead, there would be no possibility of personality without both the "I" and the "Me". [11]

Fusion

Mead explored what he called 'the fusion of the "I" and the "me" in the attitudes of religion, patriotism, and team work', noting what he called the "peculiar sense of exaltation" that belongs [12] to them. He also considered that 'the idea of the fusion of the "I" and the "me" gives a very adequate explanation of this exaltation...in the aesthetic experience'. [13]

In everyday life, however, 'a complete fusion of the "I" and the "me" may not be a good thing...it is a dynamic sort of balance between the "I" and the "me" that is required'. [14]

Conventionality

When there is a predominance of the "me" in the personality, 'we speak of a person as a conventional individual; his ideas are exactly the same as those of his neighbours; he is hardly more than a "me" under the circumstances' [15] —"...the shallow, brittle, conformist kind of personality..." that is "all persona , with its excessive concern for what people think." [16] The alternative—and in many ways Mead's ideal—was the person who has a definite personality, who replies to the organized attitude in a way that makes a significant difference. With such a person, the I is the most important phase of the experience. [15]

Dissociation

Mead recognised that it is normal for an individual to have 'all sorts of selves answering to all sorts of different social reactions', but also that it was possible for 'a tendency to break up the personality' to appear: 'Two separate "me's" and "I's", two different selves, result...the phenomenon of dissociation of personality'. [17]

Literary examples

Walt Whitman 'marks off the impulsive "I", the natural, existential aspect of the self, from critical sanction. It is the cultured self, the "me", in Mead's terms, that needs re-mediation'. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include:

In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbolic interactionism</span> Sociological theory focused on cultural symbols exchanged during interpersonal interactions

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to humans' particular use of shared language to create common symbols and meanings, for use in both intra- and interpersonal communication. According to Macionis, symbolic interactionism is "a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals". In other words, it is a frame of reference to better understand how individuals interact with one another to create symbolic worlds, and in return, how these worlds shape individual behaviors. It is a framework that helps understand how society is preserved and created through repeated interactions between individuals. The interpretation process that occurs between interactions helps create and recreate meaning. It is the shared understanding and interpretations of meaning that affect the interaction between individuals. Individuals act on the premise of a shared understanding of meaning within their social context. Thus, interaction and behavior is framed through the shared meaning that objects and concepts have attached to them. From this view, people live in both natural and symbolic environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Herbert Mead</span> American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist (1863–1931)

George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatism. He is regarded as one of the founders of symbolic interactionism, and was an important influence on what has come to be referred to as the Chicago School of Sociology.

The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive, conative or affective representation of one's identity, or the subject of experience. The earliest form of the Self in modern psychology saw the emergence of two elements, I and me, with I referring to the Self as the subjective knower and me referring to the Self as a subject that is known.

In the psychology of self, one's self-concept is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to the question "Who am I?".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Horton Cooley</span> American sociologist (1864–1929)

Charles Horton Cooley was an American sociologist. He was the son of Michigan Supreme Court Judge Thomas M. Cooley. He studied and went on to teach economics and sociology at the University of Michigan. He was a founding member of the American Sociological Association in 1905 and became its eighth president in 1918. He is perhaps best known for his concept of the looking-glass self, which is the concept that a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. Cooley's health began to deteriorate in 1928. He was diagnosed with an unidentified form of cancer in March 1929 and died two months later.

The generalized other is a concept introduced by George Herbert Mead into the social sciences, and used especially in the field of symbolic interactionism. It is the general notion that a person has of the common expectations that others may have about actions and thoughts within a particular society, and thus serves to clarify their relation to the other as a representative member of a shared social system.

Hidden personality is the part of the personality that is determined by unconscious processes.

Herbert George Blumer was an American sociologist whose main scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methods of social research. Believing that individuals create social reality through collective and individual action, he was an avid interpreter and proponent of George Herbert Mead's social psychology, which he labeled symbolic interactionism. Blumer elaborated and developed this line of thought in a series of articles, many of which were brought together in the book Symbolic Interactionism. An ongoing theme throughout his work, he argued that the creation of social reality is a continuous process. Blumer was also a vociferous critic of positivistic methodological ideas in sociology.

Self-knowledge is a term used in psychology to describe the information that an individual draws upon when finding answers to the questions "What am I like?" and "Who am I?".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Janet</span> French physician and psychologist (1859–1947)

Pierre Marie Félix Janet was a pioneering French psychologist, physician, philosopher, and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Looking-glass self</span> Sociological term

The term looking-glass self was created by American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902, and introduced into his work Human Nature and the Social Order. It is described as our reflection of how we think we appear to others. Cooley takes into account three steps when using "the looking glass self". Step one is how one imagines one looks to other people. Step two is how one imagines the judgment of others based on how one thinks they view them. Step three is how one thinks of how the person views them based on their previous judgments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social psychology (sociology)</span>

In sociology, social psychology studies the relationship between the individual and society. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field of psychology, sociological social psychology places relatively more emphasis on the influence of social structure and culture on individual outcomes, such as personality, behavior, and one's position in social hierarchies. Researchers broadly focus on higher levels of analysis, directing attention mainly to groups and the arrangement of relationships among people. This subfield of sociology is broadly recognized as having three major perspectives: Symbolic interactionism, social structure and personality, and structural social psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collective mental state</span> Mental state which is shared by individuals in a group, organization, or society

Collective mental state is generally a literary or legal term, mostly used in sociology and philosophy, to refer to the condition of someone's being-state when around others. An assessment of a collective mental state includes a description of thought processes, memory, emotions, mood, cognitive state, and energy levels, including the meta overlay of interactions between individuals.

In sociology, a significant symbol is a gesture that calls out in the individual making the gesture the same response that is called out in others to whom the gesture is directed. Significant symbols are a later by-product of the meaning emergent in the act, which meaning is described, or accounted for, in terms of symbols or language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of human consciousness</span> Aspect of sociology

The sociology of human consciousness or the sociology of consciousness uses the theories and methodology of sociology to explore and examine consciousness.

In sociology and other social sciences, internalization means an individual's acceptance of a set of norms and values through socialisation.

Primary socialization in sociology is the period early in a person's life during which they initially learn and develop themselves through experiences and interactions. This process starts at home through the family, in which one learns what is or is not accepted in society, social norms, and cultural practices that eventually one is likely to take up. Primary socialization through the family teaches children how to bond, create relationships, and understand important concepts including love, trust, and togetherness. Agents of primary socialization include institutions such as the family, childhood friends, the educational system, and social media. All these agents influence the socialization process of a child that they build on for the rest their life. These agents are limited to people who immediately surround a person such as friends and family—but other agents, such as social media and the educational system have a big influence on people as well. The media is an influential agent of socialization because it can provide vast amounts of knowledge about different cultures and society. It is through these processes that children learn how to behave in public versus at home, and eventually learn how they should behave as people under different circumstances; this is known as secondary socialization. A vast variety of people have contributed to the theory of primary socialization, of those include Sigmund Freud, George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley, Jean Piaget and Talcott Parsons. However, Parsons' theories are the earliest and most significant contributions to socialization and cognitive development.

<i>Mind, Self and Society</i> Book by George Herbert Mead

Mind, Self, and Society is a book based on the teaching of American sociologist George Herbert Mead's, published posthumously in 1934 by his students. It is credited as the basis for the theory of symbolic interactionism. Charles W. Morris edition of Mind, Self, and Society initiated controversies about authorship because the book was based on oral discourse and Mead's students notes. Nevertheless, the compilation of his students represents Mead’s most important work in the social sciences. Among them, Mead published a conceptual view of human behaviour, interaction and organization, including various schools of thought such as role theory, folklore methodology, symbolic interactionism, cognitive sociology, action theory, and phenomenology.

References

  1. Mead, George Herbert (August 15, 1967). Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 173, 174. ISBN   0226516687.
  2. Victorino Tejera, Semiotics from Pierce to Barthes (2001) p. 59
  3. Paolo Inghilleri, From Subjective Experience to Cultural Change (1999) p. 26
  4. Erving Goffman, Relations in Public (Penguin 1972) p. 327
  5. Greg Marc Nielson, The Norms of Answerability (2002) p. 135
  6. Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 92 and p. 90
  7. Charles W. Morris ed., George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and Society, (Chicago 1967) p. 196
  8. 1 2 Mead, p. 196
  9. Mead, George H. Mind, Self, and Society. p. 174.
  10. Mead, p. 214
  11. Mead, George H.; Morris, Charles W. (1967). Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 182. ISBN   0226516687.
  12. Mead, p. 273
  13. Mead, p. 280
  14. Tejera, p. 62
  15. 1 2 Mead, p. 200
  16. Anthony Stevens, On Jung (London 1990) p. 43
  17. Mead, p. 143-4
  18. Stephen John Mark, The Pragmatic Whitman (2002) p.144