George Herbert Mead’s Theory Of Social Self And Its Relation To Public Health

George Herbert Mead and the Theory of Social Self

A healthy society is a prosperous society. Health or lack of it was initially entirely attributed to either biological or natural conditions (Geist, 2013). However, sociologists have attempted to demonstrate that contraction and spread of diseases can as well be attributed to social economic status people, traditions, beliefs including other ethnic factors ( Bal, Coombs, Holden, Lindsay, Nimmo, Tattevin, & Skov, 2016; Eckert & Kohler, 2014).

According to Kearney-Nunery (2015), health includes all aspects of physical, mental and social well-being of individuals. In light of George Herbert Mead’s Theory of Social Self, this paper aims at looking into the value of the theory and its perceived flaws. George Herbert Mead and the background that fueled his ideas will also be analyzed.

George Herbert Mead and the Theory of Social Self

George Herbert Mead, introduced a concept about society. His ideas about the society have been points of discussion by many in the last and the present century but his ideas are not really paid attention to (Co?te?, 2015). His theory of social self is involves concepts about society in components of self, I and me. The theory is focused on an element internal to the individual described as a systematic set of attitudes of others assumed by someone. Meads defines others in different ways; as individuals, community, social process and organization, sociality and even society itself. Meads supposes that these components must be understood in their relation to each other. The theory is criticized because of its ambiguity as Mead was not entirely explicit while dealing with these issues (Co?te?, 2015).

Gestures and Social Act

Gestures are the basic mechanisms of social act according to Mead (Segre, 2016). They are behavioral responses of individuals and organisms to stimuli from other individuals and organisms. Gestures can be non- verbal or vocal. Mead attempted to prove that these gestures can only be understood through the analysis of the behavior of the individual the gestures are directed to. He said that human conduct is distinguished from animal conduct because of an increase in use gesture in activities not done. Gender significance depend on the advancement of consciousness of meaning. It is said that so long as one responds appropriately to the use of gesture by someone else, there is no indispensable consciousness of meaning (Co?te?, 2015).

 He believed that, one could understand the initial message intended by the sender by simply analyzing the response it invokes in the receiver without having to confirm with the sender (Co?te?, 2015). Mead studied language as a vocal gesture by analyzing how action by speech of one individual mindlessly and automatically generates an intended reaction by another individual

Gestures and Social Act

Mead highlights the four stages of social act as impulse, perception, manipulation and consummation (Study.com, 2018). Impulse is the immediate reaction generated by a stimulus while perception refers to the internalization of the impulse to determine an appropriate action. An individual’s ability to manipulate the impulse will determine the eventual course of action known as consummation. When an impulse is triggered by a stimulus, an individual will attempt to internalize, manipulate and eventually act to satisfy the initial impulse.

Society, Mind and Self

The theory of social self displays superiority of a society over mind. He enumerates that social states lead to the eventual development of mental states (Cockerham, 2013). He views the mind as a process rather than a thing, found in societal occurrences rather than within characters.

Self is the central point in Mead’s theory (Mead & Deegan, 2011). He focuses on self as the capacity to view oneself as an object, place oneself in others’ situations and act as they would act. This is referred to as self- reflexivity. Mead goes further to explain the two stages in self-development and the “I and me” theory under self (Cockerham, 2013).

The ‘me’ aspect is the mixed social characteristic of an individual. It embodies societal acquired behavior. It is simply developed by the knowledge of society gathered by an individual. The ‘I’ aspect on the other hand attempts to invoke individual decision through analyzing of societal behavior. An individual may either decide to act in conformity to or contrary to what society dictates. Therefore, any individual, after studying society patterns and beliefs, has the will to choose whether to follow what society upholds or own intuitions and views (Cockerham, 2013).

The two stages in self-development according to Mead are play and games. Play develops self by role- playing. This enables one internalize other individuals’ perspectives and place oneself in others’ shoes to understand why the act how they act.

Games on the other hand develop self by internalization of set rules in society that one need in order to be successful in any given activity, to enable one make more sensible decisions that are independent of society (Cockerham, 2013).

Summary of the Flaws of Mead’s Theory 

The theory did not examine the positive effects of emergent theory. Neither did it evaluate the flaws of the testing procedures involved in the past.

Although the theory is grounded on Max Weber’s assertion that people work on their understanding of the meaning of the world, Mead presented his view to the American sociology in the 1920’s.

Society, Mind and Self

Haber’s prerogatives that symbolic interactionism is characteristically biased is weak because it does not differentiate symbolic interactionism from observation of contributors.

Relation of Mead’s Theory to the Understanding of Public health

From a sociological perspective, public health entails looking at the society structure, which is the schemes of associations existing above persons. Health being the complete state of well-being of an individual emotionally, mentally and physically is heavily dependent on a healthy environment and a stable mind (Busse, Aboneh, & Tefera, 2014). Public health can therefore be analyzed in relation to the traits of people connected to one another in several ways, for instance, considering how gender relations and social class lead to unpredictable designs and experiences in health. Mead’s theory of social self clearly displays how the society and the environment in general plays a significant point in the development of character through analyzing behaviors and state of mind of individuals.

This theory is essential to public health as it shows how collective societal ideas about health can shape individual beliefs and perceptions. Moreover, it involves knowing the kind of relationships between people reasonably and enthusiastically from the things that have meaning for them. This is yet another aspect of the theory of social self

Understanding how society shapes human behavior and interactions helps in promoting mental, physical and emotional wellness in individuals as well as identifying the societal cause of any disease or infirmity.

Conclusion

Mead’s theory of social self clearly displays how human behavior is influenced by the society and daily interactions. How we think and act is heavily dependent on our environment. In view of public health, this is an important aspect as it helps in understanding disease origins and triggers from a societal point of view to come up with a more effective treatment pattern. Gorge Herbert Mead is an outstanding philosopher as he brilliantly argues his perceived idea of self better than any other social theorist.

References

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Busse, H., Aboneh, E. A., & Tefera, G. (2014). Learning from developing countries in strengthening health systems: an evaluation of personal and professional impact among global health volunteers at Addis Ababa University’s Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (Ethiopia). Globalization and health, 10(1), 64.

Cockerham, W. (2013). Sociological theory in medical sociology in the early twenty-first century. Social Theory & Health, 11(3), pp.241-255.

Co?te?, J. François  (2015). George Herbert Mead’s Concept of society (pp. vii-viii, 52-87). Routledge.

Eckert, S., & Kohler, S. (2014). Urbanization and health in developing countries: a systematic review. World Health Popul, 15(1), 7-20.

Geist, V. (2013). Life strategies, human evolution, environmental design: Toward a biological theory of health. Springer Science & Business Media.

Kearney-Nunery, R. (2015). Advancing Your Career Concepts in Professional Nursing (p. 60). 0803646631, 9780803646636.

Mead, G., & Deegan, M. (2011). Essays in social psychology (p. xii-9). New Brunswick: Transaction Publ.

Study.com. (2018). George Herbert Mead: The Self, ‘Me” & ”I” – Video & Lesson Transcript | 

Varki, A., Geschwind, D., & Eichler, E. (2008). Human uniqueness: genome interactions with environment, behaviour and culture. Nature Reviews Genetics, 9(10), 749-763. doi: 10.1038/nrg2428.