SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Symbolic Interactionism, Termite, Solitary Confinement
Document Summary
Mead is most famous for his concepts i, me, and generalized other . Claims all people have two components to who they are: i: impulsive aspect of self, present at birth. Your biological self: me: the part of self that emerges from our social interactions. Through interactions, we learn how people behave norms, values, cognitions, etc. From this, we construct an idea of how people are supposed to be. Mead sees generalized other as central to socialization. Me" is greatly influenced by the generalized other" because we try to conform to it. Suggests the self is our assessment of the social. All sociologists believe that humans are greatly shaped by their social environments. Most are from the symbolic interactionist position and try to understand how socialization occurs. In so doing, stress that our social relations make us who we are strong nurture position. Nurture: our textbook and our readings emphasize how we are shaped by our social environment.
