Biography of Sociologist George Herbert Mead

When fields such as psychology and sociology were still new, George Herbert Mead became a leading pragmatist and pioneer of symbolic interactionism, a theory that explores the relationships between people in societies. More than a century after his death, Mead is widely considered to be one of the founders of social psychology, the study of how social environments influence individuals. Having taught at the University of Chicago for much of his career, he is also associated with what is now known as the Chicago school of sociology. Early Years and Education George Herbert Mead was born on  Feb. 27, 1863, in South Hadley, Massachusetts. His father Hiram Mead was a pastor of a local church but moved the family to Oberlin, Ohio to become a professor at Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1870. His mother Elizabeth Storrs Billings Mead also worked as an academic; she taught at Oberlin College and would go on to serve as president of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. In 1879, George Herbert Mead enrolled in Oberlin College, where he pursued a bachelors degree focusing on history and literature, which he completed four years later. After a brief stint as a school teacher,  Mead worked as a surveyor for the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company for a few years. Following that, he enrolled in Harvard University, where he studied psychology and philosophy, but he left in 1888 without a graduate degree. After Harvard, Mead joined his close friend Henry Castle and his sister Helen Kingsbury Castle in Leipzig, Germany, where he enrolled in a Ph.D. program for philosophy and physiological psychology at the University of Leipzig. In 1889, Mead transferred to the University of Berlin, where he began to study economic theory. The University of Michigan offered Mead a teaching position in philosophy and psychology two years later and he stopped his doctoral studies to accept this post, never actually completing his Ph.D. Prior to taking on his new role, Mead married Helen Castle in Berlin. Career At the University of Michigan, Mead met sociologist  Charles Horton Cooley, philosopher  John Dewey, and psychologist Alfred Lloyd, all of whom influenced the development of his thought and written work. Dewey accepted an appointment as the chair of philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1894  and arranged for Mead to be appointed assistant professor in the department of philosophy. Together with James Hayden Tufts, the three formed the nexus of American pragmatism, referred to as the Chicago Pragmatists. Meads Theory of the Self Among sociologists, Mead is most well known for his theory of the self, which he presented in his well-regarded and much-taught book Mind, Self and Society (published in 1934 after his death and edited by Charles W. Morris). Meads theory of the self maintains that the idea people have of themselves stems from social interaction with others. This theory opposes biological determinism  because it holds that  the self does not exist at  birth and may not be present at the beginning of a social interaction, but it is constructed and reconstructed in the process of social experience and activity.​ The self, according to Mead, is made up of two components: the â€Å"I† and the â€Å"me.† The â€Å"me† represents the expectations and attitudes of others (the generalized other) organized into a social self. Individuals define their behavior in reference to the generalized attitude of the social group(s) they occupy. When people can view themselves from the standpoint of the generalized other, self-consciousness in the full sense of the term is attained.  From this standpoint, the generalized other (internalized in the â€Å"me†) is the major instrument of social control, for it is the mechanism by which the community exercises control over the conduct of its individual members. The â€Å"I† is the response to the â€Å"me,† or the person’s individuality. It is the essence of agency in human action. So, in effect, the me is the self as object, while the I is the self as subject. According to Meads theory, the self is developed through three activities: language, play, and game. Language allows people to take on the â€Å"role of the other† and respond to their own behaviors through the symbolized attitudes of others. During play, individuals take on the roles of different people and pretend to be them to express their expectations. This process of role-playing is key to the generation of self-consciousness and to the general development of the self. People must comprehend the rules of the game and internalize the roles of everyone else involved. Meads work in this area spurred the development of symbolic interaction theory, now a major framework within sociology. In addition to Mind, Self, and Society, his major works include 1932s The Philosophy of the Present and 1938s The Philosophy of the Act. He taught at the  University of Chicago until his death on  April 26, 1931. Updated  by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

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Smoking Should Not Be Banned free essay sample

There has been much debate recently in Trinidad and Tobago on whether smoking should be banned totally. The Minister of Health and the Cancer Society have, on separate occasions, promoted this call while tobacco companies rebutted vociferously in the media as well. The focus of this article is to prove that smoking should not be banned. To begin, the smoking of cigarettes and tobacco has been ‘linked’ by researchers to heart disease and cancer. The word ‘link’ is important because to date, no concrete evidence has been unearthed that unequivocally proves that smoking causes heart diseases and cancer. Besides, don’t fried foods, exhaust fumes and asbestos sheets cause cancer too? Why not ban these as well? In addition, many people smoke (80% of smokers) to relax themselves when things become too tense (non-smokers will understand). It is not uncommon to see a person smoking during coffee breaks or lunch time after a period of tough work. We will write a custom essay sample on Smoking Should Not Be Banned or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page If such people were to denied the calming effects of ‘a little smoker’ then they may go beserk and become abusive or even violent. Another pertinent point is that the tobacco industry is a major employer in the country. More than ten thousand workers are directed or indirectly involved in the industry. To shut down the industry is to take away livelihood of these workers and surely the stress from no income from such large sector would result in chaos. Also, what about their expensive sponsorship of many events? Most importantly, however, the act of smoking remains the choice of the individual. Smoking is not illegal so every responsible adult can choose to smoke or not. Every individual has a legal right to engage in any legal activity. Alcohol is legal and it can lead to abuse and violence. Tobacco is legal but surely it does not lead to social evils of alcohol. Maybe these activists should focus their attention on alcohol. In closing, a smoker has a freedom of choice and is doing nothing illegal, so there is no need to prevent him from doing something that relaxes him. Perhaps the efforts of non-smoking activists should be directed to the more reasonable quest to have smoking banned in public places.

A Day In The Life Of Catherine Bana Essay Example For Students

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