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Social Behaviorism-

an approach to social psychology proposed by George Herbert Mead that looks at the social context of the learning environment. Social Behaviorism illustrates that the mind is not pre-existing to social interaction. Behaviorism is how an individual acts while observed by others. Mead believed behavior is learned socially and culturally. Social behaviorism does not exclude nonsocial events, but has a strong social orientation.

Concepts of Social Behaviorism–

According to the article entitled, Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, by Mead, reviewed by J.R. Kantor, “social behaviorism takes as its object of study the behavior of the whole social group of which the individual’s behavior is an organic part”(Mead 1979:587). Mead wanted to study social behavior because it can eb studied objectively where the "mind" could not. Therefore he proposed the “Act” concept. The “ACT” concept involves “an impulse, perception of stimuli, taking action involving the object perceived and using the object to satisfy the initial impulse”(Ritzer 2003:55). The “Act” consists of four stages. The first stage, impulse, is where the actor reacts to some external stimulus; perception, which is when the actor searches for and reacts to stimuli; manipulation is the third stage which is manipulating an object once it is perceived, and finally the last stage of the “Act” is consummation, in which the actor takes an action that satisfies the original impulse (Ritzer,2003). Another concept explained by Mead is the idea of the “self”. The “self” means an individual can take oneself as an object. Mead describes two phases of the “self”. The first phase is the I and the second phase is the me. The I is the immediate response of the self to others. In other words, no thinking is involved. On the other hand, the me is the individual’s adoption and perception of the generalized other (Ritzer 2003). Generalized other is another concept important to Mead’s social behaviorism theory. It can be viewed as an attitude of an entire community (Ritzer 2003:59). Social Behaviorism also includes the concept of gestures. Gestures are movements by one party used to stimulate another party. Gestures “become significant symbols when they implicitly arouse in an individual making them the same responses which they explicitly arouse, or are supposed to arouse, in other individuals, the individual to whom they are addressed”(Mead 1934: 47). For example, “you ask somebody to bring a visitor a chair. You arouse the tendency to get the chair in the other, but if he is slow to act, you get the chair yourself” (Mead:1934:67). One gesture Mead finds important is language. “This system of significant gestures is responsible for great advances of human society”(Ritzer 2003: 57). These are examples of symbolic interactionism.

Example of Mead’s concept of Gestures:

Mead introduces his idea of gestures with his famous example of the dog-fight taken from [www.iep.utm.edu/m/mead.htm:]

“Dogs approaching each other in hostile attitude carry on such a language of gestures. They walk around each other, growling and snapping, and waiting for the opportunity to attack . . . . (Mead 1934:14) The act of each dog becomes the stimulus to the other dog for his response. There is then a relationship between these two; and as the act is responded to by the other dog, it, in turn, undergoes change. The very fact that the dog is ready to attack another becomes a stimulus to the other dog to change his own position or his own attitude. He has no sooner done this than the change of attitude in the second dog in turn causes the first dog to change his attitude. We have here a conversation of gestures. They are not, however, gestures in the sense that they are significant. We do not assume that the dog says to himself, If the animal comes from this direction he is going to spring at my throat and I will turn in such a way. What does take place is an actual change in his own position due to the direction of the approach of the other dog” (Mead 1934:42-43).

History of the founder of Social Behaviorism: George Herbert Mead–

George H. Mead was an American philosopher. He attended many colleges, one was University of Chicago. He is regarded as “one of the most important theorist of everyday life in the history of sociology”(Ritzer 2003:55). Mead was basically trying to say people think before they act. George H. Mead was also a founder of pragmatism. Pragmatic philosophers like Mead focus on the development of the self and the objectivity of the world within the social realm that “the individual mind can exist only in relation to other minds with shared meanings”(Mead 1982:5). George H. Mead believed the “self” came from the social environment as an object of symbolic gestures and interaction. “The social behaviorism of George H. Mead provides valuable insights regarding these questions by recognizing that the communicative act cannot be analyzed adequately at the level of the individual organism, in as much as overt verbal behavior by one organism affects both speaker and hearer in qualitative similar ways” ( Lewis 1979:261-287). Mead wanted to reinforce that an individual’s identity, sociability is the starting point. “Until the social sciences are able to state the social individual in terms of social processes social processes, as the physical sciences define their objects in terms of physical change, they will not have risen to the point at which they can force their object upon an introspective psychology” (Mead 1910:176).

Stages of Social Behaviorism:

Social Behaviorism includes a few stages illustrated by George H. Mead. The first stage is the play stage, which is the first stage of the “self” that describes a child playing at being someone else. For example, if a child is playing “house”, that child is mimicking being a mother ...etc. The second stage is referred to as the game stage, which is defined in which a child takes the role of everyone like in jump rope or in a baseball game.

References

Lewis, J.D.1979. A Social Behaviorist and Interpretation of the Meadian "I". American Journal of Sociology 84:261-287.

Mead, G.H.1910. What Social Objects Must Psychology Presuppose? Journal of Philosophy 7:176.

Mead, G.H.1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Ed by J.R. Kantor, International Journal of Ethics 45:4.

Mead, G.H.1982.The Individual and the Social Self: Unpublished Essays by G.H. Mead. Ed. by David L. Miller. University of Chicago Press.

Ritzer, George.2003. The Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics. (2nd Edition).

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