George Herbert Mead | Contributors to Sociology 9

0:00 Hello, you're welcome. You're welcome onto my channel today and it gives me great joy to observe you are viewing this video. I am professor Ak. I am a lecturer in the university. On this channel I do a number of stores but all the stuffs I do on this channel you can cluster them into four but sociology and research are central to them. I also do content on relationship and migration. Meanwhile, if you have not subscribed to this channel, what are you waiting for? Kindly go ahead and click subscribe on your screen right now to subscribe to this channel so you might be alerted every time I drop content and I drop content as regularly as possible. I've been dropping videos on the founding fathers or contributors to sociology for a peri of time now. So I've dropped

0:46 content on Cardonun. I've dropped content on August Com. I've talked content on taco passim cight ms max you know kax and you know and chari so I'm dropping this video today on judge abach and I think judge abatme is very important because he made fundamental you know contributions to to sociology you know and this great sociologist this great philosopher social thinker social psychologist ologist reign between 1863 to 1931. You know during this period of 1863 to 1931 you know a lot were done by

1:32 this great thinker very phenomenal and though it's very interesting that he didn't write a book of his own but all the books we will find under the authorship or name of of judge abat were actually written postumously by you know his followers his students his mentees who then decide to gather a lot of his thoughts lesson notes, lecture notes together to publish as book. So this is also sometimes controversial but but what we know is that it's very difficult to to actually see a volume written by this so by this great thinker and you know and I decided to drop this video after after Kulie because me actually

2:19 shared a lot of ideas you know you can find strong rel relationship or semblance between the ideas of Kulie and me it's where I think you know it's not like it's not good to just drop a video on without me commdmental work especially his work on symbolic interactionism me is generally regarded as one of the major contributors major drivers of the interactionist perspective particularly the symbolic interactionism. Meanwhile, this should make it easier for you because I already have a video on this channel on symbolic interactionism which is a is a sociological theory or social theory of

3:04 how symbols are used to to create meanings and meanings these meanings informed action that people take you know in in in society. So view that video on symbolic interactionism but without view this video that video you will not have to understanding of m American sociologist essentially and you know and is commonly reg psychologist because he looked at the interaction between the individual which actually the remit of psychology and the role of the other you know the the the the very interaction of people as people interact within a group you know and

3:50 this what um made called the generalized order. You know the the others can be considered as the larger group external to the individual and how the individual might work in context of the relationship with the generalized others to form their identity and you know and major contributions of me. You know at the center of contributions of me is of identity creation. How people come to de develop and define their own identity. You can also find this also in the work of Koulie and that's why I'm dropping this video after Koulie. Koulie also talked about identity creation or also regarded as an interactionist is also to understand how

4:36 people form their identity and this how this identity inform how people behave and interact in society in the context of creation of social order. And then was actually the major concern of me human relationship, human action, how people form identity, how this inform, how they behave in society and the impact of this on social order. So you can follow me and agree to say major contributions of of me actually have to do with identity formation pragmatism you know also interaction of people then what we now come to know as the theory of self. The theory of self, how the

5:21 self emerge. Self is also you know a result of process of identity formation. And this process of identity formation is we consider it as being very active not passive not not accidental is very socially orchestrated in a way that then and to put this together is what led to the formation of the of the theory of symbolic interactionism. All this talk about how people form identity, how they interpret symbols, how this interpretation of symbol create meanings, how these meanings inform how people how people behave. So I'll break this down the more. So what is pragmatism? Pragmatism which which was actually at the par fundamental base of of the

6:10 intervention theoretical intervention contri of made judge about me in understanding human behavior is based on his conception the conception of pragmatism. Pragmaticism is can be regarded as a social theory that talks about the usefulness of concepts and objects. Objects that people relate with the concepts that they familiar with you know and how these are useful you know in creating meaning and informing action. So this is actually the fundamental sum of pragmatism pragmatic you know application relationship with concept with object and how this immediately in the short run med and and

6:58 the long run how this affect how this influence how this determine how they then take action active action to confront issues in their day-to-day life within their micro environment. Don't forget I've told you that this mid was was you know an interactionist looking at the micro processes that inform social action of people. So m will fall into the category of people who call interactionist who should be ky even max feber these are there's another video on micro theory and macro theory or micro sociology and macro sociology

7:44 you have to view that video also to have more meaning that's pragmatism then we talk about you know the issue of symbolic interactionism which talks about how people how meanings developed in social context Social context means in the process of relationship of people in society. So social context talks about interaction relationship of people within a definite you know society or a combination of societies you know to to be able to then to to interpret symbols symbolic interpretations. Symbols that people use which can talk about language that people use, gestures that people use, cultural elements, you know, cultural elements in that society,

8:31 you know, you know, can be symbolization of religion, symbolization of different things in their society, you know, and kneeling, shaking hands and prostrating, you know, even the slangs they use, the objects to use they carry meanings and these meanings affect people even the glasses I'm using right now an object when you see me using glasses what comes to your mind is that probably I'm shortsighted or longsighted which can determine how you see me can even be the clothes I'm wearing okay I'm wearing a shirt now a t-shirt or polo or whatever you call it within your cultural system I'm sure you are looking at the shirt I wear and you are interpreting why is this man dressed

9:16 this way how old is this man why is wearing this particular pattern of shirt? Why is he wearing this color? And there are reasons for this. Why is he doing this video in an enclosure? Why are this light on? Why is the what is the artwork? What's the meaning? You know, you are creating meaning aside the fact that you're looking at you're listening to what I'm saying. I'm sure you're looking at my complexion about my glasses. What shirt is he wearing? Why is he using microphone? What is does his laptop mean? What am I saying air conditioner? Why is the white the the bulb white? Why not why not blue? Why not red? So you are looking at everything around me and I'm sure you're creating meaning. So you already and you that will determine how you take my content, how you relate with my channel

10:02 and how you even believe what I'm saying. So this actually all about symbolic interaction. You interacting with this video whether in your mind or you're taking action, you taking a pen, you are taking notes from what I'm saying. So that means you're already operating within the framework of symbolic interactionism, meaning creation. Fantastic. I hope you enjoy the way I broke it down through that my example. You have to stay. Oh, symbolic talk about meaning creation. How many is developed in social context, you know, you're interacting with me now whether you like it or not, it may be virtual, but there's an interaction going on. That's why we also talk about digital sociology, virtual sociology, sociology of the it. what is happening between the two of us or many of us depending on how many of you are doing this one. So meanings attached to you know symbols

10:49 and how to interpret it and this determine how people behave. Then there's also the conception of the self. Don't forget I say all this within the broad framework of identity there the issue of the self you know which emerges the self who you are which mean called the self emerges through social interaction. You are not in isolation. You are who you are because of others and others are who they are because of you. Like I said in that video on CHI, you know and I mean M also talks about the mind and the consciousness that comes from the mind you know the mind is also a product of social interaction. who you are in the mind that's what we say the

11:36 the know me wrote from the angle of sociologist and a psychologist it's a blend of the two the mind is a pro of social interaction that's why sociological we believe who you are in your mind create consciousness based on your interaction with others and your consciousness is based on the perspectives of others you may not believe it but that's what it is your consciousness you know don't forget karma Max view the video on my on car max and and the video on maxism talking about class transforming from the class in itself as an entity to class in itself which can take action as a collective class you know. So the same thing consciousness in this instance

12:21 also talks about your action your identity of the self based on the perspectives of others. How you see yourself, how you are conscious of yourself is based on how others also see you, you know, act the way you want to be reacted to, dress the way you want to be addressed. All these are about moving from the self as identity to consciousness of the self as an active agent. So the self according to me is then divided into two. The me and the high. The me and the high. The self is a is an embodiment of two entities making the individual determining how the individual relates in a in in a group. So the mean you know

13:09 talks about according to according to uh to mid the mid and the high are relevant and take and take shape in relationship with the generalized others. Don't forget what I've said. The opinions of others, the views of others. You know, we talked about the generalized self. The generalized others, it inform the self. The self is then divided into two analytically and in terms of activity. So the mid which the mean which we usually consider as the as the not very active self which we usually consider as the passive sex. the passive self you

13:54 know for that means professor a identity okay I have my name you know and then that my name you know also is a reference to who I am which is the self and myself now is a function of generalized others I'm from a culture even is that culture that inform the kind of name I bear that means that the other society who have existed before me and even now determine that self of me so I'm a sociologist because you are also who you are probably a sociologist a psychologist a philosopher or whoever you are at this time I'm relating with you at the same time I'm within my

14:40 culture I'm doing what I'm doing because it's expected of me as a professor of sociology to impart to give knowledge to profess that's why I'm relating and people have defined me as a sociologist I pro sociology and therefore I must act as a sociologist it's also myself and even my identity now can be divided into two myself divided into two the high and the me so based on the um expectation and the views of others who are not so is molded to be himself divided into two the high which is the active and the

15:25 mean which is sometime to be passive. Now after breaking down in that way so the me then talks about the observation of others and internal internalization of the views of others what I observe from others and how I internalize their views their ideas their expectation their perception of me in a passive way I use that one to internalize and observe and form myself passively is there sometimes dant now the I is the active which means how I then interpret the external ideas, external perception, external expectation and determine how I react in active way.

16:12 Means I've internalized, I've observed the views of others. Now the high now after the internalization I then processes it. I then interpret the internalization. I then act. So the active me is the high but the passive me takes it in and process it. The views of others okay this is what they think I should do. Okay that's fine. Now when I then act react depending on the situation that is the high. So the active thinking self, the active thinking self is the high is the high which is very important to us as sociologists. As you are processing it that at the level of me that might be essentially psychological

16:59 but when you act you know when you think and you react and you actively that becomes of interest to us more of interest to us as a sociologist. But sociologists also want to know why you you you act or why you have acted the way you have acted. We look at your social environment context visualization. There's a video on socialization processes. We do that too. We then look at your socialization process to see maybe there's something that has informed your formation of the me that informed your your high acting and your then or taking to understand yourself and the overall identity. Wow. I enjoyed myself. Kindly click subscribe to be alerted for further videos. Bye for now.