RESPOND TO THE BELOW (minimum 100 WORDS) -
Use this reference also: Appelrouth, S., & Edles, L. D. (2010). Sociological Theory in the Contemporary Era: Text and Readings (2 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
in response to the below do this: offering advice or strategy; posing a question and providing an alternative point-of-view,
forum to respond to is this below:
What Mead meant by an individual becomes an object to him or herself is taking the attitude of others (Appelrouth & Edles, 2011). An important part of the self is the mind according to Mead.
He saw the mind as a behavioral process that involves a "conversation of significant gestures" which means that each person involved in a social act words and actions mean the same compared to those who are not involved in the same social act. Individuals base their actions and responses to one another on how they think others will react to the same situation.
They will suspend their behaviors and look into alternative behavior to fit in with others in the same social act. A social act is where individuals develop shared meanings and coordinate activities with each other to form joint actions (Appelrouth & Edles, 2011). An individual can be identified by many different versions of self, depending on what they are doing at any given time.
They could be an employee, a student, a parent, spouse, sibling, coach and the list goes on. This is where roles come in. A role allows us to predict how others will behave in a social act and help us to conduct ourselves to fit in.
So, to sum it all up, when we are presented with a social act, we look at the roles of others to predict how they will respond to a certain situation and we will adjust our behavior to fit the situation.
Our significant gestures will mimic those within out social act. Once we step out of one social act into another, all the actors change and so do our behaviors. The process starts all over and our mind or self begin to analyze the process all over to fit the needs of the new social act.