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GENERALIZED OTHER
Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012, Symbolic Interaction, Intersubjectivity, Generalized Other
In their behavior and social interaction individuals react
to the expectations of others, orienting themselves to the norms
and values of their community or group.
The term `Generalized Other' was used by George
Herbert Mead (1863-1931) to refer to an individual's recognition that other members of
their society hold specific values and expectations about behavior.
Contemporary sociocultural theories of the development of
the self in society need to explain how the social becomes personal and how development
can occur in each domain. George Herbert Mead' s concept of the `Generalized Other' gives
an account of the social origin of self-consciousness while retaining the transforming
function of the personal. Contextualized in Mead's theory of intersubjectivity, the
Generalized Other is a special case of role-taking in which the individual responds to
social gestures, and takes up and adjusts common attitudes. By role-taking people adjust
and adapt in exchanges based on social gesture-response action sequences.
Self-consciousness is developed through action in the social domain that is completed in
personal reflection. The paper traces the development of the Generalized Other concept in
Mead's published and unpublished work, locating it within the framework of
intersubjectivity and role-taking. A theoretically and historically embedded
interpretation of the Generalized Other reveals that both the personal and the social
evolve and each is open to activities that bring about change. Grounded in Mead's refusal
to reduce the part played by the social or the personal in the development of the self,
the Generalized Other is a concept of continuing usefulness to development psychologists.
- The Personal and the Social - Mead's Theory of the `Generalized Other' - Agnes
E. Dodds, Jeanette A. Lawrence, Univ.of Melbourne, Jaan Valsiner, Univ.of North Carolina
Attribution and Symbolic Interaction: An
Impasse at the Generalized Other
George V. Zito, Jerry Jacobs, Syracuse University, Human Relations, Vol. 32, No. 7,
(1979)
Attribution theory and symbolic interactionism have developed independently of each
another, although both are concerned with the processes employed by ordinary people to
make sense of their everyday world. It was inevitable that developments in the one should
at last collide with certain well-established tenets of the other. Recent developments in
attribution theory respecting differential attributions by Ego of the causes of his own
and Alter's behaviors seem to collide with Mead's notion of the Generalized Other. The
authors seek to define the current impasse, which they see as further confounding the
problem of intersubjectivity.
An International 'Generalized Other': The Social Negotiation
of Moral Authority at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - DR. MAYA
STEINITZ, NY University
Abstract: The international criminal courts (ICCs) - the ad hoc International Criminal
Tribunals for the Former-Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, the recently-established permanent
International Criminal Court, and hybrid internationalized tribunals such as the Special
Court for Sierra Leone - are the international community's attempt to address the worst of
the criminal manifestations of racism, nationalism and large-scale xenophobia. Based on
five months of ethnographic research at the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR), analyzed using Erving Goffman's dramaturgical framework, this article examines the
means through which moral authority is constructed and communicated by the ICTR.
Specifically, the article advances the argument that the ICCs seek to personify the
Generalized Other; that they claim to embody the universal authority and morality of the
international community. The generalized other is an organized and generalized attitude
with reference to which individuals define their conduct. The Generalized Other and
institutions help socialize people in different parts of society to have the same
responses, interests, and moral beliefs and conceptions of selves needed for understanding
and synchronizing with others. It is through interactions - immediate and mediated - with
Generalized Others that the self arises and is negotiated; that stigmatization of
individuals and groups occur; that social concepts are defined; and that psychological
citizenship manifests. Therefore, the interplay between inclusion and exclusion, hegemony
and diversity in institutions that have the potential not only to communicate for, but
also to embody and personify the international Generalized Other, as well as the very
existence of such social institutions, is of great social significance.
The analysis of the ethnographic data traces the three dimensions of jurisdiction -
geographical jurisdiction (space), temporal jurisdiction (time) and subject-matter
jurisdiction (story) - which are also the three dimensions of theater and of reality. In
describing the negotiation of each dimension the article explores the philosophical notion
that law qua law claims legitimate and supreme authority and the sociological notion that
courts, including international criminal courts, are among the most significant
institutions to perform, dramaturgically speaking, such claims by explaining that, more
specifically, courts try to fashion themselves as the embodiment of a truly universal
Generalized Other proclaiming the universal morality of the international community. In
contrast to that projected unity, a close decoding of the face-to-face interactions, the
performances, which give rise to the abstraction the ICTR demonstrate that the negotiated
reality that is the ICTR (and by implication, ICCs generally) is an emergent of and, at
least to a degree, a reflection of cultural and gender differences and diversity. Whether
or not one concludes that the ICTR's projection is successful, the attempt has profound
implications for the formation of the self and citizenship of individuals in the
international sphere. - papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=905340
Pronouns, Proximity, and the Generalized Other - Guy, Rebecca F.; Allen,
Donald E.
Experiment supporting the crux of Mead's discussion describing the development and
projection of the social self. Use of pronominal references seems to be an indicator of
the dimensions of the interaction process. - eric.ed.gov
The Generalized Other and Me: Working Women's Language and the Academy.
Authors: Belanoff, Pat
Discusses the teacher's obligation to help students utilize language which sounds and
feels like their own, while helping them to master a language which opens up a larger,
wider, deeper world for them and their teachers. - eric.ed.gov
Women as generalized other and self theory: A strategy for empirical research
Journal Sex Roles, Subject Behavioral Science, Issue Volume 8, Number 3 / February,
1982
Forrest A. Deseran, William W. Falk, Louisiana State University, USA
Abstract Following the argument that women as generalized other (Mead, 1934) could be
empirically explored in much the same manner as self concepts, a variant of Kuhn's (1960)
twenty statements test was applied to an examination of perceptions of women in general
and of the relationship between self concepts and conceptions of women. College men and
women were asked to reply to the questions Who are they (women)? and Who am I? in 20
open-ended responses. Content analysis of the statements revealed findings both consistent
and inconsistent with other sex-role research findings.
This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the
Southwestern Sociological Association, March 1978, Houston, Texas. Development of this
paper was partially supported by the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station as a
contribution to LAES grants H-1970, S-114, and S-120. Appreciation is expressed to Janet
Heinmiller, Julie Selby, Gloria Earnest, Kim Dutton, Mary Mahon, and Karen Olivier for
their assistance. Authors are listed alphabetically and share equally in credit and
responsibility. - springerlink.com
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