The Personal and the Social: Mead's Theory of the ‘Generalized Other’

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 The paper traces the development of the Generalized Other concept in Mead's published and unpublished work, locating it within the framework of intersubjectivity and role-taking.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.