THE PERSONAL AND THE SOCIAL - MEADS 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 develo pment can occur in each domain. George Herbert Mead's concept of the ' Generalized Other' gives an account of the social origin of self-consc iousness while retaining the transforming function of the personal. Co ntextualized in Mead's theory of intersubjectivity, the Generalized Ot her 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-r esponse action sequences. Self-consciousness is developed through acti on 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 The paper traces the development of the Generalized Other concept in Mead' s published and unpublished work, locating it within the framework of intersubjectivity and role-taking.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 em bedded interpretation of the Generalized Other reveals that both the p ersonal and the social evolve and each is open to activities that brin g about change. Grounded in Mead's refusal to reduce the part played b y the social or the personal in the development of the self, the Gener alized Other is a concept of continuing usefulness to development psyc hologists.