Chapter 8: George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Which three theoretical traditions significantly influenced Mead’s body of work?

A. functionalism, pragmatism, Marxism

B. pragmatism, behaviorism, evolutionism

C. Marxism, functionalism, behaviorism

D. pragmatism, Marxism, symbolic interactionism

Ans: B

2. Which concept pertaining to identity did Charles Cooley contribute?

A. twofold self

B. pragmatism

C. looking-glass self

D. generalized other

Ans: C

3. Mead drew on which theory to support his argument for social progress?

A. pragmatism

B. behaviorism

C. evolutionism

D. Marxism

Ans: C

4. According to the authors’ metatheoretical model, Mead’s work is predominantly ______ in orientation.

A. individualist and rationalist

B. individualist and nonrationalist

C. collectivist and rationalist

D. collectivist and nonrationalist

Ans: B

5. According to Mead, the self is primarily constructed through our ______.

A. perceptions about how others will respond to us

B. linguistic position

C. interactions with others

D. play stage

Ans: A

6. Using the authors’ theoretical orientation table, which of Mead’s concepts would fall under the category of collective and nonrational?

A. “I” and “me”

B. game stage and play stage

C. significant symbols and generalized other

D. looking-glass self

Ans: C

7. According to Mead, when a person thinks reflectively about what may happen in the future, they are engaging what?

A. the self

B. the “I”

C. the “me”

D. the mind

Ans: D

8. What does Mead identify as the central process leading to the development of the mind?

A. conditioning

B. reflexivity

C. meaning

D. subjectivity

Ans: B

9. ______ is a response to a gesture developed within a social act.

A. A significant symbol

B. The “I” phase of the self

C. Meaning

D. Mind

Ans: C

10. According to Mead, the meaning of a gesture lies in ______.

A. the intrinsic qualities of the gesture itself

B. the intention behind a person’s gesture to another

C. how another person responds to that gesture

D. the state of consciousness

Ans: C

11. According to Mead, language allows for ______.

A. the development of self-consciousness or mind

B. the existence or the appearance of situations or objects

C. the ability to take the attitude of the other

D. the existence of interactions

Ans: B

12. Mead calls ______ the words and gestures that have the same meaning for those involved in a social act.

A. significant symbols

B. the “I” phase of the self

C. meaning

D. the generalized other

Ans: A

13. According to Mead, when does self-consciousness develop?

A. in interaction with others

B. in the movement from the play to the game stage

C. in conversations between the “I” and the “me”

D. in the emergence of language

Ans: B

14. Mead’s concept of the “me” corresponds most closely to which concept from another theorist?

A. Simmel’s stranger

B. Marx’s false consciousness

C. Weber’s status

D. Du Bois’s double consciousness

Ans: D

15. According to Mead, how do social processes influence the behavior of individuals?

A. via the play stage

B. through the creation of the “me”

C. through the generalized other

D. via significant symbols

Ans: C

16. Mead defines the ______ as an organized set of attitudes of others that a person takes on.

A. “I”

B. “me”

C. self

D. game

Ans: B

17. What happens during the game stage of development?

A. A person develops their looking-glass self.

B. A person responds to the attitudes of others.

C. A person internalizes the attitudes of others.

D. A person learns to simultaneously consider multiple roles.

Ans: D

18. An 8-year-old child who pretends to be a “mommy” by feeding her “baby” doll is in the ______ stage of development.

A. game

B. play

C. looking-glass

D. linguistic

Ans: B

19. The “generalized other” represents ______.

A. a structure arising from social experience

B. the importance of language in the creation of the self

C. the set of shared attitudes in the group to which an individual belongs

D. a thought process in which a symbol refers to some meaning of an object

Ans: C

20. What is the essential medium for coordinating actions?

A. generalized other

B. self

C. language

D. the “I”

Ans: C

21. According to Mead, which of the following is an obstacle to forming an ideal society?

A. antidemocratic sentiments

B. the salience of individual creativity

C. individuals’ attempts to dominate others in the society

D. teaching everyone the universal language

Ans: C

22. Mead’s belief that modern societies are characterized by a greater degree of complexity and functional interdependence is similar to which other classical theorist’s ideas?

A. Charlotte Perkins Gilman

B. Émile Durkheim

C. Karl Marx

D. W. E. B. Du Bois

Ans: B

23. The key to creating a universal democracy lies in the evolution of which process?

A. social control

B. institutional forces

C. individual creativity

D. generalized other

Ans: C

24. Which two processes are needed to create a cooperative democracy?

A. social control and individual creativity

B. individual creativity and generalized other

C. generalized other and significant symbols

D. significant symbols and social control

Ans: A

25. According to Mead, what happens in his ideal universal society?

A. People become members of the same social groups.

B. Everyone shares the same social meanings.

C. Individuals are minimally differentiated from others.

D. The “me” would become less important.

Ans: B

True/False

1. For Mead, the individual and the society are mutually dependent.

Ans: T

2. Unlike Marx or Weber, Mead granted little attention to categories such as class or status.

Ans: T

3. Individuals decide how to act by imagining how others will respond.

Ans: T

4. Mead believed that social progress would occur as people developed a more universal discourse.

Ans: T

5. Mead focused on studying how people were motivated to pursue self-improvement.

Ans: F

6. Our ability to think symbolically allows us to consider courses of action.

Ans: T

7. Significant symbols are those that hold special meaning for the individual.

Ans: F

8. Humans are distinguished from animals by our ability to use the future to determine present actions.

Ans: T

9. Mead argues that the mind is primarily a biological phenomenon.

Ans: F

10. According to Mead, meaning emerges through social interactions.

Ans: T

11. Language is an example of a significant symbol.

Ans: T

12. The self refers to the ability to be both object and subject to oneself.

Ans: T

13. Viewing ourselves as an object is the phase of the self Mead termed the “I.”

Ans: F

14. Without the “I,” social life would be more dynamic and spontaneous.

Ans: F

15. The play stage is marked by the ability to assume the roles of multiple others simultaneously.

Ans: F

16. The generalized other contains the attitude of the whole community.

Ans: T

17. According to Mead, the generalized other is what makes society possible.

Ans: T

18. Mead spent most of his career at the University of Chicago.

Ans: T

19. Mead believes that conflict characterized more modern societies.

Ans: F

20. Social evolution requires both social and self-reconstruction.

Ans: T

21. Assuming the attitude of the generalized other allows us to realize abstract ideals such as freedom, individual rights, and fairness.

Ans: T

22. Mead views social control and self-control as separate forces.

Ans: F

23. In the university society described by Mead, individuals would be highly interdependent.

Ans: T

24. People usually move from the game stage to the play stage.

Ans: F

25. Mead believed that language is a neutral set of symbols.

Ans: T

Essay

1. Define the three significant theoretical influences on Mead’s work, making sure to show how they surface within Mead’s work.

2. Compare and contrast how Mead and Weber understood social institutions.

3. Discuss Mead’s view of the relationship between self-control and social control.

4. According to Mead, what is the “threefold relationship” that generates meaning? Provide an original example to illustrate his argument.

5. Define significant symbols and provide a concrete contemporary example of the concept.

6. Explain the significance of Mead’s statement in Mind: “it is the distinctive thing in human intelligence which is not found in animal intelligence.”

7. Discuss how the self connects with self-consciousness in Mead’s theory.

8. Define the “I” and the “me” in your own words and provide a concrete example of a situation where both would come into play.

9. Explain what the difference is between the play and game stages. How does the concept of the generalized other play into this distinction?

10. Compare and contrast Mead’s conception of the relationship between the individual and society with that of Karl Marx and Max Weber.

11. How does Mead theorize the relationship between the mind, symbols, and language?

12. How does Mead define self-consciousness? What role does language play in the development of self-consciousness? What role does self-consciousness play in social interaction?

13. Using a concrete example, explain how we can use symbols--rather than objects--to determine our future course of action.

14. Define the two processes that will lead to a universal society, and explain how they work together.

15. Use Mead’s concepts of the “me,” the “I,” and the generalized other to analyze interactions on a social media platform of your choice (Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).