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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

According to Mead the idea of self develops when the individual becomes self-conscious. Explain.

  • UPSC 2022
  • Sociological Thinkers

For George Herbert Mead (Mind, Self and Society, 1934), the self is not present at birth. It emerges when a person can become an object to themselves, looking back on their own conduct as others see it. Self-consciousness in this sense is the reflexive capacity that turns a biological organism into a social self.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Self as a reflexive object
  • The mechanism: symbols and role-taking
  • Stages of development
  • "I" and "me": the self as a process
  • Comparison and legacy
  • Indian and contemporary illustrations
  • …and 2 more sections, with a conclusion

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