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A Behavioral Examination of Mead's View of Role‐Taking
Author(s) -
Rigney Ernest G.,
Smith Richard L.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1991.14.1.71
Subject(s) - gesture , psychology , cognitive psychology , process (computing) , movement (music) , social psychology , communication , computer science , aesthetics , artificial intelligence , art , operating system
According to Mead, self appears as individuals take the role of others toward their own gestures. In two investigations, the hand movements of subjects were observed as they verbalized different commands specifying hand or head movement to another person. The first investigation explored the possibility of directly observing and recording instances of role‐taking. In the second, the visual accessibility between experimental subjects was varied in order to assess its effect on the frequency of overt role‐taking. Results indicate that the process of role‐taking is amenable to direct observation; and, furthermore, that overt role‐taking decreases as visual accessibility increases.