In my second reaction paper I expressed a preference for symbolic interactionism. It is not surprising to me, then, that I would find the theories of George Herbert Mead’s of role-taking, the self, and the mind as social product most interesting. Personally, I have two experiences which most probably have influenced me in this direction. Firstly, I have been raised with my identical twin, and second, I am an improvisational actor. Being a twin has allowed me the experience of bonding through gradual role-taking. Identity grows over time, and so have the differences between my brother and I. Taking his role now is not easy, but when we were younger it was simple or perhaps automatic. Interestingly, though he and I have lived apart, we now confuse many of our childhood memories. We each think several memories rightly belong to just one of us. It is safe to say that every game I have played, I have played first, perhaps with my brother. Also, mimicry and role-taking stand out as our primary interaction. Long before I encountered Mead’s ideas, my brother and I were known for our accurate and silly vocal and physical impressions. Perhaps we know ourselves so well that any deviation is noticed immediately and taken as play. If one of us is kidding ourselves, my thought is that we might as well have fun with it – which leads me to the subject of improv comedy.

As an improvisational actor, I embrace Mead’s games in all their stages. Mead would love Whose Line Is It Anyway? and improv. The practices required have allowed me, thankfully, to keep the nonsensical and raw imitation games of sound and movement, often lost to many adults. Second, the games of ‘house’ as a child have evolved in performance to the archetypal play roles of improvisational characters. The spirit is the same, though the house has grown in size to be only limited by my imagination and experience. Finally, improv is a great example of Mead’s stage 3 team experiences of games requiring multiple roles. In a single improv show the same actor plays furniture, background, animals, humans, moderator, and audience. Improv also utilizes advanced role-taking concepts, such as status and authority changes and the endowment of character through reaction. A good example would be: Actor A enters, walking casually. Actor B is startled, and falls to his knees, nudging Actor C. Actor A immediately knows she has high status and begins playing as such (a priest, a boss, a king, etc) – as if she had never been otherwise.

Mead’s final division of the self between the “I” and the ‘me’ is more easily understood by actors. As Shakespeare wrote in something I can’t remember, “Life is a stage, and in his time man plays many parts.” Their craft hinges on awareness of the line between appearance and internal reality.

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  What do cases of social isolation teach us about the importance of social experience to human beings?
  

Studies of isolated humans and other primates suggest the existence of a uniquely critical developmental window for socialization. For example, Genie, a girl isolated until the age of 13, never achieved functionality with language or motor skills despite intense training. Similarly, she could not interact on any appreciable social level with others or take care of herself.

The experiment of psychologists Skeels and Dye suggests the effects of isolation and neglect are largely reversible before a certain age. The study placed previously neglected orphan infants in the care of similarly institutionalized young women. In the experiment, 13 orphans were chosen from those that tested most mentally retarded. They were put in the care of young women in a ward whose mental ages were only 5 to 12. After two and a half years, the mothered group had gained 28 IQ points compared to a control group left in a nursery who had lost 30 points over the same period. A follow-up study twenty-one years later found the mothered group had achieved many standards of normal socialization. Most had married with at least high school educations, and all were self-sufficient. In contrast, the control group had an average education of three grades, only one had married, four still lived in institutions, and the few who were employed held only low-level jobs. Similar studies with rhesus monkeys (who develop much faster than humans) indicate a correspondingly shorter developmental window. Regardless of specie, early social experience clearly lays the groundwork for most of what is considered as normal social and linguistic intelligence.