Brian is four years old. He loves to watch cartoons, especially those about superheroes. His dad was also a big fan of watching cartoons when he was a child and has introduced Brian to superheroes. Brian's dad bought him a cape and a sword. He loves to put on his cape when he is watching Superman. He will jump off the couch and pretend that he is saving the world. Which of Mead's stages of social development is Brian involved in?

Play stage

Explanation:

George Mead was a sociologist and a psychologist who develop a theory on how the mind and psyche develop by the interaction with other people.

Mead believed that the self develops through a three-stage role-taking process. These three stages are:

preparatory stage play stage, game stage.

In the preparatory stage (usually from the moment we are born until we are 2 years old) children mimic what they see happening around them.

In the play stage (age 2-6), children play but they don't adhere to the rules, they make their own rules for the different games they play, this means they create rules as they play. One other characteristic of this stage is that they play representing specific people (by example, by playing to be the mom they are actually representing their mom)

In the game stage (from 7 years), children start adhering to the rules. They can also play role games but the role they play is more general (if they play as if they were a mom, they are not representing their actual mom but the concept of "being a mom" they should have by now).

In this example, Brian is 4 years old and likes to put on his cape when he's watching Superman and pretend to be saving the world. First of all, we notice that, because of his age, he should be in the play stage.

But also, by pretending to be saving the world just as Superman would do we can see that the role playing he is representing refers to ONE individual in particular (in this case Superman). Thus he is in the play stage.