Breaking down the question
The question asks specifically about how the self develops, and it names the "generalised other" as the mechanism to focus on. This is a directed question: the examiner wants Mead's account of the emergence of the self, culminating in the generalised other, not a general essay on symbolic interactionism.
Success depends on explaining the process — how the self arises through social interaction and role-taking — and then defining the generalised other precisely as the organised attitudes of the whole community that the individual internalises. Omitting the stages of development, or treating the generalised other as a vague synonym for society, would weaken the answer.
At 10 marks you should be concise but complete, covering the social genesis of the self, the "I" and the "me", the play and game stages, and the generalised other as the culmination.
How to approach it
Open by stating Mead's central claim that the self is not innate but emerges through social interaction and communication using significant symbols. This locates him within symbolic interactionism.
Then trace the developmental sequence: role-taking, the distinction between the "I" and the "me", the play stage, and the game stage, showing how each moves the child toward taking the perspective of others. Culminate in the generalised other as the internalised attitude of the entire community, which makes organised, self-regulating conduct possible. Our Mead notes develop the framework in more depth.
Conclude by noting that through the generalised other, society enters the individual, making the self both a social product and a reflexive agent.
Explain the framework
George Herbert Mead argued that the self is not something a person is born with but something that develops through social experience. Unlike the body, the self has the peculiar capacity to be both subject and object to itself — to be aware of and to reflect upon itself. This reflexivity, Mead held, arises only in society, through communication with others using significant symbols, above all language, whose meanings are shared. The self is therefore a fundamentally social product.
The engine of this development is role-taking: the ability to put oneself in the position of another and to view oneself from that standpoint. Within the self Mead distinguished two phases. The "I" is the spontaneous, creative, unpredictable response of the individual to a situation — the acting subject. The "me" is the organised set of attitudes of others that the individual has internalised — the self seen as an object, from the outside. Conduct is a continual conversation between the "I" and the "me", the impulsive self and the socialised self.
Mead traced the growth of the self through stages. In the preparatory phase the infant merely imitates. In the play stage the child takes the role of particular others one at a time — playing at being a parent, a teacher or a doctor — and so learns to see itself from the perspective of specific individuals. But at this point its self is fragmentary, organised around single roles in turn. In the game stage the child must take the roles of many others simultaneously and grasp how they relate to one another. Mead's famous illustration is the team game: to play, a child must anticipate the roles and expectations of every other player at once and coordinate its conduct accordingly.
This capacity matures into the generalised other, the culmination of Mead's account. The generalised other is the organised, generalised attitude of the whole community or social group, internalised by the individual. When a person guides their behaviour not by the reaction of any single individual but by the shared expectations, norms and standards of the community as a whole, they are taking the attitude of the generalised other. It is through this that abstract thought, shared meaning and self-regulation become possible, for the individual now judges their own conduct by common standards. In this sense society enters into and constitutes the individual mind.
Model answer
Mead's account shows the self emerging in three connected moves. First, the self is social and reflexive, arising through symbolic communication rather than being innate. Second, it develops through role-taking, expressed in the interplay of the "I" and the "me" and unfolding through the play and game stages. Third, it culminates in the generalised other, the internalised attitude of the entire community.
The significance of the generalised other is that it explains how individuals become capable of orderly, cooperative social life without constant external supervision. By carrying the community's attitudes within, a person regulates their own behaviour, anticipates the expectations of others in general, and participates in a shared moral and symbolic order. The self is thus simultaneously a product of society and an active, reflexive agent, since the spontaneous "I" always responds to, and can modify, the socialised "me". In Mead's hands the individual and society are not opposed but mutually constituting, and the generalised other is the precise mechanism through which the social order becomes part of the person.
Examiner's perspective
Because the question names the generalised other explicitly, the examiner expects it to be the pivot of the answer, properly defined as the organised attitude of the whole community rather than loosely equated with society. Answers that describe symbolic interactionism in general but never pin down the generalised other lose the core marks.
The strongest scripts trace the developmental sequence — role-taking, the "I" and the "me", the play and game stages — and show the generalised other as its culmination, ideally with Mead's team-game illustration. A closing line on the self as both social product and reflexive agent demonstrates the conceptual grasp that distinguishes a first-class answer at this level.