Meads theory of the self postulated that the "I", which we often call as the ego develops in response to the cues and clues that the mind receives from the external environment through time.

Mead explained his theory with the classical example of a child which develops its self consciousness through the interaction that it has with his surroundings. For example we may see that a child during its initial months do not have a feeling of “I” or “me”, but it develops the I and the me with his or her interaction with others and the clues obtained from the environment around it. We often see that the child as it grows up plays like the mother, the father the teacher etc all with a different perspective. It is more kind when it acts as a mother, more dominating as father or teacher. We see that the child assumes these roles not by itself but copies them from the surrounding and modifies it as it grows up [Coser, 1977]. Mead basically argued that there can be no self apart from society, no consciousness of self and no communication without a society. Therefore society is a structure that transpires through a constant process of communicative social acts, through contacts between people who are reciprocally oriented toward each other. As put by Mead (1934), “Social psychology is especially interested in the effect which the social group has in the determination of the experience and conduct of the individual member. If we abandon the conception of a substantive soul endowed with the self of the individual at birth, then we may regard the development of the individual's self, and of his self-consciousness within the field of his experience, as the social psychologist's special interest.”

Mead believed that there is a self in all human beings that interacts or "goes out" to others around it in the environment. Similarly there is another "I", a part that observes and critically analyses the part that goes out to the environment. Mead believed that these two "I"'s are essentially different. Mead believed that the self which acts in reaction to others is also conscious immediately of the events and persona, including itself, around it. This "I" or "me" criticizes, reflects, approves and thinks in relation to the “me” that goes out to the world. Hence, we may see that the different parts of the self are in fact closely related and responsible for each other. Mead gave a very important example to prove that the social relations is indeed are needed to create the "I " in human beings (the example of the child stated above). He argues that when we are intensely absorbed in something the "I"’s merges to the extent that there is not even an “I” that feels that it is doing a task in which it is extremely involved. The dissolution of the self happens so intensely that we often need to recall our actions in order to feel that an "I" had indeed been involved in that particular action. This introspection brings to life the "I" which can observe the whole happening in a different perspective.

"The self which consciously stands over against other selves thus becomes an object, an other to himself, through the very fact that he hears himself talk, and replies. The mechanism of introspection is therefore given in the social attitude which man necessarily assumes toward him, and the mechanism of thought, in so far as thought uses symbols which are used in social intercourse, is but an inner conversation." [Mead, 1901]

It may be seen that the “I” becomes a subject as a well as an object. It is the same self that sees and is being seen. A person involved in an elaborate social life often observes that the I is often the observer and also the observed. The I that indulges in social activities is also criticized or encouraged by the I that observes the person's actions in a different perspective. Practically, this has a very sobering effect because we often think and analyze our actions on a particular day and make corrections to some of those which we feel have not been true to our selves or our demeanor. Similarly, we congratulate ourselves on those actions which we feel were advantageous to us or our fellow beings. In effect this means that the I that we harbor in our selves is a reference that measures us according to certain social norms and beliefs. To put it in another way, it may be seen that the society influences the "I" to toe its line of thought or belief. We encourage ourselves to think along the dictates of the society and so creates a reference in us that can constantly compare us according to certain measures and standards.