Social behaviorism (as opposed to psychological behaviorism) refers to Mead's concern of the stimuli of gestures and social objects with rich meanings, rather than bare physical objects which psychological behaviourists considered stimuli. Mead was a critic of John B. Watson 's form of behaviorism.

To social psychology, Mead’s main contribution was his attempt to show how the human self arises in the process of social interaction. He thought that spoken language played a central role in this development.

Mead’s theories on the self, society, and social behavior were groundbreaking and laid the foundation for symbolic interactionism, a major theoretical perspective in sociology. Mead’s personal life was marked by his commitment to social reform.