ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the case to be made for George Herbert Mead's social behaviorism as a theory of identity, interdependence processes, and role enactment within interethnic marriage in particular. Nevertheless, a unified view of social behaviorism would lead people to embrace a bidirectional model of social stability and social change. The chapter reviews interdependence theory, focusing on its origins as a neo-behaviorist theory and casting it as a necessary complement to social behaviorism. Notwithstanding the implications of Mead's social behaviorism for role theory, social behaviorism is more commonly associated with symbolic interactionism than with role theory. Gaines and Hardin went so far as to contend that Mead's symbolic interactionism could help integrate the fields of relationship science and cultural psychology. Mead was a keen observer of the dynamic tension that existed between social stability and social change within the United States during his lifetime.
