Katrina, age 5, and Sharon, age 4, love to play together. Katrina has a toy iron and washing machine. She and Sharon spend hours "washing" and "ironing" her baby doll's clothes, just like they see their parents do. Which of George Herbert Mead's stages of development are Katrina and Sharon exemplifying?

The preparatory stage

Explanation:

The preparatoryvstage of Herbert Meads stages of development is one of the three stages of the self in a child in his theory. Here the child mimics the behaviour of his surrounding environment and prepares himself/herself for the more sophisticated and complex tasks ahead. In this stage there is no sophisticated understanding of what is being mimicked.