George Herbert Mead And Symbolic Interactionism

Lastly I will discuss the elements of Symbolic Interaction. This theory was brought to sociology by Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), William I. Thomas (1863-1947) and George Herbert Mead (1863-1931). They believed that symbols, things with meaning and face to face interactions are how society views the world and communicate with each other , without symbols our social life would have no meaning. Symbolic interactionists analyzed how our social life depends on the way we define ourselves and others, for example with out symbols we would have no mom, dad, teachers, brothers and sisters. We would not know who we should respect and whom we are obligated too.

Symbolic interactionism perspective is a theory that is used to study social life. To do this, this theory relies on studying and observing the interactions among people and how they form meanings to things from those interactions. Although, there is much more to this theory than that. Blumer, the man who invented the term symbolic interactionism, presented three premises which help to understand this theory. The first one is, people act a certain way towards things depending on their meaning for that thing. The second premise is that we get meanings from social interaction, so we are taught meanings or we witness them from others. Lastly, the third premise is that meanings are able to change because people have the mental capacity to

Symbolic interactionism is one of the three major theoretical perspectives in sociology. Symbolic interactionism is important in microsociology because interactionists emphasize the subjective meaning of human behaviors, while other theoretical perspectives like functionalism and conflict theory focus on society as a whole on the macrosociology level. Interactionists focus on the micro-lens of society because they base their theory on the image of humans, rather than on their image of society. The central theme of symbolic interactionism is that symbols are culturally derived social objects with shared meanings that are created and maintained through social interaction.

The symbolic interaction theory relates how individuals correlate actions and items to symbols they create. This association takes place between humans and the society they live in. Individuals can have the same situation going on, but associate different meaning through symbols of how they view what is going on. It is important to note that individuals will act differently based on the meaning of the interaction for the people or things around them. There is also a huge component of the symbolic interaction theory that takes into consideration how individuals think they are perceived. “In symbolic interactionism, this is known as "reflected appraisals" or "the looking glass self," and refers to our ability to think about how other people will think about us” (Boundless, 2015). This will also govern the symbols that we associate with different groups of people that we will encounter.

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the language and symbols that help us give meaning to the experiences in life. It also studies how people discuss the meaning of social life during interactions

The Symbolic Interaction theory refers to ways in which a family or society attaches meaning to verbal communication, non-verbal communication, people, and objects. We are taught from a young age communication using verbal language and accepted ways to express our needs. The theory represents perception of objects or actions (Macionis, 2007, p.17).

The main idea of symbolic interactionism is that communication with others is based upon the use of language and significant symbols. The focus is on the individual’s opinion and how this is used to create their own perspective of the world. Whereas macro level frameworks seek to explain how institutions have an impact on individuals (Carter and Fuller, 2015). Meads ideas, influenced by Cooley’s “looking-glass self” (American Sociological Association, 2016), comes from the idea about one’s self and its relationship to society, Mead proposed that in given situations people act based upon the symbolic meanings that have arose in the

Symbolic interactionism helps explain both of our individual personalities and the ways the human society is linked together (p.27). It also helps us differentiate social order and change through a process. The teachings of symbolic interactionism comes mostly from George Herbert Mead But,George was not the only one that influenced the thoughts and ideas of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interaction is theoretical perspective so it is still changing and evolving. It also has four kinds of understandings in the population and environment. One of the understandings is that symbolic interactionism is to understand why people engage or do not engage in social growth of the population . Symbolic Interactionism assumes that people from different social backgrounds, and different cultures may see different social issues within their social community. George Mead,Charles Cooley and Herbert Blumer shaped symbolic interactionism on the predictions of yourself causing you to behave a certain way so it becomes true.

Mead’s theory states the civilization we live in today is only here because of symbolic interactionism. Rather, without the different forms of communication human life would not be as advanced or intellectual. According to Mead, humans react towards others based on the perception we create of that individual in our head. Furthermore, humans cannot do this independently, but rely heavily on other’s perceptions to justify their own. Mead discusses how meaning is not pre-determined, but it is brought to light through symbolic interactionism. Mead proposes that there is an individualistic approach to the meanings of different symbols. The shortage

Symbolic interactionist is a micro level of social analysis, it is concerned with individual experiences and the wider society. As well as not focusing on the core structures or support the general theory of society like the functionalist does.

The symbolic interactionism theory is the view of social behavior of individual that emphasizes linguistic and the gestural communication in a society and its subjective understanding of different matters, but especially the role of language in the formation of the child as a social being and social behavior in the society.

Bundy-Fazioli and Hamilton (2013) also stated the theory they used as symbolic interaction, which theorizes human being’s interaction with other shape their reality and understanding of the world. The focus is on the reflexive process between one’s internal thoughts and their social interactions with other in making meaning (Bundy-Fazioli and Hamilton, 2013, p. 252). For example how a parent respond to child neglect services, can impact their view on themselves and the world around them.

Herbert Blumer uses symbolic interactionism to examine micro levels of connections, along with Methodological individualism. Symbolic interactionism also believes that society is constructed through every day interactions between humans. As a symbolic interactionist, Blumer proposes that social structures are created by individuals’ interpretations and assumes that these interpretations of reality are not limited by social settings. In addition, Blumer does not believe in unintended effect, and only examines social meanings and intended events. Symbolic interactionists focus on small level human connections, rather than large social systems, such as religion, education and the economy. Furthermore, since the theory is observing occurrences

Symbolic interactionism as a term was coined by Herbert Blumer to further develop the theories of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. This perspective gives priority to the importance of understanding the meanings of social action. This framework works with the belief that human social behaviour is based on symbolic meanings that are found within a given situation (Tepperman et al., 2013 p.369). Symbolic interactionism, being a form of microsociology, focuses attention on the smallest systems of society, being individual people and their interaction. Symbolic interactionists, like all microsociologists, see society

George Herbert Mead was trusted with expressing the foundations of the symbolic interaction (SI) theory. It is used to understand how families create meaning. The premise of this came from his curiosity to understand the way humans create, react to, and redefine the shared, symbolic meanings in their social environment. As the text mentions, Mead agreed that words and nonverbal behaviors are the primary symbols to which humans assign meaning. In addition to this idea, he also explained on the idea that symbolic meanings are heavily influenced by perceptions, including people’s own perceptions and other people’s perceptions of them and the social structure around them. This was particularly for Ms. Janine at Sunrise Senior Living. She was a social butterfly who seemed to know everything that was going on around the home and most things about the health conditions some residents were living with. Anytime she sat in the kitchen to unwind, more