Symbolic Interaction: My Favorite Sociological Theory

Symbolic Interactionalism: One of the three perspectives of sociology is Symbolic Interactionalism, this is a microlevel theory that concerns

The way people interpret different types of situations depends on the ideas they have developed in the past & this is the interaction that people get involved in that lead to this idea of symbolic interactionism. This theory was first proposed by George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer in the 20th Century & many social sociologists have since tried to explain this theory but no single definition can be called as the correct one. Racism in football can be linked to symbolic interactionism in the sense that people develop prejudices because of their past interactions or observations. For example a child has seen his father hurling racial chants or there has been an incident with a person of a different race which has caused the person adversity in the past or it can

The Functionalist theory emphasizes the contributions (functions) that all parts of society (e.g., social institutions) make within society. This theory has contributed to sociology by providing a view “which emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain stability.” (Schafer 2013, pg13)

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

Sociological theories are embedded in a particular social context and are deeply influenced by them. Each sociological thinker or theorist has to respond to the social institution in which he or she exists and to try and make sense of the enveloping culture. In other words, sociological theories are sociologist’s response to the context in which he lives and works.

Symbolic Interaction focuses on a micro view of society. It focuses on a small scale perspective of interaction between individuals. Imagine you`re with a friend instead of looking at large scale structures like education or law, since we are looking at the small scale symbolic interaction explains the individual in a society and their interactions with others and through that it can explain social order and change.

Symbolic interaction theory emerged in the early 1900s and is still one of the more frequently used theories in the family studies (Smith & Hamon, 2012). The theory assumes that people have different interpretations of situations due to their personal experiences (Smith & Hamon, 2012). By looking at the behaviors of individuals, symbolic interaction theory explains how multiple people have different reactions to the same situation (Smith & Hamon, 2012).

Even in the movies, sociology can be found. Most people think sociology is limited to just worldly problems, but it can be it can be a very broad term. Symbolic Interaction is a communication theory that states society and individuals are created based upon the interactions between each other. One Disney movie that stands out is Aladdin. I feel this movie does a great job of providing examples of symbolic interactionism. My plan is to discuss symbolic interaction and provide examples of the theory.

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.

I choose the symbolic interactionism for my theoretical perspective. From sociological perspective, symbolic interactionism most concerned with the face-to-face interaction between members of society. Symbolic interaction reminds us that culture is a human creation.

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).

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.

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

Symbolic interaction offers a dramaturgical perspective of how people identify and create their social self through social interaction. Many social theorist studies social interaction/ self as a function to our society. In addition, microsociology develop the idea of applying social interaction on a smaller sample size within the society. Therefore, there were an increase in the study of human interaction and the self. Mead develop his idea through symbolic interaction and social psychology of the human mind. Simmel develop his idea through the perspective of symbolic interaction of urban sociology. Both sociologist focus on the inter social aspect of the human life.