Symbolic Interaction Perspective: The Way We View The Outside World

Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective that people use definitions, meanings, symbols, interpretations, and human interactions to compare themselves to others (Henslin, 2010, p. 15). Herbert Blumer, whom attended University of Chicago with one of the founders of the

a. Symbolic Interaction/pg. 23: a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another.

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

Symbolic Interactionism is described in the book as the ongoing use of languages and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react. Basically this theory is how we use every day verbal and nonverbal language to interact with others and create meanings. These interactions can bring different meanings depend on the relationship and how the sender uses the symbols. It can also mean different things based on the culture and the society. A moment I can recall where I experienced symbolic interaction was when I first seen my girlfriend. She signaled to me asking for help by interlocking her fingers and holding them under her chin. She was about to get tossed in a pool at a party we were and if I didn 't recognize her sign for help she would have gotten soaked that day.

Symbolic interactionism is a theory is defined as, ”a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning,

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.

Symbolic Interactionism was formulated by Herbert Blumer. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and subconsciously rely upon in the process of social interaction. The youtube video presented illustrates the premises of symbolic interactionism in Chicago. It showed chicagoans replacing their car spaces with a lawn chair. These chairs were being put out in the snow to reserve a parking space. The importance of symbolic interactionism is shown through their views on objects. In this case, the chair is the object of choice. Assuming one person decided to claim their parking spot by leaving a chair in place of their vehicle, it gave the chair a different meaning. Instead of the chair being the object to use for sitting,

My ideal Career/ education path is to become an investigative journalist because I enjoy watching documentaries and seeing investigative journalists travel across the world to expose geopolitical atrocities and share the narratives of oppressed people. Consequently, it is my disgust with the state of the Marginalized that inspired my another aspiration of mine, which is to become a Social Justice Activist. To achieve these goals I plan to Major in Philosophy at the Undergraduate level and minor in Political Science. I Would major in philosophy because I question everything, and I would minor in Political Science as because I would primarily focus my career on exposing political corruption. I plan to enroll in a Four-year institution after

Symbolic Interactionist approach falls between meaning making and socio cultural position. It is through communicating and interaction

Everyday thousands of senior citizens and people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia suffer from abuse by a caregiver. Most of the abuse is in the form of emotional or physical abuse, but there are also a number of different types of abuse including financial abuse. The abuse can either take place in a medical setting such as a nursing home or hospital, or it can also be done by the victim’s own family members. These senior citizens are mostly targeted due to the fact that they are mentally incapacitated; they do not have a very strong short term memory, and sometimes they do not have the ability to talk to another individual about how their caregiver has been abusing them.

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 interactionism is the process by which individuals form their own interpretations of the world based on their interactions with other people. This branch of sociology proposes that people make decisions, act, and develop judgments and opinions based on their various social interactions.

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 the “ongoing use of language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). George Herbert Mead, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, developed this theory. He believed “that our thoughts, self-concept, and the wider community we live in are created through communication, verbal and non-verbal” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). There are “three core principles of symbolic interaction: meaning, language, and thinking” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). The meaning is “humans act toward people and things according to the meanings they assign to those people or things” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 55). Language “arises out of the social

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.