Symbolic Interactionism Was Proposed By J. Mead

Symbolic Interactionism (1)- The theory of symbolic interactionism conveys how society is made up of symbols that create meaning, develop communication, and produce world views. At the North Hanover Mall all interactions and even moods were established because of simple symbols. The overall mood of the mall was almost the same form person to person, a look of boredom was on the faces of many whether young or old. The attitude seemed to appear in people shortly after they entered the mall, once they had observed other individual’s body language and expressions, they shifted theirs as if they were trying to fit in with the crowd. Contrastingly when an employee

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.

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

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).

Herbert Blumer, the first person to use the term symbolic interactionism, once suggested three basic premises for it. He put the first one as “humans act toward a thing on the basis of the meaning they assign to the thing” , which is to say that human’s perceptions and behaviors are not directly determined by objects or phenomena in the physical

“Symbolic interaction refers to the patterns of communication, interpretation and adjustment between individuals,” (Baird and Kaufmann) humans will interpret different meanings in everyday life, from having a conversation or using their

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 interaction it is a micro perspective action theory. It focuses attention on the way people interact through symbols like words, gestures, rules and roles. According to this theory an understanding of human conduct requires study of covert behaviour as human being are active in shaping their behaviour; they are

Symbolic Interactionism emphasizes situations, communication, and how individuals interact and give meaning to these situations. The significance that each situation has for somebody is dependent on the individual, and the importance is based on the response from that person. Equally as important, being able to define the events, objects, and relationships is key to understanding human behaviour (Sandstrom et al. 2014). These definitions are specific to the individual, but can sometimes be shared. The shared meaning typically arises in a more structured and unambiguous situation; for example, in a classroom setting it is apparent as to who is the students are and who the professor is; the roles are apparent.

According to the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionalism, we use symbols in order to define relationships. Based upon the symbols that one learns from their culture and society, there are set values and norms that one considers right or wrong.

Symbolic interactionism in short is a perspective that focuses on "labels" that we create and follow in our daily lives. It also explains how said labels shape and affect our behavior as human beings and as a society. This is a micro-level analysis theory due to it's detail oriented nature and focus on personal encounters people have with each other.

George Herbert Mead studied and used an interactionist approach for many years. He was a philosophy professor at the university of Chicago. Mead thought that the true test to any theory is whether or not it is useful in solving complex social problems (EM Griffin, p.83). So Mead decided to study the procedures of communicating, specifically with symbols, the theory was titled Symbolic Interactionism.

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.