Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

In the United States and in several other countries around the world, many people recognize Wal-Mart for being a great place to shop for any and every household item on the market. However, sociologist find Wal-Mart to be a bit more than just a one-stop shop for everyday items. Sociologist use different perspectives to view society and its functions to evaluate the “why’s” and “what’s” within a society. The two main perspectives or theories used by sociologists to analyze society are macrosociology and microsociology, but more specifically: Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism.

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 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

The symbolic interactionism theory relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely upon the process of social interaction. With this theory, the reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. Most symbolic interactionists believe a physical reality does indeed exist by an individual’s social definitions, and that socially develop in relation to something that is real. To simply state it, symbolic interactionism is the way we earn to interpret and give meaning to the world through our interactions with others. Through Michael and Leigh Anne’s interactions, they formed a very strong bond. This bond was equal to the role of a mother-son relationship where Leigh Anne cared for Michael just as she did for her biologic children. She helped him to better himself and his life throughout the entire movie. With the motherly support from Leigh Anne, Michael was able to go forth and make something of himself.

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.

Symbolic interactionists reject structure and believe that to study society, the only way to do so is to concentrate on the individual. Both theories believe in understanding the individual through the use of empathy. George Herbert Mead was mainly concerned with the importance of language. Language distinguishes humans from animals and allows us to be aware of our individuality.

To understand what symbolic interactionism is you must first understand who founded the term and how they intended it to be used. George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer are both considered to be founders of symbolic interactionism. Mead is considered a founder of symbolic interactionism but he never published his work on the theory and Blumer was the one to determine what Mead meant by his work an in turn coin the term. Herbert Blumer was George Mead’s student. Blumer was born in 1900 and passed away in 1987. Blumer had three basic principles for symbolic interactionism:

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.

Many theoretical approaches may be used when assessing the behavior of the characters in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest". The characters are thought to be mentally ill, however when examining them through the use of the theoretical approaches one realizes that there may be no problems with the characters at all.

Blumer uses his writing on symbolic interaction to describe what the theory means, to discuss work by Mead that it draws on, and examine how it relates to the study of human societies. At no time does he use his theory to consider how humans should act in a situation, or to explain why they should act in that way. Rather, he simply describes the mechanics symbolic interaction. He discusses how an individual performs the activities required for symbolic interaction, and how that individual’s actions extend to social interactions.

Symbolic Interactionism focuses on face-to-face communication. It is also micro-level theory; meaning this theory covers very specific relationships between individuals or small groups. Micro level theories are more distinct then other perspectives. Micro theories are more scientifically testable. Symbolic Interactionism researchers are dependent on context and qualitative research methods such as interviews. (OpenStaxCollegeChap1). Social researchers who apply symbolic-interactionist thinking examine for patterns of relationships between entities. Researchers believe that individual’s rely on things such as dialogs, thoughts, ideas, symbols, and language to shape their own reality and social norm (OpenStaxCollegChap1).Understanding symbolic interaction theory helps one gain meaning and understanding of his or her experiences in life, not only their own life, but others as well .” This viewpoint sees people as active in shaping their world, rather than as entities who are acted upon

It has been six months since Dorothy Gale has returned from the mythical land of Oz. Her Aunt and Uncle, who she lives with, do not believe her when she recounts her journey. So much so, that they take her to see a doctor at a psychiatric institution. A mysterious girl comes to her rescue and somehow she ends up back in the land of Oz, for another adventure.

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.

The last theoretical perspective I have applied to my movie selection, Dead Man Walking, is the symbolic interaction theory. The theory was primarily established by American philosopher George Herbert Mead in the 1920’s and the term was later coined by American sociologist Herbert Blumer in the 1960’s (McClelland, 2000). Symbolic interactionism examines society on a small scale and focuses on interactions between individuals and how these relations impact social order (Brown, 2013). To comprehend human behavior, we must understand what the idea or situation means to the participant (Dubose, 2015). The same situation can have different meanings to different people and therefore affect people in different ways (Dubose, 2015). Throughout this analysis, I will apply the theory of symbolic interactionism to explain Poncelot’s behaviors and interactions with other people in his life.

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.