symbolic interactionism

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,

This explains why things have different meanings according to the situations. Finally, as meaning emerges trough interactions, it is also maintained trough them. As we acquire ways to feel, behave and think through our interactions culture is socially constructed. This explains why for symbolic interactionists, there is no Society, no greater body that controls and determines social norms, we are the ones who trough our interactions, create them. Since our responses to symbols, signs, events and situation are public, we are free to redefine to a certain extent meanings and as new things and objects emerge, we come up with new meanings. It is when we do not use a meaning associated with a symbol, for abstract ideas such as beliefs of values, that they disappear or are modified. This is how symbolic interactionists explain the change in ‘’societies’’ mentalities over time. All of these choices and these interactions implicate a Self, a reflexive process that enables us to formulate, monitor, control and react to our own behaviour, which formation we’ll explain through Meade, Cooley and Goffman.

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

Explain the three major sociological perspectives of functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Identify which perspectives use a macro level or a micro level of analysis. Apply each perspective to socialization.

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

People associate actions with a meaning. As one grows up actions seem to obtain a connotation, weather it be positive or negative. The symbols or meaning people attach to the actions are influenced by one’s socialization. Edward Alsworth Ross, a progressive American sociologist, eugenicist, and major figure of early criminology, suggested socialization is the development of one’s feelings and the will to act based on an influence by a variety of different circumstances and conditions (652). The connotation of an action can differ based on the experiences and circumstances one has lived through. The act of identifying that action with the interpretation is an example of symbolic interactionism. Monica A. Longmore, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University, explains symbolic interactionism is the relationship between a behavior and how it is identified (44). Behaviors are comprehended by how it is symbolized in one’s socialization. The thesis of this essay is some basic social behaviors taught in one’s culture are best understood using symbolic interactionism to interpret what is meant on a conscious and subconscious level.

Symbolic Interactionism looks at how every individual will give everything in their society a different meaning depending on their past experiences and expectations. It is a behavior dictated by the meanings we connect to signs, symbols, and interactions. The main thought was that your sense of self develops through social interactions that you have with other people. And those interactions are based on the symbols that you view during that time. Symbolic Interactionism examines deviance by not trusting official statistics and see them as socially constructed, ignores big structures such as class and poverty, and does not concerned with why people commit crime, more concerned with how certain groups become labeled as criminals.

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 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.

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

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 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.