Highlighted Essay.

1. Running head: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM THEORY 1
Symbolic Interactionism Theory
Adrian Aleman
Southwestern Adventist University

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Abstract
Symbolic Interactionism Theory explores the individual in society and how they interact
with others. People can change based on their interactions with objects, events, and others. We
assign meaning to things to decide how to act. This study examined how others perceive us
through the language we speak and the gestures we use. Southwestern Adventist University
students in Keene, Texas participated, during the academic year 2015-2016.A total of 46
respondents were selected through universal sampling.
Different views and perspectives were taken from everyone, male and female. Each
performed a scene or situation from the same script and were judged and perceived by others
through the language they used and the gestures they made. Results varied depending on the
language of the speaker, accent, and hand or body movements of the participant. Studies showed
that people who tend to relate to the speaker, in their form of communication or language, was
portrayed in a more likable and positive manner than someone they didn’t relate with. The
language we speak and the gestures we use does affect how others perceive us.

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Symbolic interactionism explains the individual in a society and their interactions with
others. Through that, it can explain social order and change. The theory was reviewed from the
teachings of George Hebert Mead in the early 20th century. He believed that the development of
the individual was a social process, as were the meanings of individuals assigned to things.
People change based on their interactions with others, events, and objects. They assign meaning
to things in order to decide how to act.
Does the language we speak and gestures we use affect how others perceive us, that is my
research question. Humans act toward things on the basis in which they give meaning to those
things. We perceive this meaning from having social interaction with others. Everyone makes
their own decisions and these meanings are dependent on, an interpretive process of the people
who interact with one another. The focus here is on meaning, which is defined in terms of action
and its consequences. The meaning of a thing resides in the action that it produces. For example,
the word “water” is a home for fish and a drink for humans.
Three core principles to symbolic interactionism are meaning, language, and thinking.
(Mead, 2015). Meaning deals with humans that act toward people or things in the way that they
assign meaning to those people or things. For example, imagine sitting under a nice, shaded tree,
reading a book. A friend walks by and you ask them to join you, but they decline your offer,
because they see a spider on the tree above you. You may not mind sitting under the tree, because
you’re not afraid of spiders, but your friend doesn’t want to sit under the tree, because they’re
afraid of spiders. Thus, the two have different meanings of what sitting under a tree entails.

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Language deals with the social interactions we have with one another. Meaning is
negotiated between two people who speak a common language or use common symbols.
Language and gestures are used in anticipation that others will respond, along with verbal and
non-verbal responses. Thinking deals with the way that we interpret symbols for ourselves,
through our own process. For instance, let’s just say that you’re about to try your first hotdog and
you don’t believe that it will taste very good. After you’ve tasted and eaten the hotdog, you
changed your mind and you think that hotdogs do taste good. The meaning we give something is
not permanent. It can change due to everyday life.
The theory is trying to predict our meaning, language, and thinking within the concept of
ourselves. The self is a function of language, we’re not born with a sense of ourselves, it arises
when we interact with others. If we don’t interact with others, then there can’t be a sense of self.
(Mead, 2015). The Looking-glass self is our mental image that results from taking on the role of
others. Our self-image is reflected upon the expectations of others, whether encouraging or
discouraging. The way we describe ourselves is by using the term “I,” and this is the way we
shelter our intimate selves from other people. The way we describe ourselves through the view of
other people is by using the word “me,” which is when we take the role of someone else through
our own self-image. This can also be referred to as a “role of the other” which is imagining how
we look to another person.
As humans, we interact through symbols daily. This is how we communicate with one
another, it is through symbols that meaning is associated with interpretation and action.
Sometimes people tend to disagree with the way we view things. A person can experience
inconsistency when they become psychologically uncomfortable and this can lead them to avoid

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certain situations and information that can likely increase their physiological discomfort.
Humans strive for internal consistency.
Cognitive dissonance is the mental stress that’s experienced by a person who holds two
or more contradictory beliefs or ideas. When someone is introduced to new information that
contradicts their beliefs or ideas it can lead to discomfort. This can cause an unhealthy tension
between two people. Imagine being married to someone who shares different beliefs than you do,
it can cause friction. When a couple have similar interests, beliefs, or values they tend to get
along easier than people who don’t share those qualities with one another. Symbolic behavior
can be another cause of this. We’re filled with uncertainty when we’re introduced into a new
organization. As individuals, we try and make sense of our environment, since we’re unfamiliar
with it. Once we start to become more familiar with those shared and learned beliefs, we can
slowly immerse ourselves into one’s organized culture.
The first journal article dealt with the sensitivity to feedback and the development of self.
(Edwards, 1990). Symbolic interactionists have theorized that a person’s sense of self comes
from communication, because of the feedback received from others. People who tend to be more
sensitive to feedback will develop different self-concepts than individuals who are less sensitive
to feedback. Two investigations were conducted and revealed that high sensitives are more self-
schematic than low sensitives. Suggestions concerning the role of sensitivity to feedback and
self-schemas for interpersonal communication were discussed.
Study one’s first analysis compared males and females, on all three levels of sensitivity to
feedback. Different levels of sensitivity to feedback were revealed, high sensitives and medium
sensitives were significantly more self-schematic than low sensitives. A second analysis deleted
the medium sensitives variance and compared high and low sensitives on self-schematicism.

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People who are more sensitive to feedback have a conception of self that is more fully developed
than do persons who have low sensitivity to feedback.
Study two’s analysis showed that high sensitives are more self-schematic. (Edwards,
1990). They require less additional feedback into their definition of self. Students were tested on
this issue by examining their self-perceptions in a performance-based course in public speaking.
Ninety-six students were enrolled in a public speaking course taught by four different instructors
at a large university. Of the subjects in the sample, 42% were male and 58% were female, the
average mean age was 20 years old. Students were asked to complete the sensitivity to feedback
scale and a self-rating scale during class. The self-rating scale included 2 items that asked the
respondents to rate the extent to which they perceived themselves as public speakers.
Professors provided to the experimenter the grades that students had received for
three speeches they performed in class. These grades represented the self-relevant feedback
students had received about their public speaking ability. For each group of students, the average
instructor grades and students’ self-perception scores were correlated. Correlations were
computed for each instructor separately and then averaged across instructors by weighting for
group size.
Symbolic interactionists theorize that a sense of self arises in communication as a result
of feedback from others. Each person that we come into interaction with calls for a unique self. A
person who has multiple partners that they communicate with have experienced more “selves.”
The results of this study showed that individuals are not born with a sense of self and that
determines how information is processed. Sensitivity to feedback appears at earlier stages and
this mediates the development of the self. Research also suggests that sensitivity to feedback
mediates the ways in which individuals process self-relevant feedback.

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The second journal article discussed the acquisition of the self in an offline environment.
Thoughts, feelings, and actions are three core concepts that our self embodies. Individuals
receive their experiences through the perspective of others. A situation was mentioned that a
fourth grader named Barry spent most of his time participating in community service, because he
enjoyed helping the community. When walking to class one day, his heard his friends making fun
of him. This hurt his feelings and he reacted in return, with a smart remark. Barry imagined
himself through the view of his peers, he built his own role as a reaction to the image his friends
had about him. The frustration of Barry relates to the situated identity, he wants to differentiate
himself from his friends, making clear that he is a unique being.
People share common feelings and goals, creating a social reality. Barry let his emotions
control him, before confronting any of his friends. One of his good friends walked up to him
later after school and asked him what made him so frustrated. After talking things through, he
realized that his prejudices blinded him in understanding the entirety of the situation. Afterwards
he figured out that his friends mentioned community service hours, because they were thinking
about contributing to the community as well. If Barry understood the situation from the very
beginning, his frustration wouldn’t have occurred.
The third journal article studied an approach through the understanding of self-concept,
significant others, and the social influence process. (McDermott, 1980). In this experiment, an
analysis was constructed on the extension of symbolic interactionist that individuals develop
their communication by maintaining and changing their life self-concepts with others. The author
decided to view communication networks along two dimensions, social networks and contacts
within the social networks. The network of interpersonal influence is assumed to be quite stable,
but their impact is viewed as attitude-specific.

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An individual comes to define who he or she is by taking on the role of others. The
symbolic interactionist position supports that people maintain and change their self-conceptions
through interaction with others. The term significant other is used to designate people who have
a considerable amount of influence on an individual’s development, maintenance, or alteration of
the self-conception. Only a few people from social networks have a significant influence on us.
Researchers generally assume that communication networks are structured in a way that they
influence the social activities of the members of the network.
The final results concluded that we ourselves are invoked by relational communication
and that this concept is useful in studying the individual and society. Ongoing relationships have
a persuasive influence and the description of social interaction. Examining a single social
interaction relationship is insufficient in the growth, development, and maintenance of the self-
concept. To be sufficient, the self’s involvement must be examined in multiple interacted
relationships. This provides a framework for identifying the relational system of the individual.
The fourth journal article discussed women’s internal self-esteem and how God was used
as symbolic interactionism’s “significant other.” From a study of 59 adult women’s stories about
self-esteem, 41 of them dealt with faith based experiences and this played a big role in the
women’s self-esteem. This study discussed the positives and negatives of Christianity, the
church, and relationships within the church, for these women’s self-esteem. Women who
experienced a positive influence spoke of a personal relationship with God vs. a church centered
relationship with God. This led the author to believe that God can be signified as a significant
other. (Chatham-Carpenter, 2006)
Some women have used their relationship with God to impact their own self-esteem.
Leaders within the Christian community have let their own explanations be known, it’s between

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one’s relationship with God and their self-esteem. Women who feel positive about their own self-
esteem such as being created in the image of God, feel an unconditional love, forgiveness, value,
and that they’re being cared for by God in their own personal relationships. A project was then
conducted over a span of a couple years. Interviews with 59 adult women ages 21-94, were
individually conducted, with women from different backgrounds, religions, and educational
levels. Most of the women talked about an internal portion of their self-esteem, which helped
build up their confidence and feelings about who they were as persons.
One business woman stated that she couldn’t have achieved high self-esteem on her own
and that it came from an external force. What made her keep her high self-esteem was internal or
her “spiritual self,” knowing that God was enough. 32 out of the 59 women explained the
importance of their religious faith to their own self-esteem and that their relationship with God
was the main reason. The other 18 women didn’t mention any religious affiliation on being an
influence on their self-esteem.
Results showed that women who had a positive view between themselves and their
religious faith was because of five reasons. They felt a connection to God, they knew who they
were in God, they experienced a loving relationship with God, they were being supported by
their church family, and that they had a purpose to keep on living. Many women stressed that
receiving your self-esteem from God was of high importance and that they did not receive theirs
from other people or things. The women who spoke about a negative relationship between self-
esteem and Christianity did so for three reasons. The thought of sin, guilt, and punishment, the
presence of rules, and the role of women in the church and biblical literature. Several women
stated that they didn’t like the feeling of being shamed by making wrong decisions and that the
Bible consisted of too many rules and regulations.

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The positive and negative links made to personal self-esteem by women serve as
relationships that have identity formation for women. Symbolic interactionism’s concept of the
significant other explains that we allow other people to speak into our lives and this helps
determine who we are as people. These were consistent with all the positive voices. The church
provided this for women. However, there is also potential for negative influence. Some women
can be controlled by the church or will not receive the opportunity to use their spiritual gifts and
this can ruin a woman’s identity. Women struggle through these kind of oppression systems.
Women who sensed that they were going on a downhill spiral rehearsed to their God. This relates
to reflexive consistency, which is when a person reflects their beliefs and their own personal
values together when they sense they’re going down a dark path in their lives. They want to
make sure their consistent, even if others don’t view things through their perspective.
In my experiment, I want to examine how the language we speak and the gestures we use
affect how others perceive us. Each person has a different meaning for every object they come to
encounter. I want to conduct a study that involves 46 participants, 50% being males and 50%
females, from the ages of 18 to 25 years old. Everyone will be given the same script of a certain
scenario or situation. Different people handle the same type of situation in various ways. In this
experiment, the language and gestures that people use will be studied. After each person has
completed this task, information will be gathered together and the results will be displayed by
researchers.
Sharing connection and communication with other people is vital in our world today.
When two people are together from separate cultures, it may be hard to understand the certain
tendencies of the other person. The individual might view the other one differently and may
think that their way of doing things is quite odd. Each culture has their own traditions and they

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tend to do things differently from everyone else. Even though we may not understand other
cultures and their language, communication is what breaks that barrier between us. The use of
gestures or body language is very important for this reason.

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References
McDermott, Virginia. Anne. (1980). Interpersonal Communication Networks: An approach
through the understanding of self-concept, significant others, and the social influence
process. Pages 13-25.
Edwards, Renee. (1990). Sensitivity to Feedback and the Development of Self: Pages 101-111.
Mead, George. Herbert. (2015). A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: Em Griffin,
Andrew Ledbetter, & Glenn Sparks.7
Carpenter-Chatham, April. (2006). Internal Self-Esteem: God as Symbolic Interactionism’s
"Significant Other?” Pages 1-16.