Overview of Symbolic Interactionism

1. Symbolic
Interactionism
Daniel Pimentel

2. Overview
• Micro-level, culture-centered, meaning-making
social theory focused on the way we learn culture
and how it structures our everyday experience
We determine our behavior based on
our perception of self and others.
Also based on symbolic meanings in situations which are used
to create shared meaning.
Meaning is created in interactions through shared
interpretations of symbols. (this very text)

3. Origins: The Chicago School
• The University of Chicago
– 1920’s
• Most productive symbolic
interactionists were here
• Social Experiment =
City + Cultures+ Interaction
• They saw a Great Community
in Chicago (new ways to develop
culture – optimistic)
o Vs. Mass Society (High Culture dictates mass
culture = degrading human existence
• Robert E. Park saw newspapers
as essential in interconnecting “Culture is the world of objects in
communities – making up great which human beings live”
communities through news

4. The Rebel: George H. Mead
• Born in Massachusetts | (rebelled against
religious atmosphere in his community)
• Studied philosophy at Harvard & Europe
• Taught at Univ. Chicago (rarely published)
• Active social reformer – viewed society as
ongoing and changeable at the
individual level.
• Society may have the power to shape the
person, but the people can also mold
their society.
• Went against popular behaviorist & Attempted to account for the
origins and development of
idealist notions. human mind - or intelligence –
by locating it within the process
• Thought the human mind is too of evolution, by showing that
compound to be described by instinct the origins of human mind lie in
human society[
only

5. Mead’s Deeds
• Gave insight into
socialization process
(animals have predetermined,
conditioned responses to stimuli but
humans socialize in ways that allow
more/less conscious analysis of
stimuli/responses)
• How? Through Symbols!
(Abstract representation of unseen
phenomena)
• Drew ideas from Pragmatism to
support the idea of Agency and find
“Culture is constantly changing”
middle ground with
idealist/behaviorist theories •Sign: any element that represents another
• Community creates and propagates in any environment (natural or artificial)
culture: complex set of symbols that •Artificial signs only work if we agree on their
guide/shape our experiences meaning (interactive)

6. Posthumous Celebrity
• Herbert Blumer & other students
collected Mead’s lectures,
writings, etc. during his tenure –
created “Mind, Self, and Society”
in 1934
• Essentially argues that symbols
create our experience of the
mind, understanding of
ourselves, and our knowledge of
the larger social order (society).
• Symbols were filtering
mechanisms for our experience
• Similar to information-processing
theory in that symbols (schemas)
allow us to make sense of new
sensory info. Mead believed
mind, self, and society are
internalized sets of symbols –
filtering mechanism.

7. • Acknowledged Mead • Said that Symbolic
as laying the Interactionism consisted of
analyzing 3 premises:
foundation for Symbolic 1. Humans act toward things on
Interactionism basis of meaning that those
things have for them (i.e. trees,
• Wanted to build a chair, dad)
reasoned statement of 2. The meaning of such things
are derived from social
the methodological interaction that one has with
position of the others.
approach (none 3. Meanings are
handled/modified through an
existed) interpretive process during
encounters

8. Symbolic Interactionism
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dsgQb3jkk4

9. Symbolic Interactionism Contd.
In-scene Symbols What made this possible?
o Swatstika • Did the presence of these
o Language/words symbols alone create the
o Gestures interaction?
o Wardrobe (bikers) • Complex combination of
symbols, interpretations,
o Setting/Environment (WWII vet
meanings, and interactions
event)
that created this – ultimately
o Moustache allowing everyone to learn
o Audio (german similarity) more about themselves and
others.
• According to Blumer the
meanins were social products
created and formed through
this interaction

10. Direct
Perception
• Coined by Dr. George
Berkeley
1. You see something and
obtain direct perception
(sensory data)
2. Arrangement of the data
leads to specific meanings
which influence your
reaction/behavior
3. The interconnection and
relationship ends up defining
your self

11. Then & Now:
Media Theorists’ Views
• Mead’s theory focused little on • Don F. Faules & Dennis
media’s role
C. Alexander (1978)
• Took decades for media
o Communication: symbolic
theorists to work with his ideas
behavior that results in various
• Michael Solomon (1983) was a degrees of shared meaning
consumer researcher and and values between
acknowledged 4 key areas of participants.
Mead’s research • Communication is key to
o Cultural symbols are learned through interpretation/perception
interaction then mediate interaction
o Shared meaning by people in cultures allows
• Communication is guided
others who learn a culture to predict by and guides self, role,
behaviors of others in that culture
situations – generating
o Self-definition is social in nature; we are
defined through interaction with environment expectations in/of environ
o The extent by which a person is committed to • Communication: Complex
a social identity dictates the ability of the
identity to influence behavior Interaction w/ many
factors

12. Sources
• P. Hewitt. “Dilemmas of the American Self”,
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989
• H. Blumer. “Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective
and Method”, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rOgqwD2OjQ
• S. Baran, D. Davis. “Mass Communication Theory:
Foundations, Ferment, and Future 6th Edition”,
Cengage Learning, 2010.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dsgQb3jkk4