Symbolic interactionism holds that 1) meaning arises from social interaction and language rather than being inherent in objects, 2) thinking occurs through inner conversations stimulated by symbols, and 3) the self is defined through interaction, language, and thought as well as taking the perspective of others.

1. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM Approaches to Meaning: The work of George Herbert Mead

2. CORE PRINCIPLES MEANING LANGUAGE THOUGHT

3. MEANING Humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those people or things. Once people define a situation as real, it is very real in its consequences Meaning-making is a community project

4. LANGUAGE, SOURCE OF MEANING Meaning: arises out of social interaction not inherent in objects negotiated through language by naming ,, ascribing meaning to words Knowing depends on symbolic naming A symbol is a stimulus that has a learned meaning; our words have default assumptions

5. THOUGHT Interpretation of symbols is modified by thought Thinking is inner conversation Humans are thoughtful Symbols stimulate thought Humans can “take the role of the other”

6. THE SELF Defined through interconnection of meaning, language and thought Involves taking the role of the other: looking-glass self Function of language Community membership filters consciousness of self Always in flux Combines impuslive “I” and reflective “me”

7. COMMUNITY Sense of self based on community expectations and responses: the “generalized other” or “me” This shapes how we think and interact The “me” is formed through continual symbolic interaction The “me” is the organized community within the individual

8. Applications Social interaction as dramaturgical performance Performances are fragile Ethnography as appropriate method A negative “generalized other” can reduce a person to nothing Name-calling can force us to view ourselves through a warped mirror Self-fulfilling prophecy: our expectations evoke responses that confirm what we originally anticipated.