Symbolic Symbolic InteractionismInteractionism

Daniel Pimentel

OverviewOverview• 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)

Origins: The Chicago Origins: The Chicago SchoolSchool

• 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 communities – making up great communities through news

“Culture is the world of objects in which human beings live”

The RebelThe Rebel: George H. Mead: 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 & idealist notions.

• Thought the human mind is too compound to be described by instinct only

Attempted to account for the origins and development of human mind - or intelligence – by locating it within the process of evolution, by showing that the origins of human mind lie in human society[

Mead’s Deeds Mead’s Deeds

“Culture is constantly changing”

•Sign: any element that represents another in any environment (natural or artificial)•Artificial signs only work if we agree on their meaning (interactive)

• 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 middle ground with idealist/behaviorist theories

• Community creates and propagates culture: complex set of symbols that guide/shape our experiences

Posthumous CelebrityPosthumous 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.

• Said that Symbolic Interactionism consisted of analyzing 3 premises:1. Humans act toward things on

basis of meaning that those things have for them (i.e. trees, chair, dad)

2. The meaning of such things are derived from social interaction that one has with others.

3. Meanings are handled/modified through an interpretive process during encounters

• Acknowledged Mead as laying the foundation for Symbolic Interactionism

• Wanted to build a reasoned statement of the methodological position of the approach (none existed)

Symbolic Symbolic InInterteractionactionismism

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

Symbolic InSymbolic Interteractionactionism ism Contd.Contd.

In-scene Symbols What made this possible?o Swatstika o Language/wordso Gestureso Wardrobe (bikers)o Setting/Environment (WWII

vet event)o Moustacheo Audio (german similarity)

• Did the presence of these symbols alone create the interaction?

• Complex combination of symbols, interpretations, meanings, and interactions that created this – ultimately allowing everyone to learn more about themselves and others.

• According to Blumer the meanins were social products created and formed through this interaction

Direct Direct PerceptionPerception• Coined by Dr. George

Berkeley1. 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

Then & Now: Then & Now: Media Theorists’ Media Theorists’

ViewsViews• Don F. Faules & Dennis

C. Alexander (1978) o Communication: symbolic

behavior that results in various degrees of shared meaning and values between participants.• Communication is key to

interpretation/perception• Communication is guided

by and guides self, role, situations – generating expectations in/of environ

• Communication: Complex Interaction w/ many factors

• Mead’s theory focused little on media’s role

• Took decades for media theorists to work with his ideas

• Michael Solomon (1983) was a consumer researcher and acknowledged 4 key areas of Mead’s researcho Cultural symbols are learned through

interaction then mediate interactiono Shared meaning by people in cultures

allows others who learn a culture to predict behaviors of others in that culture

o Self-definition is social in nature; we are defined through interaction with environment

o The extent by which a person is committed to a social identity dictates the ability of the identity to influence behavior

SourcesSources• 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