Symbolic Interactionism

Of George Herbert Mead

Chapter 4 of Em Griffin (4th ed)

 Symbolic Interactionism

• Mead was a philosophy Professor at U. Of

Chicago during the first third of the 20th
century;
• Mead thought that the true test of any
theory is whether or not it is useful in
solving complex social problems
• After Mead died in 1934, his students wrote
up his ideas in Mind, Self, and Society
• Mead claimed the most human activity that
people can engage in is talking to each other
• Blumer stated 3 core principles of symbolic
interactionism:
– MEANING: THE CONSTRUCTION OF
SOCIAL REALITY;
– Language: The Source of Meaning
– Thought: Taking the Role of the Other
 Meaning
• Blumer starts with the • The construction of
premise that humans social reality refers to
act toward people or our perceptions, how
things on the basis of we interpret things
the meanings they around us--what is real
assign to those people in social reality is
or things; what we perceive;
 Language
• Blumer’s 2nd premise is • Mead believed that
that meaning arises out of symbolic naming is
the social interaction that
the basis for society;
people have with each
other. Meaning is not knowing and naming
inherent in objects. are closely linked
Meaning is negotiated together;
through the use of
language--hence the term
symbolic interactionism
 Language
• Symbolic interaction • The words we use
is not just a means for have default
intelligent expression; assumptions;
it’s also the way we • The subtle tyranny of
learn to interpret the symbols--we usually
world; [the story of the don’t consciously
surgery who couldn’t think about our mental
operate on the boy, p. jumps to the defaults.
55]
 Thought: taking the Role
of the Other
• Blumer’s 3rd premise • Minding is reflecting,
is that an individual’s figuring out your next
move, anticipating, testing
interpretation of
alternatives;
symbols is modified
• Mead’s greatest
by his/her own contribution to our
thought processes. understanding of the way
Thinking is described we think is his notion that
as inner conversation, human beings have the
called Minding; unique capacity to take the
role of the other.
 Taking the Role of the Other
• Taking the role of the • We see our self not by
other allows us to see introspection, but by
our self; taking the role of the
• Through meaning other and imagining
(interpreting the world), how we look to
language (social another person (the
interaction), and thought
looking-glass self);
(role taking) we arrive at
the self (a reflection in a
looking glass);
 The Looking-Glass Self:
from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Poem

Emerson wrote that each close companion:

Is to his friend a looking-glass

Reflects his figure that doth pass
According to the Looking-Glass Idea

• Self-concept derives • For Mead, the self consists

from talk; one has to of the “I” and the “me”;
be a member of a • The “I” is the spontaneous
driving force (we can’t
community before
observe it);
consciousness of self
• The “me” is viewed as an
sets in; object;
• The self changes--as • The “I” of this moment is
we interact, our self present in the “me” of the
changes; next moment (p. 58);
 Community: The Socializing
Effect of Other’s Expectations

• The picture we get from the many looking-

glass self reflections is called the
generalized other; It is the “me”;
• The “me” is formed through symbolic
interaction with others--the “me” is the
community within the person;
 Applied Interactionism
Creating Reality: Meaning:
• Goffman’s idea that we • Participant observation
are involved in a constant is recommended. Mead
negotiation with others to had little sympathy for
publicly define our clinically controlled
identity and the nature of behavioral experiments
the situation (the example or checklist surveys;
of a gynecological • The results of expts and
examination); surveys are quantifiable but
ignore the meaning of the
experience for the person;
 Applied Interactionism
Naming: Self-fulfilling prophecy:
• Name-calling can be • Each of us has a
devastating because the significant impact on
epithets force us to view how others view
ourselves in a warped themselves;
mirror; The grotesque • The tendency for our
images aren’t easily expectations to evoke
dispelled; responses in others that
confirm what we originally
anticipated;