Symbolic Interactionism

A symbol is a stimulus that is abstract and arbitrary to which meaning is applied. Symbols are
things that are used to represent other things.
Language can be thought of as a collection of symbols that are organized according to rules to
communicate. We need symbols to coordinate, connect, and have ideas. The importance of
symbols to the development of humans both as individuals and collectives is at the heart of
symbolic interaction theory. Symbolic interactionism is essentially about how the presence of
symbols is fundamental to the existence of societies, our self-concepts, and our minds.

Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings attached to human

interaction, both verbal and non-verbal, and to symbols. Communication—the exchange of
meaning through language and symbols—is believed to be how people make sense of their social
worlds.

Visualization of Symbolic Interaction Theory

Main people involved in this:

1. George Mead (1934)
Mead was driven by a desire to understand the relationship between individuals and
societies; between a self and others.
He believed that a person’s sense of self emerges from interaction with others (social
interaction/society) and that societies emerge from interactions among people selves.
Neither the self nor society can exist without the other.

He spoke of 5 things that were necessary for the conceptualisation of self:

I. Gestures: These are unintentional acts without conscious meaning that evoke
immediate and automatic responses in the observer.
For example, suppose you’re walking down a sidewalk next to a friend who trips. You
reach out, grab your friend, and keep him from falling. Your friend’s stumble was a
gesture, your response was a gesture. You didn’t stop to think about what the stumble
meant nor to consider your options, you simply acted.

II. Sign: Inclusive term into which gestures fall. We become somewhat conditioned to
associate a particular meaning to a given sign by exposure to the sign and what it
represents. The meaning associated with a sign does not change regardless of where it
occurs or who observes it. Seeing a wet sidewalk and clouds indicates rain whether
observed in the United States, China, Peru, or Namibia. However, some cultures might
take the rain as a sign from God to expect bountiful harvests. Such an interpretation
expands the immediate and observable sign meaning to a more cognitive response that
represents what Mead called a “significant gesture” or what is more broadly defined as a
“symbol.”

III. Symbols: Humans can interpret their worlds through symbols. Symbols are created
within a society or culture and those born into that society acquire them. The system of
symbols used within a given group of people constitutes a language. Other animals have
language as well, but their language consists of a system of signs or gestures. Symbols
are probably the single most important quality that gives us our humanness, separating us
from all other animals.
Symbols allow us to remember and reminisce, evaluate and plan, coordinate,
communicate abstract thoughts, think about the future, and consider alternatives and
outcomes.

***Significant Gestures/Significant Symbols/Symbols

The terms significant gestures (conscious gestures), significant symbols, and symbols
were all used by Mead to reflect the unique capacity of humans to express an idea
through a gesture (such as a spoken word) that has aroused the same meaning in another
person.

IV. Mind: It connects symbols to objects which serve as the basis for assigning meaning
and interpretations. Mind actions allow us to manage the world around us because we act
toward things based on the symbolic meanings we associate with them.
Suppose you look out your window and see a large brown dog running around. Your
mind connects the object (dog) to the symbol “dog” and a host of various meanings and
thoughts are directed to yourself such as “Why is that dog running around loose?” “What
kind of dog is that?” “Is the dog lost?” “Could that dog be harmful?” These “mind
actions” or thoughts are symbolic and reflect how a given symbol is associated with lots
of meanings, interpretations, and thoughts.

V. Generalised Other: It is one way that society extends control over us and impacts our
thinking; essentially, these general internalized rules and roles of social influence, and
even direct, our thoughts, decisions, and behaviours. Thus, our behaviour, reactions, and
interpretations are affected by our generalized other.
If you are worried about showing up late for class it’s probably because your generalized
other holds punctuality as a value and you act according to that value. Of course, you
could also show up late, knowing that you conflict with the generalized other.

2 stages for the development of the Self:

1. Play Stage: It involves the child playing roles which are not his own. For example,
the child may play at being a mother or father, a doctor or a nurse. In doing so he
becomes aware that there is a difference between himself and the role that he is
 playing. Thus, the idea of a self is developed as the child takes the role of
make-believe other.
2. Game Stage: In playing a game, the child comes to see themself from the perspective
of various other participants. To play a game, the child must become aware of his
relationship with the other players. He must place himself in their roles to appreciate
his particular role in the game. In doing so he sees himself in terms of the collective
viewpoint of the other players. In Mead’s terminology, he sees himself from the
perspective of the generalized other.

Self has two aspects or processes within the larger process of Self:
1. “I”: the immediate response of an individual to others. It is the incalculable,
unpredictable, and creative aspect of the self. People do not know in advance what the
action of the “I” will be. We are never totally aware of the “I,” and through it, we surprise
ourselves with our actions. We know the “I” only after the act has been carried out. Thus,
we know the “I” only in our memories. It makes a change in society possible. Self as an
actor.
2. “Me”: it is the adoption of the generalised other as the organised set of attitudes which
one themselves assumes. People are conscious of ‘me’ and ‘me’ involves conscious
responsibility and society dominates the individual through ‘me.’ this allows people to
conform and live comfortably in the social world. Self as an object.

Mead considers the “I” to occur first and the “Me” to be the interpreter and evaluator of
the “I.”
We shout in anger (the I) at a friend and later think to ourselves “Why did I behave in
such a nasty manner (the Me)?

In contrast to the notions Mead drew from behaviourism, he integrated principles from a
contrasting perspective called pragmatism.
Among other things, pragmatists believe that humans do not just respond to the
environment, but instead are interpreting their environment—we give meaning to what
we sense.
Even with a very extensive description, the image you paint in the other’s mind will
never be the same as the image you have in yours.

2. Herbert Blumer (1969)

He is thought of as the founder of SI and coined the term “symbolic interactionism” and
outlined these basic premises:
- Humans interact with things based on meanings ascribed to those things
- The ascribed meaning of things comes from our interactions with others and society
- The meanings of things are interpreted by a person when dealing with things in specific
circumstances.
- Humans constantly engage in “mindful action” that constructs and negotiates the
meaning of situations.
- Society itself is not a structure, but a continual process of debating and reinventing the
meaning of actions. An action that has a meaning in one context, or the interaction
between any two individuals, can have a completely different meaning between two
different individuals, or in another context.
 - Because meaning is constructed through the interactions between individuals, meaning
cannot be fixed, and can even vary for the same individual.
- Blumer believed that the researcher should take the stance of the person they are studying
and use the actor’s own categorization of the world to capture how that actor creates
meanings from social interactions (Carter and Fuller, 2015).

According to Blumer (1969), social interaction thus has four main principles:
1. Individuals act in reference to the subjective meaning objects have for them. For
example, an individual that sees the “object” of the family as being relatively
unimportant will make decisions that deemphasize the role of the family in their lives;
2. Interactions happen in a social and cultural context where objects, people, and
situations must be defined and characterized according to individuals’ subjective
meanings;
3. For individuals, meanings originate from interactions with other individuals and with
society;
4. These meanings that an individual has, are created and recreated through a process of
interpretation that happens whenever that individual interacts with others.

This theory says how humans develop a complex set of symbols that gives meaning to the world
from their perspective.
- Meanings are moulded from interactions with society.
- These interactions are subjectively interpreted by them to suit the meaning in accordance
with the existing symbols.
- It can be said that if we need to understand the behavioural patterns of society we need to
understand the existing symbols.
- The Interactions which moulded the symbols also create a social structure.
- Symbolic interactionism also articulates that individuals build a sense of self-identity
through these interactions with society.
-
Blumer suggests that there are three core principles of this theory.
1. Meaning :
It suggests that people act and behave towards other people and things based on the meaning that
they have given to them. The principle of meaning is central to the theory of symbolic
interactionism.
Example: when we think of a Buddhist Monk the image comes to our mind. We will have some
assumptions about these people and our behaviour towards them will be based on these
assumptions that we have made.

2. Language :
According to the theory, the naming is assigned through the language, the naming creates
meanings to everything because everything has its own name. To name a thing, the knowledge
about the thing is important and thus the name indicates some feature or any other kind of
knowledge about the thing. This knowledge is converted into names through languages.
Language provides meaning through symbols, which are expressed through language in
communication.
For example: when we say to have dinner outside, the people who listen make sense of it based
on their perspectives and understanding. When I say dinner outside someone will understand it
as just going out and getting something to eat and someone else may think that having dinner
outside is a date.

3. Thought :
The thought implies the interpretations that we have assigned to the symbols. The basis of
thought is language. It is a process of mentally conversing about the meanings, names and
symbols. The thought includes the imagination. Which have the power to provide an idea even
about an unknown thing based on known knowledge.
Example: The best example of thought is ‘to think’ about a conceptualisation, for instance, the
ability to think to ascribe a meaning to an object such as a parent, more specifically a father, the
way one ought to behave with a father.

Symbolic meanings are formed differently for everyone.

For instance, when one sees wonder woman, one might have an image of a woman dressed in
formals, working to earn for and sustain her family however for someone else the
conceptualisation of wonder woman might just mean their mom who is a housewife.
A phone might be a means of connecting with your loved ones (for the elder) while for working
professionals, since they need to actively be involved with all that is going on at their workplace,
a phone for them would be a nuisance and a source of stress.

3. Charles Horton Cooley (1902)

He introduced the looking-glass (mirror) self to describe how a person’s sense of self
grows out of interactions with others. We see ourselves in others and that is how we
define ourselves. He proposed a threefold process for this development:
1) we see how others react to us
2) we interpret that reaction (typically as positive or negative)
3) we develop a sense of self based on those interpretations.

4. Erving Goffman (1958)

He used theatre as an analogy for social interaction and recognized that people’s
interactions showed patterns of cultural “scripts.” He developed a technique called
dramaturgical analysis. Since it can be unclear what part a person may play in a given
 situation, as we all occupy multiple roles in a given day (i.e., student, friend, son/
daughter, employee, etc.), one has to improvise his or her role as the situation unfolds.

Goffman coined the term Impression Management to refer to our desire to manipulate
others’ impressions of us on the front stage. According to Goffman, we use various
mechanisms, called Sign Vehicles, to present ourselves to others. The most commonly
employed sign vehicles are Social setting, Appearance and Manner of interaction.

He uses the metaphor that people are the actors and society is a stage, the individuals
interact with one another. As the actors exchange dialogue, they are directed by the norms
and values that they follow as members of society.

There are two ways in which we present ourselves in society.

I. The front stage self: The self that we are likely to show to the world. This is the self
that we present when we go out of our familiar setting, and when we interact with people
we are not yet comfortable with, these are people we do not know. This is where our
impression management comes into play, we usually tend to put out behaviours that will
be easily accepted by the people of society,
e.g. when we may meet our friend’s parents for the first time, it is likely that we would
wish for them to think of us as ‘good company’ for their children, so we may not abuse or
talk in the same tone that we talk to our friends in, we may not drink or smoke. Similarly,
when we start working we may want to create a good first impression among our
colleagues and our superiors, thus we may act accordingly, by eagerly doing any work
that may be given to us and not procrastinating.

II. Backstage self: Aspect of self which we really are, this is the self we are in the
environment in which we are comfortable. Here we are accepted, people know us for who
we are and there is no need for any kind of impression-building.
E.g. when we are with our friends we behave in a more relaxed manner, and we may be
comfortable using language that may otherwise be considered abusive. We are off-stage,
unobserved and thus more relaxed. The stage thus becomes a metaphor where we act in
ways that fulfil our need to be accepted in society.

Constructivism is an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is

what humans cognitively construct it to be. We develop social constructs based on interactions
with others, and those constructs that last over time are those that have meanings which are
widely agreed upon or generally accepted by most within the society.

Criticism of SI
1. According to Redmond (2015), there are 3 major criticisms of SI:
- Symbolic interactionism fails to address macro-level issues, such as politics and history,
in social structure, thus it is not completely sociological.
- It misses micro-level issues such as emotions, thus it is not completely psychological.
- Lack of clarity of concept makes it difficult for social scientists to apply the symbolic
interactionism perspective.
 2. It is also criticised due to the difficulty of remaining objective. However, it is also
considered its greatest strength as it allows extended observation and provides depth to
phenomena.
3. It is also criticised for having an extremely narrow focus as it does not pay enough
attention to social institutions and structural constraints. For example, the interactions
between a police officer and a Black man are different from the interactions between a
police officer and a white man. It is described by Udehn (2001) as an ‘American’ dream
that stresses the freedom of the individual and the limited role of society.
4. Pictures meaning as something emerging by itself during interaction in a certain
condition but doesn't take into account the basic social context in which the interaction is
positioned.

Despite the lack of clarity and structure, the added advantage to this is the advancement of
literature by scholars by using various elements that constitute symbolic interactionism in ways
that fit their particular interests and concerns. Topics such as economy, politics, families, the
military, deviance, gender, childhood, and mass media have also applied SI.

Applications to Everyday Communication

- One’s ability to think of ways to describe oneself demonstrates one of the fundamental
notions of symbolic interactionism—the symbolic self.
- One’s ability to think and make sense internally about the occurrences of the world
reflects the proposition that thinking involves interaction with ourselves—you create and
react to your own thoughts.
- Understanding SI can help you better understand how you came to be who you are.
- Your thoughts and behaviours are directly affected by the society (or societies) in which
you participate. Knowledge of your society is also knowledge about yourself.

Example: Computer-mediated communication and the use of the Internet can be examined from
the perspective of symbolic interactionism. The cyber self is an emergent product of social
interaction in which the self masters the ability to be both the subject and object of interaction.
Online, the homepage allows the ‘I’ to present the self to the cyber-other; in fact, the very
construction of the homepage presumes the expectation of the virtual ‘generalized other.’
Information is “given” by us to others through our text messages and also how information is
“given off” by other cues (usually nonverbal or gestural in face-to-face interactions).

In simple terms, the SI perspective entails that people in society understand their social worlds
through communication — the exchange of meaning through language and symbols.
SI pays attention to individuals’ subjective viewpoints and how they make sense of the world
from their own perspectives (Carter and Fuller, 2015). Thus, society is thought to be socially
constructed through human interpretation.