Symbolic Interactionism

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Symbolic Interactionism
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Elements of social phenomena(Herbert Blumer)

• Individuals are agents of social behaviour.
• Social phenomena involve subjective meaning.
• Individuals understand that their actions and
  actions of others have meaning.
• Subjective meanings are arbitrary.
• Meanings are not properties of objects or
  behaviour - they are socially constructed they
  arise out of reactions of others and are
  negotiated. Examples?
• Meanings are situational. Examples?
• Meanings are communicated by symbols.

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Elements of social phenomena(Herbert Blumer)

• Social phenomena are intersubjective.
• A necessary condition of social interaction
  subjective meanings that constitute social
  phenomena are shared i.e. intersubjective.
• Durkheim
• Social phenomena consist of socially constructed
  realities.
• Social relationships are both conditions and
  products of individual behaviour.
• Example Negotiated definition of a situation
  (Emerson)

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George Herbert Mead

• Importance developed basic tenets of symbolic
  interactionism, based on and in reaction to
  pragmatism.
• Pragmatism emphasis on practice.
• Practice is the criterion of truth and morality.
  There is no absolute, ahistorical truth.
• There is no transcendental self (spiritual or
  biological). Self is socially situated.
• "Self" in social psychology a sense of socially
  created individual identity.

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Charles Horton Cooley

• Little distinction between "I", "me", "my" and
  "mine" - all are aspects of the self.
• The self can be understood and verified by
  everyday observation.
• "Looking-glass self self is composed of ones
  awareness of others reaction to oneself.
• A passive self is shaped by an infinite number of
  social sources of identity.

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G.H. Mead and C.H. Cooley - differences

• Subjective aspect of the self (the "I)
• Self is both the object (self-conscience, the
  "me") and the subject of cognition.
• Contrary to Cooleys looking-glass self.
• Individual agency
• "People make their worlds in addition to finding
  them ".
• The self is more than an internationalisation of
  components of social structure and culture.
• Contrary to Cooleys looking-glass self.

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G.H. Mead and C.H. Cooley - differences

• Socialisation and individuation are two sides of
  the same process.
• Individuation is possible only in society.
• Social self a structured self that is more than
  the sum of attitudes and actions of others toward
  one.
• Mind is also social, because language is central
  to its development.
• Importance of language / symbolic communication
• Gesture (Wundt) a part of an action that elicits
  response.
• "Significant symbol" a vocal gesture which has
  the same meaning for the individual making it and
  for the individual responding to it.

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Mead the social self

• The self consists of the me and the I.
• The me consists of internalized attitudes of
  others.
• It is based on significant others and the
  generalized other.
• Adults discriminate among others.
• Generalized other is
• a product of both generalization and
  differentiation and
• a response of individuals consciousness to all
  the others one has learned about.

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Mead the social self

• the I is
• unique to the individual
• subjective perception of and an impulse to
  respond to the me
• creative, spontaneous, unpredictable.
• The I gives individuals a degree of control
  over the way they fulfil social roles.
• Behaviour often involves negotiations between
  the I and the me.
• Behaviour actuated by the me and the I
  appears the same.

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Goffman the social self

• Like Mead the self is more than just a
  reflection of others opinions of self.
• Unlike Mead negotiation of meaning in social
  interaction is not free and unrestrained.
• The self is contingent on circumstances and
  rituals of interaction.
• Social interaction is patterned - not open for
  any definition and negotiation of meaning.
• "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life"

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The self in social situations Social order
Patterns of social behaviour

• Self establishes relations with other people as a
  result of negotiations
• With other people and
• With social structural constraints.
• Structural constraints limit our negotiations
  with other people.
• Structural constraints affect individuals
  primarily through their
• Statuses (position in distribution of social
  resources relative to other individuals) and
• Roles (norms of behaviour attached to statuses)

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Four features of social interaction

• We align our actions with others and with aspects
  of the social structure. This makes our actions
  social.
• Symbols / meaning
• We do not just do, we act, as actors do.
• We have in mind meanings of our acts, including
  our beliefs about how our acts are perceived by
  others.
• We take the role of other.
• 3. We expect continuity of social behaviour.
• Our actions are patterned by our statuses and
  groupings we belong to.