What are the most important elements or aspects of symbolic interactionism?
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If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. The symbolic interaction perspective, also called symbolic interactionism, is a major framework of the sociological theory. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and build upon in the process of social interaction. Although symbolic interactionism traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion that individuals act according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world, the American philosopher George Herbert Mead introduced this perspective to American sociology in the 1920s. The Subjective MeaningsSymbolic interaction theory analyzes society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events, and behaviors. Subjective meanings are given primacy because it is believed that people behave based on what they believe and not just on what is objectively true. Thus, society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation. People interpret one another’s behavior, and it is these interpretations that form the social bond. These interpretations are called the “definition of the situation.” For example, why would young people smoke cigarettes even when all objective medical evidence points to the dangers of doing so? The answer is in the definition of the situation that people create. Studies find that teenagers are well informed about the risks of tobacco, but they also think that smoking is cool, that they will be safe from harm, and that smoking projects a positive image to their peers. So, the symbolic meaning of smoking overrides the facts regarding smoking and risk. Fundamental Aspects of Social Experience and IdentitiesSome fundamental aspects of our social experience and identities, like race and gender, can be understood through the symbolic interactionist lens. Having no biological bases at all, both race and gender are social constructs that function based on what we believe to be true about people, given what they look like. We use socially constructed meanings of race and gender to help us decide who to interact with, how to do so, and to help us determine, sometimes inaccurately, the meaning of a person's words or actions. One shocking example of how this theoretical concept plays out within the social construct of race is manifested in the fact that many people, regardless of race, believe that lighter skinned Blacks and Latinos are smarter than their darker skinned counterparts. This phenomenon, called colorism, occurs because of the racist stereotype that has been encoded in skin color over centuries. Concerning gender, we see the problematic way in which meaning is attached to the symbols "man" and "woman" in the sexist trend of college students routinely rating male professors more highly than female ones. Or, in pay inequality based on gender. Critics of Symbolic Interaction PerspectiveCritics of this theory claim that symbolic interactionism neglects the macro level of social interpretation. In other words, symbolic interactionists may miss the more significant issues of society by focusing too closely on the “trees” rather than the “forest.” The perspective also receives criticism for slighting the influence of social forces and institutions on individual interactions. In the case of smoking, a symbolic interactionist perspective might miss the powerful role that the institution of mass media plays in shaping perceptions of smoking through advertising, and by portraying smoking in film and television. In the cases of race and gender, this perspective would not account for social forces like systemic racism or gender discrimination, which strongly influence what we believe race and gender mean. View Article Sources
Cite this Article Format Your Citation Crossman, Ashley. "What Is Symbolic Interactionism?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/symbolic-interaction-theory-3026633 (accessed December 31, 2022). \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)
Symbolic interactionism looks at individual and group meaning-making, focusing on human action instead of large-scale social structures. Learning Objectives
Key Points
Key Terms
Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical approach to understanding the relationship between humans and society. The basic notion of symbolic interactionism is that human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or symbols. In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting, as opposed to being acted upon. The main principles of symbolic interactionism are:
This approach stands in contrast to the strict behaviorism of psychological theories prevalent at the time it was first formulated (the 1920s and 1930s). According to symbolic interactionism, humans are distinct from infrahumans (lower animals) because infrahumans simply respond to their environment (i.e., a stimulus evokes a response or stimulus ⇒ response), whereas humans have the ability to interrupt that process (i.e., stimulus ⇒ cognition ⇒ response). Additionally, infrahumans are unable to conceive of alternative responses to gestures. Humans, however, can. This understanding should not be taken to indicate that humans never behave in a strict stimulus ⇒ response fashion, but rather that humans have the capability of responding in a different way, and do so much of the time. This perspective is also rooted in phenomenological thought. According to symbolic interactionism, the objective world has no reality for humans; only subjectively defined objects have meaning. There is no single objective “reality”; there are only (possibly multiple, possibly conflicting) interpretations of a situation. Meanings are not entities that are bestowed on humans and learned by habituation; instead, meanings can be altered through the creative capabilities of humans, and individuals may influence the many meanings that form their society. Human society, therefore, is a social product. The Looking Glass SelfNeurological evidence, based on EEGs, supports the idea that humans have a “social brain,” meaning, there are components of the human brain that govern social interaction. These parts of the brain begin developing in early childhood (the preschool years) and aid humans in understanding how other people think. In symbolic interactionism, this is known as “reflected appraisals” or “the looking glass self,” and refers to our ability to think about how other people will think about us. In 1902, Charles Horton Cooley developed the social psychological concept of the looking glass self. The term was first used in his work, Human Nature and the Social Order. There are three main components of the looking glass self: 
Cooley clarified this concept in his writings, stating that society is an interweaving and interworking of mental selves. In hypothesizing the framework for the looking glass self, Cooley said, “the mind is mental” because “the human mind is social. ” As children, humans begin to define themselves within the context of their socializations. The child learns that the symbol of his/her crying will elicit a response from his/her parents, not only when they are in need of necessities, such as food, but also as a symbol to receive their attention. George Herbert Mead described self as “taking the role of the other,” the premise for which the self is actualized. Through interaction with others, we begin to develop an identity about who we are, as well as empathy for others. This is the notion of, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. ” In respect to this, Cooley said, “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another’s mind. ” It should be noted that symbolic interactionists advocate a particular methodology. Because they see meaning as the fundamental component of the interaction of human and society, studying human and social interaction requires an understanding of that meaning. Symbolic interactionists tend to employ more qualitative, rather than quantitative, methods in their research. The most significant limitation of the symbolic interactionist perspective relates to its primary contribution: it overlooks macro-social structures (e.g., norms, culture) as a result of focusing on micro-level interactions. Some symbolic interactionists, however, would counter that the incorporation of role theory into symbolic interactionism addresses this criticism. 1.3D: The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts. What are the aspects of symbolic interactionism theory?Symbolic interactionists analyze how the self develops, how individual lives develop a biography, how social order is constantly being created, and how larger social forces emerge from these. For the symbolic interactionist, the social world is an active one and society is this active social world.
What is the importance of symbolic interactionism?Through the repetitive act of interaction, individuals as actors in relation to social groups constitute symbolic and shared meanings. Importantly, symbolic interactionism does not deny the unique; it is directly concerned with how distinctive meanings are adapted and interpreted through social practice.
Is another important concept in symbolic interactionism?The most important conceptual building block on which symbolic interactionists have based their analysis of human conduct is the concept of the symbol, or, as Mead called it, the significant symbol.
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