Symbolic Interactionism

DEFINITION

Socialization is the process by which an individual learns the norms and expected behavior of his culture, usually by imitation or group pressure.

CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

VERBAL COMMUNICATION. NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION (SYMBLOIC INTERACTIONISM). MULTIPLE CHANNELS.

THE BASIC CHANNELS OF NONVERBEL COMMUNICATION

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. BODY MOVEMENTS. GESTURES. EYE CONTACT. TOUCHING.

Symbolic Interactionism
Term coined by

Herbert Blumer
Symbolic interactionism - is a sociological theory based on the idea that social reality is constructed in each human through the use of symbols, suchas, words or gestures.

Blumer "inserts a middle term into the stimulus response couplet so that it becomes stimulus-interpretationresponse" (Wallace and Wolf, p. 206).

There are 3 premises to symbolic interactionism : Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them. The meaning of things is derived from the social interaction that you have. These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process.

Blumer distinguishes three classes of objects: 1) physical objects; 2) social objects; and 3) abstract objects. The nature of this environment, on the other hand, is comprised of the content of those meanings. So, two persons living in largely similar physical environment may have subjectively different actual environment.

Charles Horton Cooley

Cooley identified the influence of the environment on behavior. People learn to act as society wants them to act. Individuals modify their behaviors as the situation dictates

Charles Horton Cooley

Born in 1864 4 of 6 children Financially well off and well- educated family Sickly child, causing strain between Cooley and his father Cooley had a speech impediment His father was larger than life The only expectation of Cooley was not to embarrass his family. He enjoyed reading Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer in his free time.

Cooleys Background

Cooley did his undergrad work at the University of Michigan majoring in Engineering, which he disliked. He enjoyed history, philosophy, and economics. Worked as a mechanical engineer in Washington for two years as a surveyor for the Interstate Commerence Commission and the Census Bureau Cooley then decide to go to Graduate School at the University of Michigan While in Graduate school Cooley met his wife Elsie Jones, whose father was the dean at the University They had three children, who later would become subjects of observation in their fathers quest to understand the development of self.

Cooleys Background

Cooley then got his PhD in political economy and a minor in Sociology. His dissertation was The Theory of Transportation His thesis was The theory of transportation is a pioneering study in human ecology, still highly required. He then continue to teach at the University of Michigan. Because of his sickly demeanor and nervous approach he was not well-liked by the undergraduates. However the graduate students were impressed by his in depth analysis. Cooley helped in founding of the American Sociological Association.

Cooleys Publications

Personal Competition (1899) Human Nature and the Social Order (1902) Social Organization (1909) Cooleys best selling book Social Process(1918) The posthumous Sociological Theory and Social Research

The Organic View of Society

Cooley believed that society was interrelated Cooley also believed that Organic View contained three parts know as the triadic relationship. The triadic relationship contains the primary group, human nature, and the looking-glass self.

Primary Groups

1.
2. 3. 4. 5.

Cooleys main goal was to explain the relationship between man and society Primary Groups are intimate, face to face groups that play a key role in linking the individual to the larger society. Properties of primary group Face to face association Unspecified Nature of associations Relative permanence. A small number of persons involved Relativity intimacy of participants

Primary Groups

Primary Groups are important to the development of children

The children develop a sense of self

Provide socialization They give a sense of belonging Cooley concluded that human nature cannot develop without primary group

The Looking-glass Self Theory

Contains three parts 1. 1.The imagination of our appearance to the other person 2. 2.The imagination of their judgment of the that appearance 3. 3. Our resulting self-feeling , such as pride or mortification The theory of the Looking-glass Self is most prevalent when is applied to children

STUDY ON CHIDREN

Cooley developed this concept in 1902, after extensive sociological testing of children in a controlled environment. Children were told to enter a room containing a bowl of candy and take only one piece. The children were then let into the room and monitored by video camera.The children, unaware of being watched, took as much candy as they could. The experiment was then repeated, but this time the room the children entered was lined with mirrors so the children could see themselves. In almost all cases the children took only one piece of candy. In Cooley's interpretation, the children, by observing their own behavior in mirrors, modified themselves out of guilt. Cooley believed that the images the children saw in the mirrors represented how they believed society saw them. Because they saw that others would see them as gluttons in the mirror, the children felt like gluttons and altered their behavior.

George Herbert Mead

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Born February 27, 1863 Educated and religious family Both parents were teachers Mother hoped he would be a minister Attended Oberlin college at age 16

Rigid Christian school Questioning and conversation discouraged Lost faith in his religion

Background
After Oberlin

First job out of college was teaching at a primary school and lasted four months Worked as a tutor and railroad surveyor which allowed him to read a lot Started writing his college friend Henry Castle who helped shape his life

Went from theological to secular beliefs Roommates at Harvard graduate school Studied philosophy but found it too abstract and changed to physiological psychology

Background
Germany to Michigan

Went to Germany on scholarship

Studied under Wilhelm Wundt and Stanley Hall Psychology and philosophy of Simmel Married Castles sister Helene in 1891

Quit graduate school to teach philosophy and psychology at the University of Michigan

Hoped to combine scholarship and social action Colleagues: Charles Cooley, James Tufts, and John Dewey

Background
Chicago

Became friends with Dewey who received an offer from the University of Chicago Dewey got Mead an assistant professor position Mead would stay in Chicago the rest of his life Chicagos social problems provided a good environment for study and reform Mead was not a significant writer His lectures were influential however Grad students published most of his major works from notes Conflict with the president of the college Said he would resign and leave Chicago Released from hospital the next day and died suddenly at the age of 68

Intellectual Influences
William James, Pragmatism, Behaviorism
Social psychology Habits and modifying behavior Role of consciousness Development of the self I and me American Pragmatism Everything socially constructed & subject to change Behaviorism Attempt to explain phenomena by studying behaviors Lead Mead to idea of the social act

Intellectual Influences
German Idealism

Philosophers: Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel

Subject and object connection Influenced Meads generalized other Hegel: consciousness and society
language and gesture in social context

Wilhelm Wundt

Intellectual Influences
Charles Darwin and Evolutionism

Final push away from theology Nothing is fixed; continuing process of change Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Support for gestures but Mead disagreed that emotion was a psychological state Consciousness emerges, not innate

Darwin wrote, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Theory of evolution into the field of conscious experience.
Darwin viewed consciousness as a psychological state. Mead believed consciousness is an emergent form of behavior.

Darwins ideas led Mead to believe that behavior is not accidental or random but formed through individuals interactions with one another in a social environment.

Romantic Philosophers: Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrick Von Schelling, and G.W.F Hegel
They argued humans construct their own worlds and their realities. *Mead learned from the German tradition that there is no consciousness which is not conscious of something.

Pragmatism
Pragmatists believe that true reality does not exist out there in the real world. They reject the idea of absolute truths and regard all ideas as provisional and subject to change in light of future research. Truth is determined by humans adaptations to their environments. Pragmatism helped to develop the idea that people base knowledge on what is most useful to them. Pragmatists believe that human beings reflect on the meaning of a stimulus before reacting. The meaning placed on various acts depends on the purpose of the act, the context in which it is performed, and the reactions of others to the act.

Concepts and Contributions

Symbolic Interactionism

Founder of modern symbolic interactionism, but did not coin term Mind, Self, and Society published by his students after his death influenced Blumer Humans think about how they should act according to their perceptions about reality and their agreement with others on the meanings behind the reality

Concepts and Contributions

Mind, Self, and Society

Mind

Develops within the social process Perceives, defines, evaluates Involves process of reflection Both object and subject
Nothing is separate from society Society is a structure for ongoing communication and interaction

Self

Society

Concepts and Contributions

The I and the Me

The self has two parts The I is the unsocialized self

Active, impulsive, unpredictable, initiates action Self as Subject Judgemental, controlling, conforms to norms Imagine ourselves as others see us Self as Object

The Me is the socialized self

Concepts and Contributions

Development of the Self

Critical for consciousness and taking the role of the other Dependent on social environment Stages of development:
1. 2. 3.

4.

Imitation stage Play stage Game stage Generalized other

Concepts and Contributions

The Act
1.
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2.

3.

4.

How a person responds to stimuli Impulse gut reaction, need to do something Perception Deciding stimulus is important, and how to react Manipulation Taking action, adapting to the environment Consummation Following through to satisfy impulse

Concepts and Contributions

The Social Act
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The Social Act involves two or more people Requires cooperation and shared understanding of the social object Importance of the gesture

Vocal gesture allows the speaker to reflect on the message as well as the other listeners mutually understood gesture = symbol

William James
James recognizes that habit reduces the need for conscious attention. If individuals are capable of forming new habits, they are also capable of modifying their behavior. He viewed the consciousness as I (the self as knower/pure ego) and Me (the self as known/ empirical ego). Me is everything that you can claim as your own: your own thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. I is what you are at, at any given specific moment in time.