Symbolic Interactionism is a major sociological perspective that is influential in
many areas of the discipline. It is particularly important in Microsociology and
Social Psychology.
Symbolic Interactionism is derived from American pragmatism and particularly from
the work of George Herbert Mead, who argued that people's selves are social products
- but that these selves are also purposive and creative. He said that individuals
give meaning to the world by defining and interpreting it in certain ways. The world
is never experienced direcectly but always through the ideas that we have about it.
Another pioneer in the area was Charles Cooley. Herbert Blumer was a student and
interpreter of Mead who coined the term ‘Symbolic Interactionism’ and put forward
an influential summary of the perspective: people act toward things based on the
meaning those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction
and modified through interpretation.
Sociologists working in this tradition have researched a wide range of topics using
a variety of research methods. However, the majority of interactionist research uses
qualitative research methods, like participant observation, to study aspects of:-
- social interaction
- individuals' selves
Sociological areas that have been particularly influenced by Symbolic Interactionism
include the sociology of emotions, the Sociology of health and illness, deviance/criminology,
collective behaviour/social movements, and the sociology of sex. Interactionist concepts
that have gained widespread usage include definition of the situation, emotion work,
impression management, looking glass self, and total institution.
Erving Goffman, although he claimed not to have been a symbolic interactionist, is
recognized as one of the major contributors to the perspective. Goffman focussed
in particular on the presentation of the ‘self’ and aspects of impression management.
Blumer (1969), who coined the term set out three basic premises of the perspective:-
- "Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those
things."
- "The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction
that one has with others and the society."
- “These meanings are handled in and modified through an interpretative process used
by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters.”
Blumer (1963), following Mead, claimed that people interact with each and other by
interpreting or defining each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each
other's actions. Their 'response' is not made directly to the actions of one another
but instead is based on the meaning which they attach to such actions. Thus, human
interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and signification, by interpretation,
or by ascertaining the meaning of one another's actions Blumer contrasted this process,
which he called ‘symbolic interaction’, with Behaviourist explanations of human behavior,
which don't allow for interpretation between stimulus and response.
Symbolic Interactionist researchers investigate how people create meaning during
social interaction, how they present and construct the self (or ‘identity’), and
how they define situations of co-presence with others. One of the perspective's central
ideas is that people act as they do because of how they define situations.
Evaluation
Although symbolic interactionist concepts have gained widespread use among sociologists,
the perspective has been criticised, particularly during the 1970s when quantitative
approaches to Sociology were dominant.
In addition to methodological criticisms, critics of Symbolic Interactionism have
charged that it is unable to deal with social structure (a fundamental sociological
concern) and macrosociological issues.
However, one only needs to look at the Lower Quadrants of 4Q/8L, developed by Don
Beck (2000, 2002) from Ken Wilber’s All Quadrants/All Levels approach to realise
that the concerns of Symbolic Interactionism, by and large, were never going to be
those of Structural Functionalism. While the latter is concerned with the structure
of institutions in society and their functions and, thus, sits in the Lower Right
Quadrant, the former concerns itself with the meanings groups and sub-groups in society
make of what’s going on. This is a cultural phenomenon and, as such, belongs in the
Lower Left. Symbolic Interactionism also feeds into the new science of Memetics and
the study of the way meaning is spread as a kind of cultural virus. Like Memetics,
Symbolic Interactionism also feeds into the Upper Left as it needs to understand
meaning to the individual as well as the group.
