Blumer and Mead

Theory 1

• Symbolic interactionism:

• Symbolic interactionism explains human action through meanings that arise in social interaction and are interpreted and revised by actors.

• Meaning

• Meaning is the significance something has for a person, which shapes how they understand it and act toward it

• The three premises of symbolic interactionism:

• People act on meanings, meanings arise through social interaction, and people handle and modify meanings through interpretation.

• Meaning as socially produced:

• Meanings emerge through how people indicate, define, and respond to things together rather than residing inherently in objects.

• Interpretation:

• Interpretation is the process of identifying things, considering their significance, and deciding how to act toward them.

• Meaning modification:

• Meaning modification occurs when people revise an existing meaning while interpreting a new or changing situation.

• Shared worlds of meaning

• Shared worlds of meaning arise when people develop sufficiently common definitions of objects and situations to coordinate their actions.

• Non-symbolic interaction:

• Non-symbolic interaction involves responding directly to another person’s gesture without interpreting its meaning.

• Symbolic interaction

• Symbolic interaction involves interpreting others’ gestures and adjusting one’s action according to their meaning.

• Triadic nature of meaning:

• A gesture indicates what its recipient should do, what its maker intends to do, and the joint action their coordinated conduct will produce.

• Nature of objects

• Objects are anything people can identify or refer to, and their significance for action depends on socially formed meanings

• Human beings as acting organisms

• Human beings construct actions by interpreting situations and communicating with themselves rather than merely responding to external stimuli.

• Self-indication

• Self-indication is the process of pointing things out to oneself, assessing their meaning, and using that assessment to guide action.

• Role-taking

• Role-taking means adopting another’s standpoint to understand their conduct and view oneself from their perspective

• George Herbert MeaD

• Mead explains the self as emerging through social interaction and the capacity to take others’ perspectives

• Development of the self

• The self develops through imitation, playing particular roles, coordinating multiple roles in games, and internalising the perspective of the generalised other.