Symbolic Interactionism

Overview

• Focuses on small-scale interactions between individuals.
• Offers an alternative to large-scale structural theories (e.g., education, law).
• Explains individual interactions and their role in social order and change.
• Based on George Herbert Mead’s early 20th-century teachings.

Key Concepts

• Development as a Social Process
  • Individual development and meaning assignment are social processes.
  • People adapt and assign meanings to objects, events, ideas, and people based on interactions.

Example

• Sitting under a tree symbolizes shade, developed through personal experience.
• Interaction introduces new perspectives (e.g., tree as ant-infested), altering the original meaning.

Herbert Blumer's Contributions

• Coined the term "symbolic interactionism."
• Proposed three tenets:
  1. Action Depends on Meaning
     • Meaning guides actions (e.g., seeing a tree as a resting place).
  2. Meaning from Social Interaction
     • Different meanings arise from different interactions (e.g., tree may mean infestation to another person).
  3. Changeable Meanings
     • Meanings evolve with new experiences (e.g., after being bitten by ants, the meaning of the tree changes).

Criticisms

• Considered supplemental rather than a comprehensive theory.
• Limited to small-scale interactions, missing broader sociological questions.

Contributions to Sociology

• Provides a necessary perspective for understanding society.
• Explains social change through continuous social interactions.
• Balances the importance of individuals with society as a whole.