5 Symbolic Interactionism of George Herbert Mead A

Slide 2 Symbolic Interactionism q Meaning: The Construction of Social Reality q Language: The Source of Meaning q Thinking: The Process of Taking the Role of the Other q The Self: Reflections in a Looking Glass q Society: The Socializing of Other’s Expectations q A Sampler of Applied Symbolic Interaction q Ethical Reflection: Levinas’ Responsive “I” q Critique: Setting the Gold Standard for Three Interpretive Criteria © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 3 Symbolic Interactionism q. Symbolic interaction – ongoing use of language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react; a conversation n Mead disciple Herbert Blumer coined term symbolic interactionism • Meaning • Language • Thinking © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Meaning: The Construction of Social Reality Slide 4 q. Humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those people or things (Blumer) n It is our interpretation that counts Stimulus –> Interpretation –> Response © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: The Source of Meaning Slide 5 q. Meaning arises out of social interactions people have with each other (Blumer) n Extent of knowing dependent on extent of naming n Symbolic interactionism is the way we learn to interpret the world n Symbols can be nonverbal or linguistic © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thinking: The Process of Taking the Role of the Other Slide 6 q. An individual’s interpretation of symbols is modified by his or her own thought processes (Blumer) n Thinking described as inner conversation n Minding – inner dialogue used to test alternatives, rehearse actions, and anticipate reactions before responding © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thinking: The Process of Taking the Role of the Other Slide 7 q. Humans have a unique capacity to take the role of the other (Mead) n Taking the role of the other – process of mentally imagining that you are someone else who is viewing you © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Self: Reflections in a Looking Glass Slide 8 q. Looking-glass-self – mental self-image that results from taking the role of the other n Meaning, language, and thought interconnected n Self is a function of language • Mead-Cooley hypothesis: individuals’ self-conceptions result from assimilating judgments of significant others © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Self: Reflections in a Looking Glass Slide 9 q. Looking-glass-self (continued) n Me – Objective self; image of self seen when one takes the role of the other n The “me” is viewed as an object – the image of self seen in the lookingglass of other people’s reactions © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Self: Reflections in a Looking Glass Slide 10 q. Looking-glass-self (continued) n I – spontaneous, driving force that fosters all that is novel, unpredictable, and unorganized in the self n Me – Objective self; image of self seen when one takes the role of the other • “Me” is viewed as an object – the image of self seen in the lookingglass of other people’s reactions © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Society: The Socializing of Other’s Expectations Slide 11 q. Society consists of individual actors who make their own choices (Mead) n Society-in-the-making rather than society-by-previous-design n Generalized other shapes how we think and interact within the community n Mead considers “me” as organized society within the individual © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Sampler of Applied Symbolic Interaction Slide 12 q. Mead believed that theory is valuable to the extent it is useful n Creating reality n Meaning-ful Research • Participant observation – method of adopting the stance of an ignorant yet interested visitor who carefully notes what people say and do to discover how they interpret the world n Generalized Other © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Sampler of Applied Symbolic Interaction Slide 13 q. Mead (continued) n Naming n Self-fulfilling prophecy – tendency for expectations to evoke responses that confirm what we originally anticipated n Symbol Manipulation © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ethical Reflection: Levinas’ Responsive “I” Slide 14 q. Levinas: identity of our “I” formed by the way we respond to others n Ethical echo: I am my brother’s keeper n Each person’s face is signpost pointing to panhuman ethical requirement to actively care for all people n Arnett: if we follow Levinas’ lead, interpersonal communication will be more about listening than telling © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 15 Critique: Setting the Gold Standard for 3 Interpretive Criteria q. Stryker: Mead’s ideas flawed, if viewing theory as testable explanations of observable sociable regularities n Mead’s work, highly interpretive and deserves to be evaluated on six criteria n Theories’ fluid boundaries, vague concepts, and undisciplined approach don’t lend themselves to an elegant summary © 2012 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.