SOCIAL INTERACTION (SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM)

Social Interaction / Symbolic Interactionism is a sociological perspective that developed around mid twentieth century and continuses to influence social psychology. Symbolic Interaction was invented by George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. Symbolic Interactionism sees people as active in shaping their world, rather than as entities who are acted upon by society. Reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. Eachof us learn to play many different social roles through our interaction with others. Thus our actions are ‘conditioned’ by others and at the same time we also affect their actions. The idea is not to manipulate or dominate each other buy to create and sustain a social unit which provides members rewards on performing social roles. We learn our social roles by interacting with others and through our daily life experiences. We internalize the rules inherent in the situations and act accordingly. These roles provide us with a powerful means of controlling our actions and in time we learn to be identified by our actions. Unlike animals who are conditioned to respond to certain stimuli, human beings are more conscious about stimuli and are able to plan responses. Both individuals and society cannot be separated far from each other for two reasons. One, being that they are both created through social interaction, and two, one cannot be understood without the other. Behavior is not defined by forces from the environment or inner forces such as drives, or instincts, but rather by a reflective, socially understood meaning of both the internal and external incentives that are currently presented. Three basic premises of the perspective: • "Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things." - individuals behave towards objects and others based on the personal meanings that the individual has already given these items. • "The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society." – social interaction with other humans. • "These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters."- We have the ability to name things and designate objects or actions to a certain idea or phenomenon. Role-taking is a part of our lives at an early age. Playing house and pretending to be someone else are examples of this phenomena. Charles Horton Cooley, a symbolic interactionist describes the process by which the sense of self develops by the ‘looking-glass self’ which has three elements: 1. We imagine how we appear to people around us – e.g. tall / stout / slim 2. We interpret others’ reactions e.g. Do they like / dislike us for the way we are 3. We develop a self concept – we create a social mirror for ourselves with a positive or a negative self-concept.