Symbolic

interactionism
Group 5
Abella, Trixia N.
Arriesgado, Sarah Nicole M.
Ayuste, Mary Daphnne D.
Ballesteros, Christia A.
Barcial, Kieth Aileen D.
Bebangco, Mary Rose T.
Belgado, Kelly Antonette V.
Berdin, Dawn Jean Angeline A.
Briones, Timothy John O.
 Symbolic
interactionism
➢ is a social science approach which depends on the
symbolic meaning developed by people in the
process of interaction.

➢ Is a reaction to behaviourism of psychological

theories.

➢ Symbolic interactionism depends on the symbolic

meaning developed by people in the process of
interaction.
 KEY CONCEPTS
Symbols
➢ which refer to the means by which people extensively and
creatively communicate.
➢ Are culturally derived social objects having shared meanings
that are created and maintained in social interaction.

Society
➢ Distinguishes between infrahuman (lower animal)
and human life.
✓ Human life – collaboration is cognitive and
conscious.
✓ Infrahuman – cooperation is determined
physiologically
Self
➢ Refers to the conscious, contemplative
personality of the individual.
➢ The being or nature of a person one
imagines when he or she thinks about
who he or she is.

Mind
➢ The mental aspect of individuals which
materializes from human communication.
➢ Serves as the aspect of the individual which
disrupts stimuli responses.
FRAMEWORK
Action

Meaning

Different
people Change
➢ It’s was first formulated in the 1920’s and
1930’s.

➢ It’s also rooted in phenomenology, for it

asserts that the objective world has no
reality for humans.

➢ Meanings are not units that are given to

individual and learned by training.
 Influential thinkers
Herbert Blumer

➢ He got his doctorate in sociology at the

university of Chicago in 1928.

➢ His most important work is symbolic

interaction: Perspective and Method,
encapsulates the essence of the said
theoretical approach.
George Herbert Mead

➢ Three steps in the development of

the self:

Preparatory stage (meaningless imitation by the infant)

The Play Stage (actual playing of roles)
Game Stage (culminating stage of self-development where
the child finds who he/she really is)

➢ His major works include Mind, Self, and Society (1934); The
Philosophy of the Act (1838); and The Philosophy of the
Present (1932).
Criticism about the paradigm

➢ Its focus on small-scale aspects of social life and

its over-emphasis on the individual, and
neglects the big picture.

➢ It downplays the role of social forces and

institutions on individual interactions.
 Conclusion

➢ Interpretive social science recognizes the possibility of many

truths and that each one is valid.

➢ Hermeneutic Phenomenology concerns itself with

understanding and interpreting human experience as it is
lived, while;

➢ Symbolic interactionism asserts that society can be analyzed by

addressing the subjective meanings that people impose.