Symbolic

Interactionism

George Herbert Mead

Erving Goffman
Arlie Russell-Hochschild
 Outline
• Principles of Symbolic Interactionism

• The Chicago School

• The Ideas of George Herbert Mead

• Erving Goffman and Dramaturgy

• Arlie Russell Hochschild on Emotion

Symbolic Interaction Theories

- Symbolic interaction theories focus on

the interpretation (social meaning)
that is given to behaviour, and on the
way such interpretation helps to
construct the social world, the
identities of people, and, ultimately
how they behave.
- All interaction theories are concerned
with the way in which meaning is
constructed.
 Basic Principles

1. Humans have capacity for thought.

2. Thought is shaped by social interaction.
3. Through interaction, people learn symbols and
meanings that allow them to think.
4. Meanings and symbols allow for human action.
5. People can interpret a situation and modify their
action or interaction.
6. People can create own meanings.
7. Groups and societies are made up of patterns of
action and interaction.
 The Chicago School
• Founded 1892 by Albion Small
• Ideals: Social reform and scientific social
research
• Decline after 1930’s
• Has regained in popularity, especially in
the areas of deviance and the study of
women’s roles in society
 W.I. Thomas (1863-1947)

“If men define situations as real, they

are real in their consequences…”
 Robert Park (1864-1944)
• Follower of Simmel

• “urban ecology”

• Concentric zone theory

 Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)

“The looking glass self”

Identity consists of three elements:

1. How actors imagine they appear.
2. How actors belief others judge their
appearance.
3. How actors develop feelings of shame or
pride, feelings that become an inner guide to
behaviour.

The social self was the cause of social behaviour.

 George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
Main ideas:

The social self is composed of an active “I”

that is independent of particular situations
and a receptive “Me” that is situated and
responsive.

The shape of “Me” is composed of the

messages we receive by using others as
mirrors of the self.
 Mead (cont.)
• Ideas reflected U.S. midwestern values:

– Democracy
– Voluntarism
– Self-discipline
– Belief in science
– Reformism
 Mead – Intellectual Influences
• Hegel

• Behaviourism

• Philosophical Pragmatism

• Relativism
 Development of the Social Self

• Society made up of selves who act

and interact.

• Self = subject + object (I + me)

 Self (cont.)
• 1. The act

• 2. The social act

• 3. Gestures, symbols and meaning

• 4. The “I” and the “Me”

 Socialization
• 1. Pre-play and preparatory stage

• 2. Play stage and development of the

particular other

• 3. Game stage and development of the

generalized other
 Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

Randall Collins: Goffman “contributed the most to

intellectual progress” in U.S. sociology

Best Known Works:

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)
Asylums (1961)
Stigma (1963)
Interaction Ritual (1967)
Gender Advertisements (1976)
 Dramaturgical Theory
Dramaturgical theory makes use of concepts
that parallel those of stage performances:
roles, props, scenes, etc.

People project images of themselves on the

social stage to be seen in particular ways
and to achieve particular ends.
 The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life
• Focus is “impression management”
• The script that people follow to control how
others see them.
• Motivation: avoidance of shame or
embarassment.
• Front stage vs. back stage
• Public behaviour is a performance
 Stigma
• Based on case studies
• How do people become stigmatized and
victims of prejudice?
• “an undesired differentness from what we
had anticipated”
• 3 types of stigma:
– Abominations of the body
– Blemishes of individual character
– Tribal stigma
 Importance of Goffman’s Work
• Linked individual action to larger social
structure
– Interaction rituals are institutionalized
– The “frames” that organize behaviour

• Linked stigmatization to prejudice and to

abuse of power and control in society
 Arlie Russell Hochschild (1940- )
• The Managed Heart: Commercialization of
Human Feeling (1983)
– First sociological study of emotion
• The Second Shift: Working Parents and
the Revolution at Home (1989)
• The Time Bind: When Work Becomes
Home and Home Becomes Work (1997)
 Emotional Labor
• “..the management of feeling to create a
publicly observable facial and bodily
display; emotional labor is sold for a wage
and therefore has exchange value. I use
the synonymous terms emotion work or
emotional management to refer to these
same acts done in a private context where
they have use value.” (Hochschild, 1983)
Characteristics of Emotional Labour

• 1. worker has face-to-face or voice-to-

voice contact with the public
• 2. as part of the job, worker required to
produce an emotional state in another
person.
• 3. employer has the power to exercise a
degree of control over the emotional
activities of employees.
 Emotional Dissonance
• People who do emotional labour suffer
from the strain of pretending not to feel
what they are really feeling

• To cope with this, people try to change

what they feel or to change what they
pretend to feel
 Importance of Hochschild’s Work
• Theories to this point neglect or downplay
the role of emotion
• Hochschild adds key part of puzzle
• Also points out that much of emotional
work is done by women
• In our culture, emotion considered
irrational and linked to women
 Importance of Symbolic
Interactionism
• Adds micro-level perspective to
mainstream sociology

• Adds potential to bridge gap between

macro and micro-levels

• Advances our understanding of

sociological processes.