SYMBOLIC IN-

TERACTIONISM
George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead
■ Born on Feb 27, 1863, Massachusetts, US and died on
April 26, 1931 at Chicago, Illinois.
■ American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist.
■ Fascinated by human ability to use symbols
■ His observations over many years led Mead to be-
lieve that human symbolic activities account for
the distinct character of human thinking, for indi-
vidual identity.
 SYMBOLS
■ The basis of individual identity and social life.
■ Foundation of both personal and social life.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTION-
ISM
Mind, Self and Society
(1934)
■It is the bedrock of
symbolic interactionism
MIND Role Tak-
ing
SELF
Critical As-
I and ME sessment
 MIND
■ At birth, humans have neither minds nor
selves
■ These are acquired in the process of inter-
acting with others
■ According to his theory, there is no way for
a four-week old baby to share ideas with
others.
 MIND
■ is the ability to use symbols that have com-
mon social meanings
■ Social life and communication between
people are possible only when we under-
stand and can use a common language..
 MIND
■ The ability to use symbols that have com-
mon meaning allows individuals to share
ideas and to communicate about ideas,
rather than simply to behave toward one
another as animals do.
 MIND
■In the process of acquiring lan-
guage, individuals learn the
common meanings of their cul-
ture. That is what it means to
acquire a mind.
MIND Role Tak-
ing
SELF
Critical As-
I and ME sessment
SELF
SELF
■Self doesn’t exist at birth.
■Developed through interaction with
others.
■Self is the ability to reflect ourselves
from the perspective of others.
SELF
■Looking glass self.
■We learn to see ourselves in the mir-
ror of other’s eyes.
■Those labels shape our self-concepts
and behaviors.
SELF
■Self-fulfilling prophecy.
■Individuals live up to the labels oth-
ers impose on them.
MIND Role Tak-
ing
SELF
Critical As-
I and ME sessment
I and ME
■The part of the self that is an acting
subject is the “I” which is impulsive.
■The “ME” is the socially conscious
part of the self.
I and ME
■I and the ME are complementary,
not opposing parts of the self.
■If we acted only from personal
whim, desire, and impulse, collec-
tive life would not be possible.
MIND Role Tak-
ing
SELF
Critical As-
I and ME sessment
Role Tak-
ing
Role Tak-
ing
■Particular others are individuals
who are significant to us.
■As we interact, we gain an under-
standing of what things mean to
them.
Role Tak-
ing
■The process of internalizing other’s
perspectives and viewing experience
from their perspectives is called role
taking.
Role Tak-
ing
■Generalized others is the viewpoint
of social group, community, or soci-
ety as a whole. It includes rules,
roles and attitudes that are shared by
members of society.
Role Tak-
ing
■Generalized others reflects our un-
derstandings of society in general
based on direct interaction with oth-
ers, exposure to media, and observa-
tions of social life.
Summary: How individuals create
meaning
■1.Symbolic interactionists believe
that people act on the basis of what
things mean to them.
Summary: How individuals create
meaning
■2. meanings are formed in the
process of interacting symbolically
with others in the society.
■ -Symbols are the foundation of meaning.
■ Individuals meanings aren’t strictly personal, but
always carry social overtones.
Summary: How individuals create
meaning
■3. Meanings individuals have for
experiences, feelings, events, etc..
reflect the internalized perspectives
of particular others and generalized
others.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

■Views individuals as interpretative

beings whose mental activities,
rather than external stimuli, as the
source of their behaviors
Herbert Blumer

■Individuals construct their actions

through a process of personal inter-
pretation.
MIND Role Tak-
ing
SELF
Critical As-
I and ME sessment
Critical As-
sessment
■1.The theory has con-
ceptual inconsistencies.
Critical As-
sessment
■2.The theory is too
vague and broad.
Critical As-
sessment

■3.The theory neglects

self-esteem.
DRAMATISM
Dramatism
■ Life is a drama and it can be understood
in dramatic terms.
■ Communicators: actors performing
dramatic scenes
■ Includes both rhetorical and sociologi-
cal theories
Kenneth Burke
■ Sees life as a drama which involves conflict and divi-
sion that threatens existing form of order.
■ Drama involves scenes that invite or discourage spe-
cific action by actors.
■ Conflict inherent in drama results in suffering and
gives birth to new ways of understanding self, others
and situations,
■ Dramatic conflict opens new possibilities for humans.
■Burke’s theory has been
called the most comprehen-
sive of all theories of sym-
bolic action.
Identification
■ We must all recognize that all things have substance, which
he defines as the general nature or essence of a thing.
■ There is a degree of overlap between the substances of indi-
viduals, but it is not complete, so we remain apart. Because
people are not identical, we are divided from one another.
■ Communication becomes the primary means by which we
seek to transcend our divisions and enhance our consub-
stantiality, or identification with each other.
Consubstantiality
■ What makes communication possible.
■ Experiences, language, goals.
■ Communication is the primary way that we in-
crease our identification, or consubstantiality
with others and diminish our division, or sepa-
rateness from others.
Guilt
■ Central motive for human action, specifi-
cally communication.
■ According to Burke, the ability to feel guilt
is uniquely human and is possible only be-
cause we are symbol using animals.
Hierarchy
■ Language allows us to create categories and evalua-
tions that are the basis of social hierarchies, such as
socioeconomic classes, titles in organization, and de-
grees of status and power.
■ In turn, social hierarchies create division among peo-
ple, and division provokes guilt.
■ Hierarchy explains the human propensity for war and
conquest.
Perfection
■ In defining humans, Burke says we are “rotten with perfec-
tion”.
■ Our symbols allows us to conceive and name perfect forms
or ideals that are at the top of the hierarchy.
■ Guilt arises because of the gap between what is the case and
the perfection that we can imagine.
■ If we couldn’t conceive perfection, we wouldn’t feel guilty
about falling short of ideals.
The Negative
■ The moral capacity to say “no”,”not”, and “thou
shalt not.”
■ Our ability to name the negative, or what should
not be, is the basis of moral judgements, which
other animals do not seem to make in any sophis-
ticated way.
Purging Guilt

■ If guilt is the primary human motive, then

purging guilt becomes the principal goal of
communication.
■ Two Methods of ridding ourselves of guilt.
Mortification
■ Blaming ourselves
■ Confessing our failings and asking forgive-
ness.
■ More formal: Catholic ritual of confession,
followed by penance to regain grace.
Victimage
■ Identifying an external source for some ap-
parent failing or sin.
■ Often takes form of scapegoating, which is
placing sins on a sacrificial vessel whose
destruction serves to cleanse an individual
or group of sin.
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ A tool that provides a structure for analyz-

ing human actions.
■ Consists of five aspects central to under-
standing and analyzing human symbolic ac-
tivity.
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ 1. Act: what is done by a person

■ 2. Scene: context in which interaction oc-
curs.
■ 3. Agent: individual or group that performs
an act
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ 4. Agency: the means an agent uses to ac-

complish an act.
■ 5. Purpose: goal for an act
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ 6. Attitude: refers to how an actor positions

herself/himself relative to others and the
contexts in which he/she operates.
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ Doing dramatic analysis of rhetorical ac-

tions involves two steps.
■ First: it’s important to identify each of the
elements in a particular situation.
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ Dramatic analysis also may focus on ratios

between various elements in Burke’s model
■ A ratio is proportion.
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ In addition, analysts may focus on points of

conflict or division (agon) and progression
in a drama from an order, to division, to suf-
fering, to purging of guilt, and finally to re-
demption.
The Dramatism Pentad (Hexad)

■ The value of dramatistic analysis is illus-

trated by rhetorical critic David Ling’s
(1970) study of Senator Edward Kennedy’s
speech to the people of Massachusetts in
1969.
Critical Appraisal of Drama-
tism
■ Q1.The theory is Obscure and Con-
fusing
■ -It is difficult to comprehend and complicated.
■ He uses many different vocabularies to develop his ideas.
■ The breadth of Burke’s theory also leaves it open to the charge that it
lacks focus.
■ His aim to explore the expansive terrain of human society, and that means
studying symbolic activity wherever, however, and whenever it occurs.
■ In Burke’s view, it is clearly an asset.
Critical Appraisal of Drama-
tism
■ Is Guilt all there is?
■ Are there no other human motives that impel us?
■ It is possible that Burke’s emphasis on universality
hindered him from recognizing much of the diversity
in human experience and motives.
■ Guilt is the ultimate human motive and thus the basis
of human communication.
NARRATIVE
THEORY
Walter Fisher
■ Humans are natural storytellers.
■ The narrative capacity is what is most basic and
most distinctive about humans.
■ We make sense of our experiences in life by
transforming them into stories, or narrative
forms.
Narrative Paradigm
■ Narration: symbolic actions- words/
deed – that have sequence and meaning
for those who live, create, or interpret
them.
■ Stories, stories, stories – they’re contin-
uous in everyday life.
Good Reasons
■ Rationality is considered extremely im-
portant in Western culture.
■ But, we are persuaded by good stories.
■ Compelling stories are the basis of per-
suasion.
Narrative Rationality
■ We are not equally skilled or that all
stories merit equivalent belief.
■ Not all stories are equally compelling.
Coherence
■ Do all parts of a story seem to fit to-
gether believably?
■ Internal coherence.
Fidelity
■ The extent to which a story resonates
with listeners’ personal experiences and
beliefs.
■ We judge a story to reflect the values in
which we believe.
Critical Assessment
■ Incomplete Description
■ Some forms of communication are not
narrative.
Critical Assessment
■ Too Broad
■ It doesn’t help us recognize important
distinctions among myriad of commu-
nication.
Critical Assessment
■ Conservative Bias
■ It gives privilege to prevailing values
and attitudes and accords less attention
to the ways in which stories can pro-
mote positive changes in the human
condition.