George Herbert Mead And George Wa Blumer's Theory Of Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism is studies the relationships that individuals have in a society. It focuses on how people interact and form meanings through their language and symbolisms. This theory was developed in the early 20th century from the work of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. George believed that people respond to certain things based on what it means to them, and these meanings come from social interactions within a society and are modified by interpretation. Social interactionism researchers mostly use qualitative methods to gather evidence for this perspective. (Rice University) Symbolic interaction takes a small scale view of society. For example, something as simple as hanging with a friend instead of looking at large scale structures like education or law. Using symbolic interactions can explain social order and change. George Herbert Mead believed that the development of an individual was a social process, as where the meaning that they assigned to things. People change based on their interaction with object, events, ideas, and other people and assign meaning to things in order to decide how to act. Herbert Blumer …show more content…
In other words, individuals come to understand meanings through social interactions. These meanings shape and influence their participation In future social interaction; therefore affecting the influence they have on others. This premise includes everything that a human being may note in their world; for example, physical objects, actions and concepts. The second tenant was that we give meaning to thing based on our social interactions. The same thing could have different meanings for different people. This premise explains the meaning of such things is derived from the social interaction that one has with other humans. The third tenant states that the meaning we give to something is not permanent. It can change due to everyday