Symbolic Interactionism SOC110: Introduction to Sociology Sarah Goodrum, Ph.D.

1. Symbolic InteractionismSOC110: Introduction to SociologySarah Goodrum, Ph.D. Charles Horton Cooley George Herbert Mead

2. Symbolic Interactionism • Symbolic Interactionism is: • the interaction b/t people that takes place through such symbols as signs, gestures, and language • Symbolic Interactionists: • study how the individual develops socially as a result of participating in group life

3. Charles Horton Cooley • Looking-glass self – self-concept derived from a social “mirror” in which we can observe how others react to us • 3 Steps in Self-development: • Imagining our own appearance • Interpreting others’ reactions • Developing a self-concept

4. George Herbert Mead • Mead views the self as an acting organism. • The individual engages in self-interaction by taking the role-of-the-other, allowing him or her to form, guide, and control his or her response.

5. Mead’s Self and Others • self (these 2 phases permit conscious responsibility) • I - the unorganized response of the organism to the attitudes of others • me - a set of organized attitudes of others that the individual herself assumes in turn • self-interaction – internal conversation by which a human being takes things into account and organizes the self for action • role-of-the-other (role-taking) – pretending to take or actually taking the role of another to see the world and one’s self from another’s view • generalized other – internalized attitudes and viewpoints of society as a whole