Symbolic Interaction

This is a branch of Interpretive theory that is based in

the work of Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert
Mead. George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) and his
followers built on the ideas of Charles Horton Cooley
(1864–1929) to develop this perspective, known popularly as the Theory of Mind, Self and
Society. The main point is that much of our ‘self’ and our mind (our thoughts) is influenced
by the social processes and interactions in which we are enmeshed. In other words, we are not
the ‘individuals’ we sometimes think we are - the individual is closely linked to society and
symbolic interactionists study that relationship. They see individuals as constantly engaged in
constructing their ‘selves’ taking their cues from others about how to act.
Mead stated that society was made up of symbols or
things and as we grew up we also grew to share in the
meanings others had for those symbols. Mead felt that
without the symbols we would not have the opportunity
to develop a self. Symbols made thought, communication and interpretation possible.
Language itself is made up of symbols which can be used for communication only because
we agree on what the words mean. For example, in the Caribbean we speak of ‘electricity’
whereas in the United States the word ‘power’ is more widely used. Symbolic Interactionists
therefore describe and explain our actions/identities based on this theory of the self that is
only constructed because of the symbols about which we share meanings.