THEORIES ABOUT SYMBOLIC ACTIVITY

 Symbolic Interactionism
 Dramatism
 Narrative Theory

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
How do we view ourselves?
How do we respond to the surroundings?
How is meaning constructed?
How are identities constructed?
= How the world is constructed?
• George Herbert Mead
• Individuals can acquire identity only by interacting with others.
• Regarded symbols as the foundation of both social and personal life.
• Humans create meaning for objects, situations, experiences, others and themselves.
Five Key Concepts in SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
1. MIND
• At birth humans have neither minds nor selves; these are acquired in the process of
interacting with others.
• Ability to use symbols that have common social meanings.
• Social life and communication are possible only when we understand and use a
common language.
2. SELF
• does not exist at birth.
• Ability to reflect ourselves from the perspective of others.
LOOKING GLASS SELF
• We see ourselves in the mirror of others’ eyes.
3. SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
• Individuals live up to the label’s others impose on them.
• Looking Glass Self
• Self emerges through an interactive social process.
• How actors imagine they appear
• How actors believe others judges them
 • How actors develop feelings of shame
4. I and ME
• Humans have the ability to be both the subjects and the objects of their experience.
• I is the part of the self that is an acting subject
• Impulsive, creative, spontaneous and generally unburdened by social rules and
restrictions.
• ME is the socially conscious part of the self
• Analytical, evaluative and aware of social conventions, rules and expectations
5. ROLE TAKING
• Is the process of internalizing others’ perspectives and viewing experience from their
perspective.
• our meanings for things reflect the perspectives of particular others and generalized
others.
• Particular others are individuals who are significant to us.
• Generalized other are the social group, community, or society as a whole.
• Goals focus on interpretation, social meaning, behavior, and relationships.
Tenets
1. Humans act based on meanings.
2. Meanings were created based on social interaction.
3. Meanings continuously shift through interpretation.
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
– The Theory Has Conceptual Inconsistencies
– The Theory is Too Vague and Broad
– The Theory Neglects Self-Esteem

DRAMATISM
• Kenneth Burke
• Begins with the premise that life is a drama and that it can be understood in dramatic
terms.
• This involves conflict and division that threatens some existing form of order.
Two Central Concepts in Dramatism
1. IDENTIFICATION
- We must recognize that all things have substance, which is the general
nature or essence of a thing.
 Consubstantiality- is our identification with each other that makes
communication possible.
2. GUILT
– Any tension, discomfort, sense of shame, unpleasant feeling that humans
experience
– Central motive for human action

3 ways that give rise to guilt.

Hierarchy
Perfection
The Negative
Purging Guilt
Principal goal of communication
2 methods of riding of guilt
Mortification is blaming ourselves.
Victimage involves identifying an external source for some apparent failing or
sin.
Takes the form of scapegoating or placing sins on a sacrificial vessel
(universal/fractional)
DRAMATISTIC PENTAD (HEXAD)
is a tool that provides a structure for analyzing human actions.
• Act - what is done by a person.
• Scene -the context in which interaction occurs.
• Agent - the individual or group that performs the act.
• Agency- means an agent uses to accomplish an act.
• Purpose – goal for the act
• Attitude – how an actor positions himself relative to others and the contexts in which
he operates.
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF DRAMATISM
– The Theory Is Obscure and Confusing
– Is Guilt All There Is?
NARRATIVE THEORY
• Walter Fisher
• Humans are by nature storytelling beings and that the narrative capacity is what is
most basic and most distinctive about humans.
• Narration is symbolic actions that have sequence and meaning for those who live,
create, or interpret them.
Two Concepts Critical to Narrative Paradigm
1.Good Reasons
Evaluate the worth of ideas and arguments by judging how much evidence, how
many facts, and how well links are reasoned.
2.Narrative Rationality
Not all stories are equally compelling.
Two standards in assessing.
Coherence is when a story makes sense.
Fidelity is the extent to which a story resonates with listeners’ personal experiences
and beliefs.
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF NARRATIVE THEORY
– Incomplete Description
– Too Broad
– Conservative Bias