Topic 6(b) : Basic Theories in

Communication
SYMBOLIC INTERACTION THEORY
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
(1969)
 Who introduced SIT?
• Interpretive theory
• Socio cultural tradition
• “symbols” are the basic of social life
• Individuals and societies develop
through people’s interaction through
symbols
• Individuals develop a sense of
themselves as they learn to use
symbols
• They learn to see themselves the
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
way they believe others see them
 THE PRINCIPLES
• The theory consists of 3 core principles:
Meaning, Language and Thought. These core
principles lead to conclusions about the
creation of a person’s self and socialization
into a larger community (Griffin,1997)

MEANING LANGUAGE THOUGHT

 Meaning

• States that human act toward people and

things according to the meanings that give to
those people or things
• Symbolic interactionism holds the principal of
meaning to be the central aspect of human
behavior
 Language

• Language gives humans a means by which to

negotiate meaning through symbols
• Human identify meaning in speech acts with
others
 Thought

• Thought modifies each individual’s

interpretation of symbols.
• Thought is a mental conversation that
requires different points of view
 Self concept

• Reflections in a looking glass

• The image we have of who and what we are
(formed in childhood by how significant
others treat/respond to us)
• The self concept is not fixed and unchanging-
if in childhood your teachers and friends
begin to treat you as if you’re very bright,
your self concept is likely to change
 Self concept

• With these 3 elements

the concept of the self
can framed.
• People use ‘the looking
glass self’ : they take
the role of the other,
imaging how we look
to another person
 Self concept
• The self is a function of
language, without talk there
would be no self concept
• People are part of a
community, where our
generalized other is the sum
total of responses and
expectations that we pick up
from the people around us
 APPLICATION

• The theory is used in effective evaluating of

human interaction.
• Different meanings can be easily lead to
communication problems
• Problems can arise if the lines of
communication are not open and assumptions
are made
 EXAMPLE
• A boy (jeremy) and a girl (kim) broke up last year. When jeremy received
an email from kim to go out he agreed and they went to a restaurant.
• Jeremy had a different kind of meaning though in comparison with kim.
• Jeremy went out as friends, where kim went out as with the meaning of
“potential boyfriend”
• Also in the communication the language was missunderstood
• Kim wanted to have a romantic night, while jeremy wanted to have a talk.
This is also caused by the nonverbal element of emails
• The third miscommunication is under thought.
• When jeremy went out just as ‘friends’. They both used an internal
dialogue to interpret the situation and to make a perception of the
evening
 CRITIQUE

SCOPE : TESTABILITY:
Theory is too When so many
broad to be useful core concepts are
nominal, it is
difficult to test the
theory
UTILITY:
Not as useful as it
could be for two
reasons
 EXERCISE

1. Symbolic interaction theory presupposes that

there is a relationship between the individual
and society. Discuss 2 arguments to explain
this assumptions
(6m)