Notes 2 25 13 Symbolic Interaction Theory created by George Herbert Mead intracommunication theory dates not as important but know who the theorist is Mead was fascinated by human s ability to use symbols Mind Self and Society Mead s book explaining this ability published in 1934 Herbert Blumer a student of Mead s came up with the term Symbolic Interaction Goal of SIT To explain how humans through interaction with one another create symbolic worlds and how these worlds affect behavior How does George Herbert Mead feel about the metatheoretical assumption is communication and individual or social event Social Event theory states we are interacting with one another Assumptions Regarding Meanings and Behavior Primary assumption of this theory people act based on symbolic meanings created between them Meaning is created through interaction between people Meaning is modified through an interpretive process correspondence Created meaning affects behavior Essentially Mead is interested in is how this symbolic meaning alters people s behaviors SIT s Key Concepts Mind Mead defines this as the ability to use symbols that have common social meanings meanings can be negotiated Why is mind important to mead We can not interact with others until we learn language language is the shared system of verbal and nonverbal symbols organized in patterns to express thoughts and feelings Language uses significant symbols symbols with shared meaning Essentially mind to Mead is our ability to use language Language is important because it allows us to share meanings and anticipate the responses of others Mind reflects and creates society we use language to create society to learn the norms of society we also use language to change norms Mind also allows thought inner conversation without social interaction we can t think This is true because we learn language through interaction and language allows us to think Thought allows role taking taking the perspective of others Role taking allows us to develop empathy but most importantly it allows us to help develop our sense of self 2nd Main Concept of this theory SELF Self the ability to reflect on ourselves from the perspective of others Self develops from role taking taking the perspective of others In 1912 Cooley became up with this idea of Looking glass Self which is you look in the mirror and you take in what you see and you internalize that Pygmalion Effect we live up to other people s labels for us Example the Help You is kind you is smart you is important so the nanny was trying to giver her good labels to live up to not bad ones like her parents were giving her 3rd Main Concept Society Society is the web of social relationships humans create Society exists prior to individuals the idea we are all born into a society into a culture and we learn the norms of that culture Society is created by individuals interacting Creates individual selfs Mead believes that self is a reflection of society Particular others those people who are significant to us strongly affect our sense of self they have the most influence on our development of self Generalized others society as a whole also shape our development of self We learn the role characteristics society place us in and we internalize them we can reject them but we also can use them to shape our own behavior Irving Goffman Published two books Interaction Rituals and Predication of Self Goffman truly laid the foundation of research for symbolic interaction too broad scope is not adequate Mead s been criticized for being too broad b c he is trying to explain ALL human interaction People think he falls short b c one theory can t possibly explain all that Precision Some people say this theory has ignored important concepts specifically ignores the idea of self esteem Good aspects of theory Parsimonious Valid Main Criticisms Important concepts to this theory Cognition perception thought Human to human Symbolic Actions Correspondence Metatheory Answers to Ontological Questions Believes that humans do make choices Social interaction Context matters Answers to Epistemological Questions Mead was a social constructivist Preference is qualitative research method however it has been studied through both ways quantitative and qualitative Answers to Axiological Questions He would accept that researchers values are part of the process Symbolic Interaction Theory takes a HUMANISTIC approach 3 4 13 The Coordinated Management of Meaning Cronen Pearce Harris 1982 mainly Cronen and Pearce are the ones are associated with this theory Unlike Symbolic Interaction Theory this is an ACTUAL communication theory it is a theory of communication they were communication scholars it actually ORIGINATED in our field we did not borrow it unlike SIT Goal of CMM To Explain how people co create meaning in conversation CMM is a rules theory CMM explains What happens in conservation as a result of following rules What happens when different rules meet what is the affect on meaning what is the affect on behavior Explanation People use rules to create and interpret meaning Use different rules get different meaning as a result we have to constantly coordinate meaning Meaning is constantly coordinated Assumptions Guiding CMM Ontological how they view how communication works in the world People create systems of meaning by organizing meaning hierarchically and temporally Hierarchy Believe there are different levels of meaning that people go through in order to interpret meaning Temporal we impose time on communication transactions we create beginnings middles and ends in communication transactions and this allows us to come to meaning People co create a social reality communication is a social endeavor Behavior not interpretable except in context of larger system NOT a system s theory still a rules theory they mean you have to look at the whole communication transaction in order to fully understand whats going on we aren t going to break it down into its parts we are going to look at it as a whole Personal and interpersonal meaning Personal Meaning the meaning that the individual has in the interaction why this theory is considered intrapersonal because its stating everyone comes to their own meanings first Interpersonal meaning the meaning coordinated between people Hierarchy of Meaning 6 Levels 1st level Content the denotative meaning the dictionary definition ex that s a brilliant idea the content level of meaning is it s a good idea it s a smart
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