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Essay On Symbolic Interactionism

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Symbolic Interactionism
George Mead (1863-1931)
George Herbert Mead is one of the key developers of the symbolic interactionism. This is a micro-level perspective based on self and society. It states that human behavior is influenced by meanings and definitions that are created through interactions with others in society. This is the ongoing use of a language and gestures in suspense to how the other will react in a conversation. Within the George Mead’s theory of Mind, Self and Society, he said that the self is made up of 2 components: the “me” represents expectations, attitudes and learnt behaviors of others in society.
The individual’s defines their behavior depending on the generalized attitude of the social group(s) they occupy. The …show more content…

Meaning is based on human interactions and how we act towards other people. This is basically interpretation and analysis of dialogue in a conversation. A language is a spoken word, written word and pictures. Thought is how we interpret symbols (Karpagam,2009).

Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
The “looking glass self” is a very important theory in understanding symbolic interactionism. It was developed by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902 A person’s “self” grows out of social interaction with others. It theorizes the self in basically 2 parts, a self awareness and a self image. Our bodies age biologically, but the self derives from social interactions within society. The self image is developed by how others perceive us in society.
The way we view ourselves derives from personal qualities and by how others perceive us in society. In other words people shape their self based on their interpretation of what people think about them. The idea is that people close to us in society serves as mirrors to reflect images of who we are as we get older. This theory is about self-consciousness. (Hamlin,2001) This theory has 3 steps:
• The imagination our appearance to another

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