This theory is on Mead’s idea of how human language is directly connected to our own thinking combined with societal thinking. Symbolic Interaction is Mead’s student Herbert Blumer term for human communication. This has three core principals.
Meaning. Symbols are used this here, by putting meaning into them, causing them to symbolize something towards a person. People’s different perceptions cause different kinds of meanings. These different kinds of meanings cause different behaviors. For example, as one person perceives something as safe and another perceives it to be not then both will have different reactions to the same thing. As people give meaning to more and more symbols, Language is the exchange of these meanings. Through language people begin to share these ideas creates knowledge and collectively defines society. Interpretation of these ideas depends on their Thought, specifically, their thought process. One must think what a certain symbol means to properly understand it and to decide how to react to it.
Though those were the three core principals, there are other topics related to symbol interactionism. One is the concept of Self. Understanding the first three lets us to further understand ourselves better. We become more aware of ourselves in the concepts of ‘I’ and ‘Me’. As ‘I’ is more on how we perceive our self, ‘me’ is more of the collective perception of others. This is achieved by our Community. This is where we first experience self-image, through the eyes of others. This is our ‘generalized other’ or the image the world sees us.
Application of this theory can be done in the following:
· Creating reality
· Meaningful research
· Generalized other
· Naming
· Self-fulfilling prophecy
· Symbol manipulation
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