The
interaction paradigm is one of the three major approaches we use to do
sociology. It's associated with George H. Mead and others who focus on the ways
we humans behave among ourselves through the use of language and its subjective
meanings. In order to develop a sense of "self" and to get along with
others we need to develop shared symbolic meanings. That's the focus of this
approach. It focuses on individual relationships and is associated with social
psychology.
In
sociology, interactionism is a theoretical perspective that
derives social processes (such as conflict, cooperation, identity formation)
from human interaction. It is the study of how individuals act within
society. Interactionist theory has grown in the latter half of the twentieth
century and has become one of the dominant sociological perspectives in the
world today. By using the term interactionist we refer to scholarship in the
tradition of symbolic interactionism as well as other frameworks and
perspectives that emphasize interpretations and meanings of social actions and
interactions.
interactionist is a theoretical
perspective that derives social processes (such as conflict, cooperation,
identity formation) from human interaction. It is the study of how individuals
act within society.
Herbert
Blumer (1969) set out three basic premises of the perspective:
·> "Humans
act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those
things."
·>"The
meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social
interaction that one has with others and the society."
·>"These
meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used
by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters."
Blumer, following Mead, claimed that people interact with each other by
interpreting or defining each other's actions instead of merely reacting to
each other's actions. Their 'response' is not made directly to the actions of
one another but instead is based on the meaning which they attach to such
actions. Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and signification, by interpretation, or by ascertaining the meaning of one another's
actions (Blumer 1962). Blumer contrasted this process, which he called
"symbolic interaction," with behaviorist explanations of human behavior, which does not allow for
interpretation between stimulus and response. Blumer believed that the term
symbolic interactionism has come into use as a label for relatively distinctive
approach to the study of human group life and human conduct.
The interactionist paradigm is most
focused on meaning-making and interactions among human beings. Within this
broad paradigm, (which is not mutually exclusive of the conflict paradigm), the
social world is seen as consisting of fluid, contingent meanings created by
people, which need to be understood within their own material and imagined
contexts. Imagined contexts are the collective memories and actions that people
share about a particular place or experience (Anderson 1991). The primary goal of interactionist paradigm
is to understand the social world and its collectivities (i.e. representations
of multiple groups) by examining how people construct and act in their social
worlds. While there are multiple varieties of interpretive approaches, they
share the perspective that the social world is produced and reproduced through
constant engagement with other and oneself, made possible through language and
shared understandings and interpretations. Interactionist theories do
not assume that the meanings of things are inherent or intrinsic to those
things, but rather they are mutually and collectively constructed and define
and can be redefined as human interact with another (Blumer 1969; Strauss
1993).
References
Russell James. (2004). What is Language Development?: Rationalist, Empiricist,
and Pragmatist Approaches to the Acquisition of Syntax. New York. Oxford
University Press Inc.
Kess Joseph. (1984). Psycholinguistics: Psychology, Linguistics,
and the Study of Natural Language. Amsterdam.
Josh Benjamin Publishing Company.
