symbolic interactionism

American  

noun

Sociology.

1. a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings.

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Usage

What is symbolic interactionism? Symbolic interactionism is an approach used to analyze human interactions by focusing on the meanings that individuals assign to things in the world around them, including words and objects.Symbolic interactionism is used within the field of sociology (the study of human society) to explain social behavior in terms of how people interact based on their interpretation of symbols. In this context, symbols can be anything that can be given a meaning, including language, gestures, objects, images, and events, among many other things.Symbolic interactionism is sometimes defined as a theory, but many sociologists argue that it is instead a method or an approach used to analyze individual interactions. It is sometimes criticized for being incomplete or too narrowly focused on small interactions.

Other Word Forms

• symbolic interactionist noun

Etymology

Origin of symbolic interactionism

First recorded in 1965–70