Symbolic Interaction

Symbolic interaction makes the assumption that human experience is mediated by interpretation (objects, people, situations, events do not possess their own meaning, rather, meaning is confered on them). Interpretation is influenced by things from their past. Through interpretation the individual constructsmeaning. Compatible with phenomenological perspective. People have problems and these problems may cause them to forge new definitions. How such definitions develop is the subject matter for investigation. Suggests that rules, regulations, norms and social belief systems are important in understanding behaviour only if people take them into account. The self is not seen as lying inside the individual like the ego or and organised body of needs, motives etc. The self is the definition people create (through interacting with others) of who they are. We come to see ourselves as others see us. The self is a social construction, the results of persons perceiving themselves and then developing a definition through the process of interaction.