The Theory Of Symbolic Interaction Of George Herbert Mead And The Chicago School

This dissertation reviews the progress of the famous American SocialPsychologist George Herbert Mead’s Theory of Symbolic Interaction in terms of itsformulation, establishment and development. It also conducts a comprehensiveexamination and analysis of the relationship between Mead’s theory and the ChicagoSchool. With the insight into Mead’s Theory’s development, it further explores theinspiration that the Theory has brought to the brand new form of social interaction inthe internet era.The first Chapter states that Mead’s theory of Symbolic Interaction has extensiveand complex ideological sources and during the theoretical system’s constructionprocess, it has particularly demonstrated two styles of confrontations of differingviews with significant influence on communication studies. Therefore, examination ofthe theory’s evolution and development in particular historical time and spatialbackground is of important academic value.The second Chapter examines the social background where Mead’s SymbolicInteraction theory was generated. First, it confirms the sources of Mead’s theory inspecific ideological environment through clarifying the influence that German’sIdealism tradition, American’s Pragmatism and Darwin’s theory of Evolution have onMead. Second, it elaborates Simmel’s theory, Jamesian theory of Self, Cooley’stheory of Looking-Glass Self and Dewey’s theory of Social Interaction, which hassystematically substantiated the grounding of Mead’s core concept. Finally, itexpounds the characteristics of Mead’s Symbolic Interaction theory through focusingon three key areas of Mead’s theoretic framework: Symbol, Self, and Society.The third Chapter mainly reviews the advancement of Mead’s theory of SymbolicInteraction from the historical evolutionary process in terms of the two rises and fallsof Chicago School of Sociology. It starts from the Chicago School’s developmentjourney, then examines Symbolic Interactionism’ fundamentals and its evolution, and finally provides an in-depth understanding of Mead’s theory.The fourth Chapter studies the value and inspiration of Mead’s theory throughexamining the theory in the background of new ways of interpersonal communicationin the Big Data era. The paper concludes that the Big Data era and the popularity ofsocial media is the practice and reflection of the essence of Symbolic Interactionism.