ABSTRACT

Symbolic interaction provides a point of view toward society as well as toward the individual and interpersonal relations. In fact, it ties these things together in such a way that sociology cannot be divorced from social psychology. Professor Blumer, probably the leading living exponent of the symbolic interactionist approach, interprets the manner in which this approach views organized human behavior and social change differently from the currently fashionable approaches to social organization and social structure. In so doing, he makes a number of important distinctions, including that between an “object” (upon which meaning is conferred by an individual) and a “stimulus” (which has an intrinsic character identifiable apart from the individual). Professor Blumer also makes explicit some of the methodological implications of symbolic interaction theory.