Symbolic Interaction: A Reader in Social Psychology

460 Pages·4.477 MB·English

by  Jerome G. Manis, Bernard N. Meltzer

Symbolic Interaction
SYMBOLIC INTERACTION:
A Reader in Social Psychology
THIRD EDITION
Jerome G. Manis
Western Michigan University
Bernard N. Meltzer
Central Michigan University
ALLYN AND BACON, INC.
Boston, London, Sydney, Toronto
For Laura Glance Manis and Ida Wasserman Meltzer
Copyright © 1978, 1972, 1967 by Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 470 Atlantic
Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02210. All rights reserved. Printed in
the United States of America. No part of the material protected by
this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record­
ing, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright owner.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Manis, Jerome G сотр.
Symbolic interaction.
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Symbolic interactionism—Addresses, essays,
lectures. 2. Social psychology—Addresses,
essays, lectures. I. Meltzer, Bernard N.,
joint сотр. II. Title.
HM291.M37 1978 301.1 77-25080
ISBN 0-205-06062-5
Contents
Preface to the Third Edition ix
Preface to the Second Edition xi
Preface to the First Edition xiii
INTRODUCTION: Intellectual Antecedents and Basic Propositions of
Symbolic Interactionism 1
PART I. THEORY AND METHODS 11
1. Bernard N. Meltzer, Mead's Social Psychology 15
2. Manford H. Kuhn, Major Trends in Symbolic Interaction Theory
in the Past Twenty-Five Years 27
3. Bernard N. Meltzer, John W. Petras, & Larry T. Reynolds, Varieties
of Symbolic Interactionism 41
4. Norman K. Denzin, The Research Act 58
5. Herbert Blumer, Sociological Analysis and the "Variable" 68
6. Howard S. Becker & Blanche Geer, Participant Observation and
Interviewing: A Comparison 76
7. Manford H. Kuhn & Thomas S. McPartland, An Empirical Investiga
tion of Self-Attitudes 83
SELECTED REFERENCES FOR PART ONE 91
PART II. SOCIETY 93
8. Herbert Blumer, Society as Symbolic Interaction 97
9. John Dewey, Communication, Individual and Society 104
vi Contents
10. Charles Horton Cooley, Primary Group and Human Nature 106
11. Tamotsu Shibutani, Reference Groups as Perspectives 108
12. Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, Institutions and Persons 116
13. Barbara Laslett & Carol A. B. Warren, Losing Weight: The Organiza
tional Promotion of Behavior Change 119
14. Darwin L. Thomas, David D. Franks, and James M. Calonico, Role-
Taking and Power in Social Psychology 128
15. Eugene A. Weinstein & Judith M. Tanur, Meanings, Purposes, and
Structural Resources in Social Interaction 138
16. Ralph H. Turner, The Public Perception of Protest 147
SELECTED REFERENCES FOR PART TWO 163
PART III. SELF 165
17. Charles Horton Cooley, Looking-Glass Self 169
18. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self to Others 171
19. Gregg S. Wilkinson, Psychiatric Disorder Dramaturgically Consid
ered 178
20. William L. Kolb, A Critical Evaluation of Mead's "I" and "Me"
Concepts 191
21. John W. Kinch, Experiments on Factors Related to Self-Concept
Change 197
22. Helen Znaniecki Lopata, Self-Identity in Marriage and Widow
hood 202
23. E. L. Quarantelli & Joseph Cooper, Self-Conceptions and Others:
A Further Test of Meadian Hypotheses 211
24. Edwin D. Driver, Self-Conceptions in India and the United States:
A Cross-Cultural Validation of the Twenty Statement Test 222
25. Charles W. Tucker, Some Methodological Problems of Kuhn's Self
Theory 232
SELECTED REFERENCES FOR PART THREE 240
PART IV. MIND 243
26. William Lewis Troyer, Mead's Social and Functional Theory of
Mind 247
27. John Dewey, Mind, Experience, and Behavior 252
28. William I. Thomas, The Definition of the Situation 254
29. Robert A. Stebbins, Studying the Definition of the Situation: Theory
and Field Research Strategies 258
30. Joan P. Emerson, "Nothing Unusual Is Happening" 272
Contents vii
31. Harold Garfinkel, Common Sense Knowledge of Social Structures:
The Documentary Method of Interpretation 281
32. Kurt Goldstein, Speech and Thinking 296
33. C. Wright Mills, Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive 301
34. John P. Hewitt and Randall Stokes, Disclaimers 308
SELECTED REFERENCES FOR PART FOUR 319
PART V. RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS 321
35. Sheldon Stryker, Symbolic Interaction as an Approach to Family
Research 323
36. Pat Carlen, The Staging of Magistrates' Justice 331
37. Howard S. Becker, Becoming a Marihuana User 337
38. Teresa E. Levitin, Deviants as Active Participants in the Labeling
Process: The Visibly Handicapped 344
39. William R. Rosengren, The Self in the Emotionally Disturbed 353
40. Erving Goffman, The Moral Career of the Mental Patient 362
41. Arlene Kaplan Daniels, The Social Construction of Military Psychiat
ric Diagnoses 380
SELECTED REFERENCES FOR PART FIVE 391
PART VI. APPRAISALS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM 393
42. Randall Collins, Interpretive Social Psychology 397
43. Jonathan H. Turner, Symbolic Interactionism and Social Organ
ization 400
44. John Lofland, Interactionist Imagery and Analytic Interrup
ts 402
45. Joan Huber, Symbolic Interaction as a Pragmatic Perspective: The
Bias of Emergent Theory 409
46. Herbert Blumer, Action vs. Interaction 419
47. Alvin W. Gouldner, Ethnomethodology 423
48. Edwin M. Lemert, Beyond Mead: The Societal Reaction to De
viance 426
SELECTED REFERENCES FOR PART SIX 435
CONCLUSION 437
Index 441
Preface
to the Third Edition
The third edition of this book, we believe, reflects an important phase in the
development of symbolic interactionism—a period of assessment of the perspective
as well as progress in applying it to new topics (see especially the new selections
in Part Two). In the first edition, we sought to bring together some of the most
significant contributions to this social psychological perspective. A second edition
incorporated more current theoretical and empirical materials, including several
from the related viewpoints of ethnomethodology, labeling theory, and the drama
turgical approach. Our present goal has been to clarify the present status of symbolic
interactionism by reviewing its origins, stating its basic propositions, adding recent
contributions, and presenting criticisms of the perspective. Our task has been both
aided and complicated by the large volume of published work relevant to this goal.1
Much of the third edition involves major changes from the earlier ones. As in
the second edition, more than a third of the readings are new. We have added a
general introduction, which briefly presents a review of the intellectual antecedents
of symbolic interactionism and an overview of its key ideas. The introductions to
the various parts of the book have been revised, as has the Conclusion. The Selected
References following each Part have been updated. Finally, we have made an impor
tant organizational change in the book by including a new Part containing appraisals
of symbolic interactionism from several theoretical, methodological, and ideological
standpoints. This material, in our judgment, offers the student a balanced understand
ing of the subject.
We herewith acknowledge our indebtedness to colleagues who carefully re
viewed our prospectus for this edition: Charles Bolton, Portland State University;
Dennis Brissett, University of Minnesota at Duluth; Clyde W. Franklin, Ohio State
University; John P. Hewitt, University of Massachusetts; Sheldon Stryker, Indiana
University; and William C. Yoels, Indiana University Northwest. We are also deeply
indebeted to Susan Shott for her invaluable assistance in almost every phase of
our work, and to William J. Meltzer, who helped us to evaluate several of the new
X Preface to the Third Edition
reading selections. And, finally, we are grateful to Gary L. Folven, Senior Editor
of Allyn and Bacon, Inc., for his numerous useful recommendations and his amiable
perseverance, and to Cynthia Hartnett, Production Editor, for her proficiency in
handling the production of this book.
JGM
BNM
NOTES
1. Illustrative of recent textbooks, collections of readings, and monographs falling within
the symbolic interactionism tradition or related traditions are: Arnold Birenbaum and Edward
Sagarin (eds.), People in Places: The Sociology of the Familiar (New York: Praeger Publishers,
1973); Niels Winther Braroe, Indian and White: Self-Image and Interaction in a Canadian
Plains Community (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974); Dennis Brisset and Charles
Edgley (eds.), Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Source Book (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Com
pany, 1975); Arthur Brittan, Meanings and Situations (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1973); James B. Cowie and Julian B. Roebuck, An Ethnography of a Chiropractic Clinic-
Definitions of a Deviant Situation (New York: The Free Press, 1975); Irwin Deutscher, What
We Say I What We Do: Sentiments and Acts (Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company,
1973); John P. Hewitt, Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, Inc., l976); Robert H. Lauer and Warren H. Handel, Social Psychology:
The Theory and Application of Symbolic Interactionism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1977); Wilfred B. W. Martin, The Negotiated Order of the School (Canada: Macmillan, 1976);
Hugh Mehan and Houston Wood, The Reality of Ethnomethodology (New York: John Wiley
and Sons, 1975); Bernard N. Meltzer, John W. Petras, and Larry T. Reynolds, Symbolic Interac
tionism: Genesis, Varieties and Criticism (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975); Monica
B. Morris, An Excursion into Creative Sociology (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977);
George Psathas (ed.), Phenornenological Sociology: Issues and Applications (New York: John
Wiley and Sons, 1973); Robert A. Stebbins, Teachers and Meaning: Definitions of Classroom
Situations (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975); and Roy Turner (ed.), Ethnomethodology (Middlesex,
England: Penguin Education, 1974).
Preface
to the Second Edition
Since the appearance in 1967 of the first edition of this book, we have been
gratified by the publication of several other textbooks, monographs, and anthologies
with similar orientations.1 A growing research literature in books and professional
journals also attests to the significance and viability of symbolic interactionism, as
does the diffusion of this perspective within the disciplines of sociology and social
psychology.
Currently, symbolic interactionism can no longer be identified with a few individ
uals at a few major universities. The articles in this book are representative of the
work of a great number of contributors to theory and research. Their efforts, as
well as the many more cited in the Selected Bibliography at the close of each
Part of the book, are evidence of the widespread prevalence of the symbolic interac
tionism perspective in American social psychology.
The present edition embodies some important changes from the earlier one.
More than a third of the selections are new, and the total number of selections
has been increased, along with the total number of pages in the book. We have
retained, however, our emphasis on current, significant, and readable materials—
both theoretical and empirical. Of greater significance is the inclusion of recent
selections from the social psychologies spawned or strongly influenced by symbolic
interactionism: ethnomethodology, labeling theory, dramaturgical sociology, and the
"sociology of the absurd."2 These orientations emphasize the active, self-aware na
ture of human conduct and enjoin those who wish to understand that conduct,
whether for scientific or "everyday" reasons, to take the standpoint of the actor.
Drawing inspiration from existentialism and phenomenology, as well as from sym
bolic interactionism, they number among their major progenitors such diverse names
as Edmund Husserl and his interpreters, Alfred Schutz and Maurice Merleau-Ponty;
Jean-Paul Sartre and Edward A. Tiryakian; Erving Goffman; and Edwin M. Lemert,
along with George Herbert Mead and other classical symbolic interactionists. Repre
sentative of the newer orientations are the selections in this book by Arlene Kaplan
xii Preface to the Second Edition
Daniels (selection 46), Harold Garfinkel (selections 17 and 32), Erving Goffman (selec
tions 20 and 45), George Psathas (selection 9), and Marvin B. Scott and Stanford
M. Lyman (selection 36).
The editors herewith acknowledge their special indebtedness to Carl J. Couch,
University of Iowa, and John W. Petras, Central Michigan University, who prepared
intensive evaluations of the first edition. Their critical comments and suggestions,
while as frequently rejected as accepted by us, informed the present edition. We
also thank our many other colleagues in the field who appraised the earlier edition
for us and who made numerous suggestions for the revised edition. And, finally,
we offer our gratitude to Gary L. Folven and Nancy L. Murphy of Allyn and Bacon,
Inc., who gave us their painstaking and invaluable assistance in various phases of
the production of this book.
JGM
BNM
NOTES
1. Among these are Herbert Blumer, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method
(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969); Alfred R. Lindesmith and Anselm L. Strauss
(eds.), Readings in Social Psychology (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 1969); Peter
McHugh, Defining the Situation: The Organization of Meaning in Social Interaction
(Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1968); Tamotsu Shibutani (ed.). Human Nature and
Collective Behavior: Papers in Honor of Herbert Blumer (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1970); Gregory P. Stone and Harvey A. Farberman (eds.), Social Psychology Through Symbolic
Interaction (Waltham: Ginn/Blaisdell, 1970).
2. The following books are representative of these approaches: Hans Peter Dreitzel (ed.),
Recent Sociology, No. 2: Patterns of Communicative Behavior (London: Collier-Macmillan,
Ltd., 1970); Jack D. Douglas (ed.), Understanding Everyday Life: Toward the Reconstruction
of Sociological Knowledge (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970); Harold Garfinkel,
Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967); Erving Goffman,
Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company,
1967); Stanford M. Lyman and Marvin B. Scott, A Sociology of the Absurd (New York: Appleton-
Century-Crofts, 1970); George J. McCall and J. L. Simmons, Identities and Interactions: An
Examination of Human Associations in Everyday Life (New York: The Free Press, 1966).