COMM 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Communication
• Course: COMM 250
• Professor: Susan Hubbard

Document Summary

George herbert mead: fascinated by human"s ability to use symbols, mind, self, and society (1934, heuristic theory: generated a lot of discussion/research and stood the test of time. "symbolic interaction" was first coined by mead"s student: herbert blumer. Goal of sit: to explain how humans, through interaction with one another, create symbolic worlds, and how these worlds affect behavior, mead believes that communication is a social event. Assumption regarding meanings and behavior: people act based on symbolic meanings created through social interaction, different interactions can lead to different meanings for the same thing, meanings can change through additional interactions. Society- the web of social relationships humans create: exists prior to individuals, created by individuals interacting, creates individual "selfs, particular others (significant others, generalized others (society as a whole) Cronen, pearce, & harris (1982: chapter: the coordinated management of meaning: a theory of communication, theoreticla goal: to explain how people co-create meaning in conversation.