Symbolic Interactionism

In psychology, there is the idea of the multiple selves. Many of us have read or at least have heard about the multiple selves' theory. But I'd like to look at this from a bit of a different angle by asking a question. If each one of us potentially has many social selves, then how does each one of those selves develop and how do we decide which one of the multiple selves to use or activate at any given time?

The theory or idea of symbolic interactionism says that the relationships that we hold with other people act quite strongly in helping us form the self as an identity. And so when we look at symbolic interactionism from this perspective, we see that people
simply exist on a day to day basis in a sort of a symbolic environment where we assign meanings to objects and situations by interpreting them as symbols that they are.

During the process of growing up, we learn a whole lot from our parents, siblings, friends, and basically the environment that we grow up in and are surrounded by. This is why we often hear about how an environment more than anything else leads a person to do certain things like commit crime and consume drugs, etc. This is also why they say, tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are, or stated otherwise, you get the idea.

The chances of a child succeeding in adult hood are often dependent on the environment the child is raised in. It is a well-known and documented fact that children who grow up in a positive environment with supportive parents, good friends, attend good schools, and are well off financially, have a better chance of doing well for them in the future.

This of course is not written in stone but as a general rule this is the case. And yes I know there are people out there who grew up in the ghettos, slums, and projects and came up big to become powerful people and are even now helping improve society. But again, the general idea is supported that if you grow up in a bad neighborhood, in a low income family, without support, hang out with criminals and drug users, your chances of future success are worse than if you didn't grow up under such circumstances. This is even the case with smart and intelligent children but is again not always the case.

The reason for this is that as members of society, we tend to rely on the social norms that surround us. For some these social norms may be more or less positive than for others and so we tend to learn and base out realities on the realities of day to day life and the struggles it brings with it, or the lack thereof.

The point is that over time, we learn to agree on shared meanings that are placed in front of us. At a young age, if all of our closest friends are doing drugs for example, we tend to agree with the idea that drugs are okay and are a normal part of life. Our friends agree with that idea, and we tend to support our friends for a number of different reasons ranging from trying to fit in and not wanting to argue to simple conditioning which happens over time.

The same goes with advertising, for example, we know that when we see a Ferrari, a Mercedes, a BMW, or any other exotic, luxury, or sports car, we tend to mostly agree on a status of wealth. Same goes for street lights, we see red, we know it means we need to stop, otherwise we are running the risk of getting into an accident if we run a red light. We see green, it means go, simple as that. Lots of examples and parallels can be run here but if this hasn't made sense, let me try one more time. We see the golden arches, do we confuse it with anything or do we just think of McDonald's? Probably McDonald's right? Or we think of a Big Mac, or fries, or something similar, basically fast food is on our minds.

This is very important because this make up tells us of how we think of ourselves in general. What makes the self? Well, simply stated, what you see is what you get. Basically, what we own and cherish, describes us as people. As we evaluate ourselves, which often happens on a subconscious level, our possessions begin to play very big and key role in the evaluations of ourselves and add in no small way to the final outcome or decision of who we decide we are.

As mentioning earlier, much of what we experience and see in our day to day lives are generalized as simple social objects. Although they may seem simple, sometimes they are, sometimes they're not, but in either case, they hold a whole lot of meaning in us. Sometimes it's something near and dear to you only, and other times, it means a lot to a large group of people.

We as consumers derive a lot of meaning from everything that is being marketed to us on a minute by minute basis. Because this has been the case for hundreds of years, and also because over the years, marketers have only gotten better at doing their jobs, we tend to interpret things as they are intended by advertisers and marketers, we develop stronger beliefs, guided interpretations, and identify strongly with the messages advertisers want to identify with.

It should also be noted that we as a people are continually evolving our definition of ourselves and how we see ourselves. We are constantly interpreting our own identities, and more importantly is the understanding that this process, and it is a process, is constantly evolving as we come in contact with new people, new things or objects and generally see life unfolding as an experience.

In terms of symbolic interactionism, we tend to settle, accommodate, and even bring to terms these meanings which we develop over time. With time these ideas become a part of who we are; this is the reasoning behind a young person selling drugs in the ghetto. This is the reason why bad neighborhoods tend to have higher levels of crime, and bring forth lower levels of education and wealth accumulation. And I know this from personal experience, I grew up in bad neighborhoods, I had these experiences, I've known these people, had these friends, and all of this is from personal experience.

Basically, we begin to look at each situation and ask ourselves, "in this particular situation, who am I?" And finally, when the answer comes to us, the answer often depends on those same surrounding that I've spoken at length here. The environment that we grow up in overtime drives the answers to this very question. If someone is busy selling drugs to feed their family, or constantly on the lookout watching their back, their focus is usually not in the same place as the people who never had to deal with these types of issues and whose minds are doing a whole different kind of computation.

Basically we tend to create patterns of thought which are driven by the experiences in the environment we spend the majority of our time in, and in turn these patterns often determine our behaviors and behavioral outcomes. This can be seen as our own behavior, the behavior of our friends, peers, associates, and colleagues or it can simply be built on our perceived expectations of others in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. But it should be noted that even though this is considered a perception, it is a very strong perception because it is based on the daily experiences and therefore expectations of a person living in an environment which drives the cycle.

What finally happens is that because we assume that others expect us to act in a specific way, we begin acting the way we assume others expect us to act. By following through on the perceived expectations of what we assume is true for someone else's beliefs or expectations of our behavior, we tend to end up basically confirming those perceptions.

This is of course an overly simplified view of how it really works, but then again, that is only my perception of how things are. With that in mind, I'd like to leave you with that decision. Comment and let me know what you think below, even if you disagree, I'd love to hear from you.