Elements of Society: Social Interaction

The process in which people act toward and respond to each other. Encounters may be face-to-face, or they may be more enduring and complex.

Major Perspectives

Symbolic interactionism and dramaturgy

Interaction is mediated by symbols and meanings.
Participants in an interaction actively create and interpret these symbols and meanings.

Exchange theory and rational choice

Interaction is mediated by the exchange of resources, esteem, prestige, and power.
Interaction participants actively try to maximize their rewards and minimize costs.

Gesture: One act in an ongoing interaction among several participants. George Herbert Mead distinguishes two types. Non-significant gestures include automatic reflexes such as breathing or blinking. Significant gestures include actions perceived as intentional; interaction participants try to interpret their intentions before responding to them.
Roles: Expectations about how people will behave in interactions that endure over time and across different situations. Such expectations make interaction more smooth and predictable. Contrast with Social Structure > Key Concepts > Functionalist Approach > Role.
Taking the role of the other: Imaginatively putting oneself in another’s situation. Mead claims this is necessary in attaching meanings to others’ gestures and anticipating their future actions, and is thus essential to all social interaction.
Impression management: Interaction participants’ attempts to control the impressions about themselves that others receive so that they appear to have a particular role or status or simply appear in a favorable light. (Dramaturgy)
Front stage and back stage: Two socially defined regions in which interaction occurs. The front stage is where impression management takes place; the back stage is where participants may relax and prepare for the next performance. (Dramaturgy)