Does this theory provide a new understanding of people? Yes, I believe that this theory does provide a new understanding into the human condition of the way people construct reality. It also tries to explain how people assign meaning to words. It also helps people to understand themselves better. The theory does this by applying the term the looking glass self. The looking glass self is "imaging how we look to another person. By doing this we "see" ourselves and understand ourselves better.

Does this theory clarify values? A good humanistic theory brings people's values into the open. I do feel that this theory clarifies values. As I said before, Mead's theory deals with self. Self is something that most societies value as important. This theory provides us with a way of looking at ourselves through the looking glass self, the generalized other, and self-fulfilling prophecies. The looking glass self is imaging how we look to another person or "taking the other." The generalized other is a combination of all of the looking glass selves that others give us. "The term is a synonym for our "me." Lastly self-fulfilling prophecies is "the tendency for our expectations to evoke responses in others that confirm what we originally anticipated." All of these aspects combined together to help us understand ourselves. It should now be obvious to you that this theory does clarify values, the values that we place on ourselves.

Does this theory have aesthetic appeal? No, I do not feel that this theory has aesthetic appeal. To me the theory is to long, it suffers from lack of clarity. I think that this may have been caused by the simple fact that the theory does not come from the exact words of the theorist. Although, Mead did come up with the ideas that surround symbolic interactionism he died before he could publish any of his ideas. It was his students, imparticular Herbert Blumer who coined the term symbolic interactionism and put together his teachers works. It could be that Mead's theory was simple and concise when he first taught it, but then through the years the theory became complicated. This complication of the theory could be attributed to the fact that different people have attached different meanings to the theory and they are now all applied together

Does this theory have a community of agreement surrounding it? When I answered this question I referred back to the text book A First Look At Communication Theory at the end of the chapter on Symbolic interactionism there was a critique on the theory. This critique stated that Mead's theory suffers from lack of clarity and from overstatement. However, the author of this critique also says that the theory is a "remarkable endeavor." Another remark that the author makes is that many other humanistic communication theorists "owe an intellectual debt to Mead's thinking." From the information that I gathered from this critique I have decided that although, some people believe that there are problems with Mead's theory, most theorists have benefited from his works. Consequently, I believe that there is a community of agreement surrounding this theory.

Does this theory reform society in some way? This criteria does not have any relevance to this theory. I do not think that Mead intended for this theory to reform society in any way. This theory was mainly put together to help people understand the meaning of language and how language effects one's self. Some theories such as genderlect, coordinated management of meaning, and social penetration theory were put together to change some aspect of society, but symbolic interactionism is not like any of these theories. This theory has it's own specific purpose to help people gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the language that they use.

Now to answer the question is this theory a good humanistic theory? The theory follows three of the five criteria for evaluating a theory. Based on this analysis of the I feel that this theory is OK. I do not feel that it is one of the best theories because it is very confusing. However, I have to give it credit for fulfilling three of the criteria.

LINKS
Home

Jeff's Research Report

Chasity's Application

Through The Looking Glass And What Alice Found

A Research Paper on Symbolic Interactionism

A Web Page Dedicated To Mead

A First Look At Communication Theory: EM Griffin, "Symbolic Interactionism of George Herbert Mead," 3ded., The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York, 1997.