In modern sociological science, there are several fairly large theories that can be called paradigmatic. Symbolic interactionism is one of these theories, which is based on the fact that the interactions (interactions) of people in society occur through communication, which is based on the production and recognition of certain characters. A person reacts to stimuli of the external natural and social world indirectly, comprehends reality with the help of images, signs, symbols and exchanges these symbols in the process of interpersonal communication. Symbolic interactionism, prominent representatives of which were American sociologists J. G. Mead (1863-1931) and G. Bloomer (1900-1986), analyzes social interactions in their symbolic content. The basic concept of this theory is interaction (interaction), which is an exchange of symbols.
The symbolic interactionism of J. Mead is based on the fact that the individual's representation of reality is determined by his experience in communicating with other people, and especially his perception of the world, himself and other people so that it is relevant to the vision and symbolic meanings of other people's social reality. According to J. Mead, society and the social individual (social "I") are constituted in the totality of the processes of interindividual interactions. The theory of symbolic interactionism suggests that a symbol can mean any object, event or phenomenon and implies a certain reaction of a person to it, which can be expressed in certain social actions corresponding to this symbol. In addition, a symbol is a means by which a person can communicate and interact with others. Symbolic interactionism in sociology is based on the interpretation of human behavior, in which symbols are viewed that carry information that is meaningful to people.
The most important merit of J. Mead is the role theory of personality developed by him , according to which the personality, its originality and specific characteristics are determined through the social roles played by it, and the personality’s activity in this case is the totality of its social roles embodied in the language system of symbols and other symbolic systems. Thanks to the process of accepting social roles, the individual develops his self - the ability of a person to represent himself as an object of his thinking.
The human self in its development goes through two stages:
1) the stage of the game, when the child begins to play roles that are not his own (teacher, doctor, pilot);
2) the stage of competition, when, taking part in competitions, the child sees himself from the side, through the eyes of other children.
Any social group that gives the individual a sense of organization, J. Mead calls it: "generalized another." Each individual sees himself from the position of a “generalized other."
The follower and student of J. Mead, an American scientist Herbert Bloomer, developed the initial postulates of this theory. According to G. Blumer, symbolic interactionism is based on three basic postulates:
1) A person is more likely to act on the basis of the values that he attaches to objects, events and phenomena, rather than simply reacting to external natural and social stimuli;
2) Symbolic meanings are not so fixed, constant, formulated in advance, how much they are created, developed and changed in situations of interaction;
3) Symbolic meanings are the result of interpretations carried out in contexts of interaction (interactions).
In his works, G. Bloomer examined in detail the collective behavior of people, the basis of which is shared by meanings, symbols, expectations shared by a social group. This is, most often, the conscious behavior of individuals in a team, but there are also spontaneous group behavior, such as the action of a crowd, panic, etc. Such behavior may occur in circumstances of violation of accepted values, ordinary forms of existence. G. Bloomer, along with spontaneous groups, also studied stable forms of social behavior - social movements, as well as revival and nationalist movements that have a clear structural organization and are formed on the basis of generally accepted values.