Assess the Claim Made by Interactionists That the Social World Has to be Explained in Terms of the Meanings That the Actors Give to Their Actions

Interactionists, who believe in symbolic interactionism, contrary to other sociologists, believe that there is no structure in society, and so there is nothing to influence a person's behaviour. Interactionists also tend to look at every person (the actor) as an individual and study him or her in detail, rather than absorbing people into predetermined groups and studying each group. One interactionist, George Hubert Mead, develop a concept, known as the self concept, which talks about the various stages in which we develop ourselves. This is done by acting and copying the actions of certain significant people in our lives. …