Three premises of symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism rests in the last analysis on three simple premises. The first premise is that human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them. Such things include everything that the human being may note in his world-physicalobjects, such as trees or chairs, other human beings such as a mother or a store clerk categories of human beings, such as friends or enemies institutions, as a schoolor a government guiding ideas, such as individualindependence or honesty; activities of others, such as their commands or requests; and such situations as an individual encounters in his daily life The second premise is that the meaning of such thing is derived from, or arise out of, the social interaction that one has with one's fellows. The third premise is that these meanings are handled in, and modified through an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he encounters Herbert blumerThree Premises of Symbolic Interactionism • Symbolic interactionism rests in the last analysis on three simple premises. The first premise is that human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them. Such things include everything that the human being may note in his world-physical objects, such as trees or chairs, other human beings, such as a mother or a store clerk; categories of human beings, such as friends or enemies; institutions, as a school or a government; guiding ideas, such as individual independence or honesty; activities of others, such as their commands or requests; and such situations as an individual encounters in his daily life. The second premise is that the meaning of such thing is derived from, or arise out of, the social interaction that one has with one’s fellows. The third premise is that these meanings are handled in , and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he encounters Herbert Blumer