A Theory of Social Interaction

Book excerpt: In developing the most comprehensive theory of social interaction among humans to date, the author has also constructed a general theory of micro dynamics for sociology and social psychology. He does so by reviewing existing theories of the past and present, synthesixing these concepts into abstract models and principles of social interaction. In contrast to Talcott Parsons and many others, the book argues that social interaction, rather than action and behaviour, is sociology's most basic unit of analysis. This unit is conceptualized as involving three processes: (1) motivational, or the process of mobilizating and energizing interactive behaviour, (2) interactional, or the process of mutual signaling and interpreting with symbols, and (3) structuring, or the process of repeating and organizing social interactions in time and place. For each of these three constituent processes, the relevant theories are analyzed and then synthesized into composite models and general laws.