In the 1970s, symbolic interactionism was seen as a major alternative to the then dominant ideas of functionalism and systems theory . For symbolic interactionists, the meaning of a situation or object is not fixed and unproblematic, rather it has to be constructed and arrived at by the participants in the scene.
Meanings are the product of social processes.
Emphasis is given to the active, interpretive and constructive capacities of individuals in the creation of social reality. This contrasts with those approaches in sociology which have given emphasis to the constraining effects of social structure in determining human behaviour and minimize the importance of individual activity. Symbolic interactionism has its intellectual roots in the concept of 'self' developed by G.H. Mead. Mead argued that social life depends on the ability of individuals to observe themselves from the standpoint of others. The concept of self develops by placing oneself in the position of others and looking back at oneself with an objective stance.