Using a unique step-by-step, integrated approach, this text organizes the basic concepts of symbolic interactionism in such a way that students understand them clearly and are able to apply them to their own lives. It emphasizes the active side of human beings—humans as definers and users of the environment, humans as problem solvers and in control of their own actions—and it shows students how society makes us, and how we in turn shape society. Each chapter examines a single concept, but relates that concept to the whole perspective and to other concepts in the perspective.