The Symbolic Process and its Integration in Children
Chapter 12: The Symbolic Process and Social Control
John Fordyce Markey
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A BRIEF summary will bring together some important facts to be considered in the problem of the relation of the symbolic process and reflective control.
The trend from the individualistic subjective and structural conception to the social behaviouristic conception of the symbolic process was traced.
Symbols are integrated in a social behaviour process and their content is action. Even the so-called abstract words have this same basis. There is a continuity between man and the other animals regarding this process. Symbolic integration shows a continuity with other forms of behaviour. Symbolic behaviour is dependent upon preceding processes and represents a dynamic and continually changing phase of social life which results in new working wholes or functional unitary configurations. Causal relations are demonstrable and the presuppositions of a physical and chemical basis are valid. Thus the symbolic process is to be explained mechanistically. It is an observable process and subject to check by objective quantitative methods. Scientific laws and prediction are possible and demonstrable in this process, yet there result discoveries, inventions, creations, and new configurations unpredicted before they occur.
In regard to the origin of symbols and reflective behaviour, the integration of the social " self " and the " other " phases of personality and social life are apparently fundamental. The data examined points to definite laws and relationships holding between the development of " persons " and " personalities " and symbolic development. It is in the symbolic process that
( 168) the " self " and " other " aspects arise, and vice versa. In the early years of childhood, symbolic behaviour centres around the self, for experience is centred here for the child. The expanding personal and group experience stimulates the development of reflective behaviour into more finely and complexly organized modes of symbolization and symbolic analysis, and also toward greater expansion of the centre of reflective behaviour to larger groupings and universes of knowledge and discourse.
The " self " and " other " aspects are group unities and exist only in social interaction, not in individuals subtracted from social interaction. The group unity is a fact and not a " fallacy." The origin and rise of symbolic; behaviour requires the substitution and interchange of social stimuli. This is seen to occur in the social-vocal-auditory situation. Hence knowledge, meaning, and ideas are acquired indirectly in asocial medium. A fallacy which runs through the work of a great many psychologists is the assumption that we know directly instead of indirectly by taking the role of the stimulus object, as shown by a social-behaviour analysis.. This is the major fallacy of introspectionism.
Due to the fact that symbols in the final analysis are action words and acquired in action, they necessarily arise and function most effectively in the primary and active phases of social life, such as the basic, the maintenance, economic, and materialistic processes.
The relation of the symbolic process to social control will be discussed from two standpoints : first, the control of individual behaviour ; and second, group control. Space will permit, however, only a sketchy statement. It is a problem for much more special investigation.
In the beginning of the symbolic development of the child-and evidently of the race as well--all symbols, as previously indicated, are personal symbols on account of their genesis through interchange of personal stimuli. It is only after some development in symbolic integration that physical objects are differentiated from personal objects.
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In view of the fact that the individual's self or personality is realized in symbolic integration and that this integration is a part with other personalities as well as a phase of group unity, there exists herein a very powerful means of control. The group may control individual behaviour by the manipulation of personal symbols especially. The symbolic integration of the self may be controlled by determining the kind of personality which is permissible or prized or excluded in the group. The young boy fears being called a " sissy." The derogatory term " black-leg " or " scab " exerts a powerful influence over workers. So drastic is such a term that it has been made a legal offence in some places to apply the term to a worker. The " pacifist " is pictured as a thin-blooded, weak-kneed, pale, sallow, and disreputable person. Many dangerous and ridiculous things have been done to be a " good sport." Symbols of " respectability " and " decency " must be observed. Where men or women wear only a string around the waist their dress is decent, but it is indecent to leave off the string (Sumner, 1906, p. 425). " Mohammedan women, if surprised when bathing, cover first the face " (ibid., p. 421) could be said some years ago, while recently there have been public burnings of the veil.
The fact that the child's personality is only realized in the group means that this type of control may be very decisive if manipulated properly. A person is dependent, if not upon one, then another group, and ordinarily upon a whole complex of groupings for his very existence as a person. The group adds to, takes away, moulds and makes the personalities of its members. The " bad " or " good " boy is a creation of the group. Durkheim (1912) has found in studying the phenomena of suicide that in general the causes are either isolation or too great regimentation of the person in social contact. In either of these cases the personality suffers. In isolation it atrophies, in too great regimentation its distinguishing marks are done away with, and the person is lost, one among many similar ones. The control of persons is illustrated by the great amount of attention given to group opinion, to the way its members
( 170) will symbolize and act toward one, to the " looking glass I " so aptly phrased by Cooley, and to the adoration for the gifts from the " dead hand " of the past. Burgess has summarized some aspects of this type of control (1923).
The repetition of symbols may have a remarkable cumulative effect. Semon concludes that even stimuli below the threshold of stimulation have some engramic effect, for it is well known that repeated application of a subliminal stimulus may after a time produce a regular response.
In view of the facts regarding the control of the individual by the group it is evident that persons themselves, by controlling the stimuli to which they will be subjected and the groups to which they belong, can thereby create in themselves different personalities. The possibilities, of course, are conditioned by their past equipment and the possibility of controlling the stimuli to which they will be subjected. Such control is sometimes quite limited, due to the influence of past experience which may be so real in present symbolic behaviour that it is hard to eliminate. In this latter case, the concentration of activity upon the " means whereby " (Alexander, 1918) the new habits are to be established, rather than upon the old symbols and upon the end itself, may serve to integrate new and different symbols, in spite of the tendency for old habits to operate. Activity is thus directed into a different course than the previous symbols would call for.
The behaviouristic explanation of reflective behaviour, showing how the whole body, muscles, glands and bodily organs, is involved, means that symbolic stimulation by one's self, or by others, also exerts a reciprocal influence over muscles, organs, glands, etc. Much has been said and written about the control of the individual's organic mechanisms by such means, but as yet our knowledge is quite inadequate concerning this obviously important phase of individual organic control by symbolic behaviour. Much more specific research is needed upon this subject. Alexander (1918) represents one suggestive approach.
The control of the group is escaped often, by a life in
( 171) so-called imaginary or in substitute symbolic groups, i.e., past, absent and future groups which give one a personality. This personality and personal or social status phase is a part of all reflective control, and must be adequately taken into consideration.
Within, and in addition to, these more strictly personal phases of group control, the symbols which can be integrated and configurated into the more active phases of the individual behaviour become, therefore, of greater influence in controlling the individual.
Besides the control depending upon the reflective behaviour of the individual, there are all those nonreflective modes of action which may be determined by the adequate control of the group situation including physical conditions and stimuli. Group situations are thus seen to present the social backgrounds and surroundings in which social influences, symbolic and non-symbolic, direct and limit the kind of personality which may be developed.
The next consideration, then, is the relation of the symbolic process to the group unit in which selves and personalities are determined and integrated. New and more abstract symbolic behaviour has had notable importance, as shown before, as it has been incorporated into the primary phases of social life, production, distribution, consumption, etc. It has thus been able to determine more effectively -our behaviour responses. Scientific discoveries and inventions, a most important aspect of the symbolic process, have had their profoundest effects in this manner. In order that symbols may be most effective, their active configuration in group activity is necessary. Upon this primary material and economic basis, as Sumner (1906, pp. 34 seq., Ch. III passim), following the lead of economic determinists, has well shown, are elaborated the standards or mores of maintenance. These mores consist of symbolic standards which have become common and obtained sanction as conducive to the welfare of the group in this field of collective behaviour, having grown out of group habits and folkways. Thus reflective use of physical and material
( 172) equipment, machinery, techniques, tools, methods, and conditions of work, goods produced and living standards is a most effective method of influencing group behaviour. Groups and nations having similar material conditions tend to develop similar symbolic behaviour, similar reason and logic, and similar maintenance mores.
A further elaboration of the maintenance standards are, according to Sumner, the secondary mores still further removed, but resting upon the maintenance mores and finally upon the material and economic aspects of the community. There exists a strain toward consistency (Sumner, 1906, pp. 6, 38 f), between the secondary and the maintenance mores, the latter exercising a predominating influence. Also these more abstract systems of ethics or conduct exert a reciprocal influence and, by incorporation into the more active or primary phases, may become more influential in one way or another. In general, the more removed the mores are from the preservation of the primary activities of group life, the more these symbolic standards are supported merely by group opinion and the like. The closer these symbolic standards, the mores, are to the material and economic phases, the greater the amount of physical and forceful machinery organized to support the mores or standards in the advent of their failure to function on their own authority. This is illustrated in political, diplomatic, legal, and military maintenance of economic relation. Such control is particularly strong in times of crisis, when all available means of control are brought into operation to maintain the established order. The phenomenon of war illustrates such stringent coercive control. Some symbols are strictly prohibited in speech and press, while other symbols are especially played up. The " soldier," the " patriot," the " dollar-a-year men," the " protection of our homes," " national heroes," are set up as symbols of emotional unification. National songs, accompanied by ceremonies, are used as symbols to arouse group and national spirit and morale. Community song feasts are organized to arouse spirit for the " cause." Particularly is the " country's flag " made more actively
( 173) a symbolic fetish. Daily ceremonial rites-action-in and out of the soldiery are performed with strict rules and reverence to establish and maintain its symbolic unifying power.
These facts of common experience, which have been analysed by sociological investigators, again emphasize the significance of action in giving content to symbols and in effecting symbolic integration.
In normal times less restriction and more reliance is placed upon symbols themselves to perpetuate and continue existing social organization and customs. It is here that symbols play a particular role. They are often fetishes. Almost anything can be done, if smuggled in under the wing of " progress." " Democracy " is a thing to work or fight for. " Success " is a magic word. In order to make symbols more potent, ceremonials-again increase in action content-are carried on in connection with them, such as Spencer, Sumner, Thomas, and many others have described. For instance, in primitive Mexico at the annual festival of the war god, an image of it, made of grain, seeds, and vegetables kneaded with the blood of boys was broken up and " eaten by males only ` after the manner of our communion ' " (Sumner, 1906, p. 337) In modern times, school groups go through ceremonials to establish reverence for " God " and " Country " in preparation for eventual patriotic " sacrifice " if necessary. Ceremonials quite similar to certain primitive rites are practised by some modern religious orders in order to maintain the symbolic prestige of its dogmas regarding personal sacrifice and obligation to other persons and to the god of the group. Symbolic rituals are carried out in founding public institutions, establishing marital relations, or in maintaining legal prestige. Illustrations could be multiplied.
However, due to the fact that group experiences are always different, there is an essential role which the symbolic process plays besides merely manipulating such stimuli to which the group must react. The symbolic process is a generalizer of group experience. It thus
( 174) furnishes a basis for a common understanding and group control.
Symbols integrate the complex social acts of the group; consequently they become functional in co-ordinating group behaviour and effecting a greater division of labour. The systems of sociology which emphasize only. similars and like responses have pointed out only one aspect of collective behaviour. Symbolic behaviour gives a constellation, or unification, of the different types of behaviour of the whole social action pattern. Symbols, then, become means of mobilizing and incorporating within themselves dissimilar and varied action content. In addition there is always the fact that the symbol is a group or social affair. The symbol may thus produce concerted group action, although carrying to a remarkable extent different behaviour content due to a division of labour and the co-ordinated activity associated with it. This group control aspect of symbols is so marked that individuals and groups within larger groups at various times act directly counter to their own interests, being subject to the effective influence of group symbols and their reinforcing stimuli.
Some symbols become especially effective as mobilizers of group action. Darkheim, for instance, has emphasized this phase. He has developed the conception of " collective representations," i.e., common social symbols and standards which have developed and live in the life of the group, relatively independent of the sanction of the separate individuals, who are constrained and controlled by them. Lippmann (1922) also, in his stimulating book Public Opinion, has analysed the control of stereotype symbols in modern life. These stereotypes are sufficiently vague and general to be influential over a large body of experience, but sufficiently conditioned to action and emotion to be of great effectiveness.
A most significant factor in making effective the control of the group by the use and manipulation of symbols, including the art of propaganda, is the emotional basis and conditioning involved in so many symbols, and particularly those directly bearing upon the more personal
( 175) integrations affecting the personal " self " and status or existence. These become more capable on that account of being used as control mechanisms. By their use people may be aroused to positive or negative emotional reactions as was done by the atrocity stories used to work up hatred and fear toward the" Huns." Positive attitudes may also be aroused toward " friends," " brothers " and " protectors." With a strong emotional state the group is then in a position to be influenced by symbols to action in one way or another according to the trend of the aroused emotion and the adroitness with which the emotional drives are directed.
Symbolic integration, as we see, furnishes a remarkable mechanism for the mobilization of group action into a unitary co-ordination. The brain which is a functional part of the symbolic process is admirably constructed to facilitate the domination and utilization of the " vital " or " energetic " reserves of the individuals in group behaviour. In humans, the cerebral mechanisms include highly-specialized secondary associational centres which are free from specific contextual relations and thus are operative as general connections for whatever activity is under way, thus drawing in other behaviour resources. There are nervous elements which are structurally situated so as to function in discharging their vital reserves into whatever associational system is in action. Thus the actions initiated by proper symbolic manipulation may arouse other centres and draw upon the energetic resources of the body in a most effective manner and to a much greater degree, for instance, than is possible among less complexly developed animals (see Herrick, 1926, Ch. XIII and XVII). Although emotions are generally regarded as individual, still the manipulation of symbols which have been properly conditioned to the emotions of the group may thereby produce a group unity and morale which is a powerful means of group control. Such a group morale or emotional group coherence may properly be thought of as a group rather than an individual phenomenon and may be included under a study of group control.
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The mobilization and use of the group's energetic reserves is apt to be an expensive operation, particularly if there is no adequate return for the energy expended. Dodge (1920) has discussed some salient phases of the limits of propaganda, for example. Also, as conditioned responses are an important aspect of both symbolic integration and emotional conditioning, it is important to consider all the limits of such conditioning. To illustrate, Pavlov (1923) has demonstrated the close relation of conditioning to sleep. The dog, for instance, even though very hungry, could be quickly put to sleep by the conditioned stimulus, and even before asleep-while it could still observe meat, it would not make the necessary effort to snatch it. The principles operating here undoubtedly operate in humans as well.
A rational or reflective control of the group to attain a given object or carry out a given programme must take into consideration the above and many other facts regarding social control and group behaviour. The relation of symbols to habitual, so-called rational, emotional, and other forms of individual and group behaviour is, indeed, a fertile field for investigation, but it is outside the scope of the present study to go into an investigation of these mechanisms in detail. This task must await a future effort.
Finally, in regard to the type of social control based upon a rational analysis of facts by those concerned, this is also a special problem for investigation.
Some are of the opinion that groups will never be able to act rationally to any extended degree and that dependence must always be placed upon symbolic control by manipulating customary, irrational, fetish, and emotional modes of group behaviour. Others, however, Veblen for instance, in analysing the effect of modern large-scale, technical machine industry upon reflective behaviour, indicate that people of a necessity will become more causal and logical in their symbolic development. The increasing mechanization of so many phases of life tends to inculcate into behaviour the logic of dependent relationships. Living
( 177) and particularly occupational work become a matter of the obvious requirement of certain definite acts to produce certain definite results. Automobiles, radio, electricity, machines, are manipulated and operated according to understandable laws. Even present agricultural and domestic economy has lost mystery, it is operated by modern technical devices. Canned corn is an obvious phenomenon. The growing of it may have been a subject of totemic superstition with some Indian tribes, but with modern machinery, irrigation methods, soil culture, and plant breeding there is a mechanical explanation available. This mechanization is carried even to the amusements and leisure activities of the group. Thus not only is the working time spent under these habitual and repeated influences, but it penetrates our whole life. It seems that this inevitably means that control will have to be shifted to a greater and greater dependence upon factual demonstration and to more direct methods of meeting critical or sceptical " show-me " attitudes.
Machine industry and technology does undoubtedly introduce the mass of the population to active participation in causal operations. Their symbolic behaviour must incorporate this type of reflection. The long-run effects are yet to be determined, as well as its relation to rational social control. The symbolic process is obviously in the making.
It is evident that the symbolic process furnishes a most remarkable means of determining group unity, morale, and control. A greater understanding and utilization of its possibilities is undoubtedly a major task in human engineering.
