Social Interaction

A social interaction is an exchange between two or more individuals and is a foundation of society. Social interaction can be studied between groups of two (dyads), three (triads) or larger social groups.

When interacting with each other, people design rules, institutions and systems within which they seek to live. Symbols are used to communicate the expectations of a particular society to those who are new to it.

The empirical study of social interaction is one of the topics of microsociology. The methods include symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, as well as further subdivisions and academic studies, such as psychosocial studies, conversation analysis and human-computer interaction.

With symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as a social interaction developed with others. Ethnomethodology questions how people’s interactions can create the illusion of a shared social order, despite not being fully understood and having different perspectives.