Object and Meaning
• Objects are some things “out there” in the real
world. (It can be a chair or a tree (physical
objects), a student or a mother (social object),
and an idea or a moral principle (abstract
object).)
• One same object can have different meanings for
different individuals. For example, “A tree will be
a different object to a botanist, a lumberman, a
poet, and a home gardener” (Blumer, 1969b: 11).
• Individuals learn the meanings of objects during
the socialization process