This theory originated from the works of American pragmatic philosophers James and Meade. But the word symbolic interaction was first used by American sociologist H.G. brummer, 1937. He used this term to refer to the works of many American scholars such as Cooley, Meade, Dewey, Thomas, James, Parker and Zinnitsky. Some people in western academic circles divide symbolic interaction into two schools, one is the Chicago School represented by brummer, and the other is the Iowa School headed by M. Kuhn. The gist of this theory is defined in a series of works published by brummer, his colleagues and students from 1930 to 1950.

Philosophically, the theory of symbolic interaction is most closely related to American pragmatism, German and French phenomenology, and is opposed to various forms of logical positivism, structural functionalism, cultural determinism, biological determinism, stimulus-response behaviorism, exchange theory and balance theory, but it is compatible with psychoanalysis, phenomenological sociology, folklore methodology, role theory, drama theory, and humanistic and existential psychology and philosophy. Geffman is one of the main representatives of contemporary symbolic interaction theory.