We use socially constructed meanings of race and gender to help us decide who to interact with, how to do so, and to help us determine, sometimes inaccurately, the meaning of a person's words or actions. According to the theory, an individual’s verbal and nonverbal responses are constructed in expectation of how the initial speaker will react. The main tenets of symbolic interactionism are explained in the following video. Studies that use the symbolic interactionist perspective are more likely to use qualitative research methods, such as in-depth interviews or participant observation, because they seek to understand the symbolic worlds in which research subjects live. Equality: What Is the Difference? In the case of smoking, the functionalist perspective might miss the powerful role that the institution of mass media plays in shaping perceptions of smoking through advertising, and by portraying smoking in film and television. Or a conflict theorist might be interested in the power and powerlessness experienced by local farmers versus large farming conglomerates, such as the documentary Food Inc. depicts as resulting from Monsanto’s patenting of seed technology. Symbolic interactionism proposes a social theory of the self, or a looking glass self. Social scientists who apply symbolic-interactionist thinking look for patterns of interaction between individuals. THEORY “Symbolic Interactionism is the way we learn to interpret and give meaning to the world through our interactions with others.”- Scott Plunkett. Symbolic interactionists study meaning and communication; they tend to use qualitative methods. Full Text Interactionism. In the context of society, our nation’s food system is at the core of numerous social movements, political issues, and economic debates. What's the Relationship Between Sports and Society? Whatever form of interaction takes place it emerges from a particular situation. One situation that illustrates this is what you believe you’re to do if you find a wallet in the street. Postmodern social theory attempts to look at society through an entirely new lens by rejecting previous macro-level attempts to explain social phenomena. Constructivism is an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be. http://cnx.org/contents/02040312-72c8-441e-a685-20e9333f3e1d/Introduction_to_Sociology_2e, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_protest#/media/File:Janitor_strike_santa_monica.jpg, https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/symbolic-interaction-theory?pathway=foundations-of-sociology--2, CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpaLchFpJZ8. Goffman used theater as an analogy for social interaction and recognized that people’s interactions showed patterns of cultural “scripts.” Because it can be unclear what part a person may play in a given situation, he or she has to improvise his or her role as the situation unfolds (Goffman 1958). This phenomenon, called colorism, occurs because of the racist stereotype that has been encoded in skin color over centuries. According to the theory, an individual’s verbal and nonverbal responses are constructed in expectation of how the initial speaker will react. The uniquely human ability to interpret symbols and analyze another person’s viewpoint through thinking allows meaning to emerge. So, the symbolic meaning of smoking overrides the facts regarding smoking and risk. In sociology, interactionism is a theoretical perspective that understands social processes (such as conflict, cooperation, identity formation) as emerging from human interaction. Equity vs. Communication—the exchange of meaning through language and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds. The symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on school playgrounds, and at other school-related venues. what is symbolic interactionism? In contrast, many Eastern societies would consider it much more appropriate to keep the wallet and search for the owner yourself; turning it over to someone else, even the authorities, would be considered deviant behavior. theoretical perspective. Subjective meanings are given primacy because it is believed that people behave based on what they believe and not just on what is objectively true. The symbolic interactionism analysis society by the descriptive meanings that people have given to objects, events and behaviors. "Adolescent Smoking in Secondary Schools that Have Implemented Smoke-Free Policies: In-Depth Exploration of Shared Smoking Patterns." Their studies often involve observation of one-on-one interactions. Click on the image to open the video in a new tab. This approach is often used to understand what’s defined as deviant within a society. Another examination might study the different functions that occur in food production: from farming and harvesting to flashy packaging and mass consumerism. What's the Difference Between Prejudice and Racism? Review the major sociological theories (excluding social constructionism) again in the following video. Mead’s student, Herbert Blumer, coined the term “symbolic interactionism” and outlined these basic premises: humans interact with things based on meanings ascribed to those things; the ascribed meaning of things comes from our interactions with others and society; the meanings of things are interpreted by a person when dealing with things in specific circumstances (Blumer 1969).
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