Theories Of Symbolic Interaction

Theoretical Application It is blatantly evident when examining the behaviours of the members of the Tuohy family, that symbolic interactionism has influenced them to act in a certain way on multiple occasions throughout their life. Leigh Anne, Sean, Collin, SJ and Michael are all guilty of using their interpretations of other people 's perception of them to determine their actions. The first example is during the Tuohy’s Thanksgiving lunch. Initially, Sean, SJ and Collin grabbed their food buffet style and went to sit in the living room to watch the football game.

The subtle but accepted social norms can be categorised neatly into two categories; folkways and mores. While both of these are informal social rules; folkways carry almost no punishment, although, mores are rules that when broken reap heavy consequences. The study of social norms is best done under the symbolic interactionalism lens. Symbolic interactionalism allows us to look at society on a micro level, meaning, we are able to focus on individuals, particularly, emphasizing verbal and physical gestures and how we interpret them.

The biological explanation of the brain in regards to drug addiction is interesting. According to the textbook, "Studies have found convincing evidence that drugs such as alcohol, heroin, and cocaine act directly on the brain mechanisms that are responsible for reward and punishment. " When one use drugs, the drug stimulates the areas of the brain that create the sensation of pleasure and suppress the pleasure of pain, as, a result, the user receives reinforcement to engage in further drug-taking behavior. The psychological explanation of drug abuse, "Focus on either personality disorders or the effects of social learning and reinforcement on drug-taking behaviors."

Emotions have largely been ignored by the classical theorists of sociology mostly due to its abstract, intangible and supposed ‘dangerous’ nature. It was only recently in contemporary times when a number of approaches on how to study emotions more closely were suggested. Out of all the different approaches suggested, I feel that the symbolic interactionist theory is the most convincing. This is because it ties in the aspect of individual agency and also overlaps with some of the other theories. While sociology revolves around the study of society, we tend to overlook the power one has over his actions.

Mean Girls is a movie filled with unique words and weird gestures that we as watchers can understand. Symbolic interaction theory emphasizes face-to-face interaction and thus is a form of microsociology. In our textbook, symbolic interaction is described as a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings. An example that captures the essence of symbolic interaction theory involves Cady, Janis, and Damian at the beginning of the movie.

Looking at society as a whole with individual units that work together to make society function efficiently is the structural functionalism concept. Each unit has a part and is describe as institutions such as family, religion, education, politics, economy and inequality. Because structural functionalism looks at social structure and patterns of behavior it is able to create values for society. As well as, distinguish between visible and suppressed problems within the social structures that may need to be addressed. For instance, homelessness is indication of dysfunction in structural functionalism system.

In implementing Organizational Strategy decisions, these are the decisions that are required: a) What content should be presented? b) How should this content be presented? c) What sequence should the instruction follow? Appendix 4 provides an overview of the content of the course that will be presented.

Quanteonna Howard Cosmopolitan Canopy Paper Introduction to Sociology November 29, 2015 Summary of Cosmopolitan Canopy: In the story Anderson takes us through the city of Philadelphia, showing through his ethnographic study how people from the city frequently relate across racial, social borders, and cultural. People engage in an individual popular ethnography. Canopies working in close proximity makes an interaction that becomes a cosmopolitan neighborhood. In the lively atmosphere of these public spaces, courtesy is the order of the day.

Functionalism Functionalism is one of the main theoretical perspectives in sociology. Functionalism sees society as a system them interconnects with each other in different ways in order to form or maintain a stable and balanced society. Everyone plays a role in society which makes it a whole. It sees the social structure and organisation of society as more important than an individual. One example is that education offers ways to develop the skills and knowledge of a person whereas politics governs the way people are in society.

In other words, functionalists like Durkheim believed that for a society to survive, its various social processes must come together to meet the system’s needs. Functionalists implement Durkheim’s outlook of a unified social scheme with various elements having a function within



Emile Durkheim developed a theory called functionalism, which explained how the individual and society were related and how society changed over time. According to functionalism, society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole. Durkheim believed that society should be analyzed and described in terms of functions. Society is a system of interrelated parts where no one part can function without the other. These parts make up the entirety of society and therefore, if one part changes, society is impacted.

Most fields of science rely on theories to explain centrally important issues, such as social phenomena, that have a wide range of applications. Sociologists attempt to describe human society though their theories, such as the structural-functionalism theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism. While the three theories attempt to describe how society functions the way it does, all three differ in their views of how humans are related to society and each other. In the structural-functionalism, the dominant view is that if the structures that exist are functional, then those structures should be preserved and maintained. Structure-functionalists tend focus on the interrelatedness to the social structures that make up society.

I. I am applying the symbolic interactionism theory to my life and how it affects me daily. Symbolic interactionism can be defined by how people in society interact with each other with the help of using symbols to communicate. There are three key parts that go along with this theory. First is that humans act a certain type of way toward symbols that they have given meaning to. Second, is that meanings emerge out of specific social interactions that humans have with one another.

Symbolic Interactionism According to symbolic interactionism, schools provide a platform that permit labelling of individuals. Symbolic interactionism focuses on student, teacher interaction and how it affects everyday life (William Little 2014). Since students trust teachers opinion, some of the teachers expectations hurt students or may help them aim higher. My primary school used to have more than one class for each grade for example grade six green, six yellow, six blue...and red.

Structural Functional Theory Structural functional theory is a macro sociological theory that is based on the characteristics of structures, social patterns, social systems and institutions such as education, religion, leisure, media, economy and politics. If all these social institutions are organized and co-operate with one another around a set of core values functionalist theorists assume that the entire social system will function properly and efficiently. Society in structural functional theory has a view that it is an organized system of interrelated parts that are held together by shared values and established social arrangements that help maintain the system to be in a state of balance and equilibrium. Structural functional theory is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions (Vibha Desai, 2013).