symbolic interactionism and deviance

Symbolic interactionists posit that no act or behaviour is inherently deviant. Drawing upon other major sociological theories of social deviance explains how symbolic interactionists justify this claim. Social deviance is defined as 'Differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society' (dictionary.com). A deviant is one that differs from a norm, especially a person whose behavior and attitudes differ from accepted social standards. Generally, explanations for deviance have one of two focal points. The first is the individual where the causes of deviance are held to reside in the biological or psychological make up of particular types of people or in the kinds of choices that individuals freely make. While focus on individual behaviour is thought to be effective, there is good evidence to suggest 'the causes of crime cannot be satisfactorily derived by reference to biology, psychology or wilful action alone (Winter and Lemert and Lemert 2000, p.12). This has led to the development of a second focal point for the explanations of deviant behaviour - the nature of social relations, or more simply, society. Given the importance of the impact of deviance on society, many approaches have been used to attempt to understand why people engage in deviant behaviour. Symbolic interactionists argue that deviance is "relative". That is, what might be considered in one group

  • Word count: 1199
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism. Complimentary or Contradictory?

Jake Massey Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism. Complimentary or Contradictory? Sociology is referred to as the study of society. There are two strands of sociology, Theoretical and empirical. Theoretical covers the range of theories that have different views on why society is how it is. Empirical refers to real research what is actually happening or has happened. In this essay I am going to be comparing and contrasting three different sociological perspectives. The theories in sociology can be split up into two main sections which are structural (macro) theories and social action (micro) theories. The First theory I will be looking at is the structural theory of Functionalism, structural theory means they see the individual as less important than the social structure of society. Functionalism is a consensus theory, which means they see members of society working together to ensure its smooth running, it also means that members of society have a good idea how to behave in most situations and are able to anticipate how others will behave. It is a top-down theory as it looks at society rather than the individuals within it. And believe society is responsible for shaping society. This is due to social institutions such as family, education, work, law, media and religion. Functionalism is an organic analogy, which means that it looks at society like an organism. If

  • Word count: 1309
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Assess the contribution of interactionism to our understanding of society.

Assess the contribution of interactionism to our understanding of society The key underling principle that the interactionist perspective is based upon is the claim that social reality is constructed through actions and interactions of people. Interactionism developed rapidly in the 1960's as a response to structural perspectives like Functionalism and Marxism. There are 3 main branches of Interactionism, these are as follows. Social action theory argues that social 'actors' carry out actions to pursue goals. Their values and their perception of the situation influences their choice of goals and the selection of the means to achieve them. Symbolic interactionism is centred around the concept of 'self'. The self is how we see ourselves as objects in the social world, to show that individuals are self-reflective and that by using their understanding of past experiences they can modify present action. Ethnomethodology examines the method by which individuals make sense of everyday reality. Social reality is seen as precarious and therefore as constantly being accomplished by individuals With Interactionist sociology individual groups are studied not whole societies. Social order emerges from shared meanings, if people define situations as real then they are real in their consequences. The general approach is anti- positivist and anti-scientific, roles are negotiated by

  • Word count: 556
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Sociology
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Erving Goffman: Dramaturgy, Symbolic Interactionism, and presentation of self.

Erving Goffman: Dramaturgy, Symbolic Interactionism, and presentation of self Erving Goffman is generally associated with the ideas and concepts of symbolic interactionism and was strongly influenced by the work of George Herbert Mead. Goffman was interested in exploring human interactions and how people presented themselves in everyday settings, especially in public places. This led to one of Goffman's key works in sociology, 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life' (1956). This major work has characterised Goffman as the founding father of 'dramaturgy'. Dramaturgy is the analysis of human behaviour that suggests life is a 'play' and people are the 'actors'. The difference with dramaturgy is that instead of the interactions being rehearsed beforehand for an audience, real life human interactions are improvised and are expressions of ones individuality which can change depending upon the social situation they are in. According to Goffman, the world is a stage in which we are all social actors. We play multiple roles doing set things based on expectations of each other. In certain situations we all have ideas of how to act based upon what the other person expects so they are able to interpret our actions and apply meanings to them. For example, in a classroom the teacher will adopt a professional manner in front of students and supply them with information using

  • Word count: 797
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Symbolic Interactionism is an American branch of Sociology and its founder is George Herbert Mead

Emilienne Agius 20-12-2006 Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic Interactionism is and American branch of Sociology and its founder is George Herbert Mead. Symbolic interactionsim explains social actions in terms of the meanings that individuals give to them. They tend to focus on small-scale interactions rather than large-scale. Mead divided his studies into three core elements of symbolic interactionsim; the symbol, the self and the interaction. Symbols In Mead's view, anything which humans do is essentially social and this owes to the fact that humans interact through a number of symbols, most of which are contained in a language. A symbol can define objects and events in a particular way and indicates a response to them. Symbols impose specific meanings to objects/events to avoid confusion. For example the chair can be of metal or wood, it can be used to sit or assault someone but its name it will still be chair even though it is different in each case. Symbols provide a way through which humans can interact with their natural and social environment. They are human-made and they refer to the ways in which people perceive them. Symbols are necessary to guide human interactions and behaviours. Therefore people classify the world around them so as to define both the stimuli and their response to them. Role-Taking Symbols are only useful when they are shared amongst

  • Word count: 1178
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Symbolic Interactionism is a social action theory which focuses on the subjective experience of an individual as the basis for understanding and studying society.

CONTENTS Introduction 2 Symbolic Interactionism 3 History 4 Prominent Views of Symbolic Interactionism * Herbert Blumer 5 * George Mead 7 * Charles Cooley 8 * Max Weber 9 Applicability in Today's Society 12 Critique of Symbolic Interactionism 14 Bibliography 16 Appendix INTRODUCTION Sociology is the systematic and objective study of society and social behaviour. There are seven major theoretical perspectives, which may be considered as having either a macro-sociological or micro-sociological approach. Symbolic Interactionism is a micro-sociological theory as it tries to uncover the assumptions underlying the routine, taken-for-granted actions of everyday life. This sociological perspective stresses the way societies are created through the interactions of individuals. Unlike both the consensus (structural functionalist) and conflict perspectives, it does not stress the idea of a social system possessing structure and regularity, but focuses on the way that individuals, through their interpretations of social situations and behavioral negotiation with others, give meaning to social interaction. Although there are a number of versions of interactionist thought, the contributions of Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer, Charles Cooley, Erving Goffman and Max Weber are most prominent. The works of these

  • Word count: 3118
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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According to theories of Symbolic Interactionism, what is and constitutes deviance? Discuss theory, method and 1-2 exemplary works from the tradition

According to theories of Symbolic Interactionism, what is and constitutes deviance? Discuss theory, method and 1-2 exemplary works from the tradition. Symbolic Interactionsim originated as a theory proposed by Blumer, built on the foundations of the philosopher; Mead's and Cooley's work. Symbolic Interactionsim takes the form of an outlook on society from a perspective of looking at the actions amongst those in society rather than looking at social laws and structures which govern society. Blumer's development of this theory was very much influenced by John Dewey's thoughts of society. Dewey stated that 'human beings were best understood in relation to their environment' (Dewey 1977) From this Blumer (1994:1) summarised "Symbolic Interactionism" as a study of human group life and conduct. Blumer (1994:2) came up with three main principles to this theory; meaning, language and thought. The first; meaning, states that individuals act towards people and things based on the meaning they have given to those people or things. The second, language, enables people to express meaning through symbols and meaning arises through social interaction using language. Blumer's ideas are taken from Mead on this principle. Mead (1934) says that naming assigns meaning and therefore naming is the core of human society and knowledge. It is through language that individuals identify meaning.

  • Word count: 1648
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Outline and assess the contribution Interactionism has made to our understanding of working class underachievement in the education system.

Outline and assess the contribution Interactionism has made to our understanding of working class underachievement in the education system. Interactionism looks at examining the school rather than the pupils, as it is believed that they play an important part in their success. Some parents see putting their children into Private education will help to benefit them. This is because they feel the teaching is of a higher standard than in state schools. They see other views as too deterministic, where the blame for underachievement in education is placed upon intelligence, culture, material deprivation and social stratification. Interactionists believe this is too deterministic as they feel human behaviour is directed by forces beyond an individuals control. Interactionist's view of self-concept (view of self) is that it is produced in interaction with others, by other pupils and teachers. An example of this is where a pupil may see themselves as the class 'Joker' if other pupils respond to them by laughing. Pupils also develop a self-concept concerned with their academic ability, they may think of themselves as 'Dumb' if they cant keep up with the rest of the class. Labelling is the way teachers respond to the pupils, they build up a picture of each pupil based on their catchment area type, appearance, conformance to discipline, ability, enthusiasm to work, likeability,

  • Word count: 931
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Education and Teaching
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Within this essay I am going to discuss social action theory and symbolic interactionism and evaluate the two theories separately.

Within this essay I am going to discuss social action theory and symbolic interactionism and evaluate the two theories separately. Max Weber believed that individuals were the key to society. He developed social action theory, the purpose of which was to find out why individuals function in certain ways. He thought that every social action performed by an individual had a meaning attached to it. Social actions are the result of conscious thought processes that take into consideration the reactions of other individuals. Weber identified four types of social action which include, reason (an instrumentally rational or calculated action), value or rational action (determined by belief), emotion or effectual action (dependent upon the feelings of the individual), and traditional action (determined by habit). In order to investigate society and the role of the individual within it, Weber developed a method of understanding called Verstehen. There are two types of Verstehen. Aktuelles Verstehen is a process of direct observation, and Erklarendes Verstehen, which is a process by which you try to understand the motives of the individual from their own perspective. The main concept of Verstehen is to look at society through the eyes of the individual to try to interpret things in a similar manner to which they would themselves. Verstehen has various criticisms. It is possible that

  • Word count: 1114
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Sociology
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To understand why a comic character was appointed the cultural ambassador of Japan for the promotion of the countrys images overseas (HIH, 2008), sociologically, the perspectives of functionalism and symbolic interactionism will be employed in the

For a long time the robotic cat Doraemon has been one of the most favorite comics for children, not only in Japan but also all over the world. Gradually, Doraemon has become a phenomenon and icon of Japanese society. To understand why a comic character was appointed the cultural ambassador of Japan for the promotion of the country's images overseas (HIH, 2008), sociologically, the perspectives of functionalism and symbolic interactionism will be employed in the cultural analysis of this paper. The functionalism perspective expresses culture as a tool for individuals in the society to meet their needs through the basis of shared norms and values. In this regard, the popularity of Doraemon comes from its simple but lively brush strokes, presenting a lovely and children-friendly robotic cat with his four-dimensional pocket for the purpose of meeting knowledge needs through transferring the underneath moral lessons of love, courage, resiliency and environment protection awareness for both children and elders. Over such a basis, it strongly binds the community through different benefits to various social orders. Children are satisfied with a source of entertainment, a platform for their creativity and a subtle way of learning, while adults have a chance recall their childhood and contemplate the once simple lessons. Doraemon, in a functionalist's view, has excellently fulfilled

  • Word count: 705
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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