The Theory And Social Exchange Theory

a. Symbolic Interaction/pg. 23: a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another.

Even in the movies, sociology can be found. Most people think sociology is limited to just worldly problems, but it can be it can be a very broad term. Symbolic Interaction is a communication theory that states society and individuals are created based upon the interactions between each other. One Disney movie that stands out is Aladdin. I feel this movie does a great job of providing examples of symbolic interactionism. My plan is to discuss symbolic interaction and provide examples of the theory.

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the language and symbols that help us give meaning to the experiences in life. It also studies how people discuss the meaning of social life during interactions

Symbolic interactionism is a theory is defined as, ”a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning,

Lastly I will discuss the elements of Symbolic Interaction. This theory was brought to sociology by Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), William I. Thomas (1863-1947) and George Herbert Mead (1863-1931). They believed that symbols, things with meaning and face to face interactions are how society views the world and communicate with each other , without symbols our social life would have no meaning. Symbolic interactionists analyzed how our social life depends on the way we define ourselves and others, for example with out symbols we would have no mom, dad, teachers, brothers and sisters. We would not know who we should respect and whom we are obligated too.

Symbolic interactionism helps explain both of our individual personalities and the ways the human society is linked together (p.27). It also helps us differentiate social order and change through a process. The teachings of symbolic interactionism comes mostly from George Herbert Mead But,George was not the only one that influenced the thoughts and ideas of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interaction is theoretical perspective so it is still changing and evolving. It also has four kinds of understandings in the population and environment. One of the understandings is that symbolic interactionism is to understand why people engage or do not engage in social growth of the population . Symbolic Interactionism assumes that people from different social backgrounds, and different cultures may see different social issues within their social community. George Mead,Charles Cooley and Herbert Blumer shaped symbolic interactionism on the predictions of yourself causing you to behave a certain way so it becomes true.

Symbolic interaction theory is symbols that give a meaning. Society is viewed as subjects and social status and that they are given symbols. Homeless people are approached through symbols. Symbols can be anything like for instance the way they act, the clothes they wear and the kind of food they eat.

The third assumption behind symbolic interaction theory is “meanings are negotiated between people”. You can say that its human nature to not take people advice so easily, rather is the truth being told to you, or a lie you’re still not going to take it lying down. We like to argue the facts, or stick to our lie. A great example of Symbolic Interactionism is when you’re trying to buy a car and trying to negotiate the price, trying to convince the seller to give you a lower price for the car. This is where you can claim that the price for the car is too high for the year or the model. It’s where you don’t take the first thing that is said to you.

The Symbolic Interaction theory refers to ways in which a family or society attaches meaning to verbal communication, non-verbal communication, people, and objects. We are taught from a young age communication using verbal language and accepted ways to express our needs. The theory represents perception of objects or actions (Macionis, 2007, p.17).

Symbolic interactionist is a micro level of social analysis, it is concerned with individual experiences and the wider society. As well as not focusing on the core structures or support the general theory of society like the functionalist does.

Symbolic interactionism perspective is a theory that is used to study social life. To do this, this theory relies on studying and observing the interactions among people and how they form meanings to things from those interactions. Although, there is much more to this theory than that. Blumer, the man who invented the term symbolic interactionism, presented three premises which help to understand this theory. The first one is, people act a certain way towards things depending on their meaning for that thing. The second premise is that we get meanings from social interaction, so we are taught meanings or we witness them from others. Lastly, the third premise is that meanings are able to change because people have the mental capacity to

Symbolic Interactionism Theory “sees interactions and meanings as central to society, and assumes that meanings are not inherent, but are created through interactions” (Chp. 1 Theory). An example of Symbolic Interactionism Theory is smoking (informal). Smoking is harmful to your health. A person may associate a meaning for smoking. They might use smoking for means as a way to meet a new friend. When two smokers meet, and one offers the other a cigarette, that is a way to become acquainted with someone. The gesture here is the offer of a cigarette from one person to another. This gesture is positively sanctioned because the person makes a new friend. The negative sanction is the harmful effects that a cigarette has on a person’s

The symbolic interactionism theory is the view of social behavior of individual that emphasizes linguistic and the gestural communication in a society and its subjective understanding of different matters, but especially the role of language in the formation of the child as a social being and social behavior in the society.

Symbolic Interaction focuses on a micro view of society. It focuses on a small scale perspective of interaction between individuals. Imagine you`re with a friend instead of looking at large scale structures like education or law, since we are looking at the small scale symbolic interaction explains the individual in a society and their interactions with others and through that it can explain social order and change.

Symbolic interaction theory emerged in the early 1900s and is still one of the more frequently used theories in the family studies (Smith & Hamon, 2012). The theory assumes that people have different interpretations of situations due to their personal experiences (Smith & Hamon, 2012). By looking at the behaviors of individuals, symbolic interaction theory explains how multiple people have different reactions to the same situation (Smith & Hamon, 2012).