Interactionism - Theories Flashcards
What are Interactionists main beliefs?
Society is socially constructed by individuals who’s behaviour is driven by their beliefs and interactions.
What are Blumer’s 3 features of symbolic interactionism?
1) People act in terms of symbols (e.g. objects or expressions), they stand for something which individuals have attached meaning to.
2) These meanings develop out of interactions
3) Meanings arise from people trying to understand how they are seen by others
How does smiling demonstrate Blumer’s idea of symbols?
- Smiling is just a physical contortion of the face, but people have learnt through interaction with others to attach smiling to a symbolic meaning of warmth and friendliness
- If someone chooses not to smile back this influences how the other person sees the individual
What is the Definition of the Situation (Labelling Theory)?
A definition of something is its label - defining something as real/true will cause this belief to affect how we act
What is the Looking Glass Self (Labelling Theory)?
Cooley - how we develop our ‘self-concept’. We see our selves mirrored in the way others respond to us and as a result a SFP occurs
What is The Career (Labelling Theory)?
Becker and Lemert - Labels can affect someone’s whole life e.g. mental illness patients. A label such as mental illness can becomes someone’s master status in the eyes of society
What is Goffman’s Dramaturgical Analysis?
Describes how we actively construct our ‘self’ by manipulation other people’s impressions of us.
1) Presentation of Self - seek to present a particular image of ourselves to our audience
2) Impression management - need to control the impression our performance gives, requires us constantly studying our audience to see how they respond and adjusting our performance accordingly
- Front stage = act out our roles, back stage = can be ‘ourselves’
What is Ethnomethodology by Garfinkel?
This approach focuses on a description of the methods which people use in order to make sense of, and construct, their everyday social world
What is ‘social order is an illusion’?
It only appears because members of society create it in their mind and impose a sense of order using common sense procedures, culturally embedded rules and assumptions.
What did Atkinson do? (Linked to Crime)
Studied suicide and pointed out that classifying a death as a suicide is simply a social construction of meaning
What did Garfinkel do? (Family)
Used field experiments to test for common-sense assumptions and the underlying rules of social interaction. Hence he asked is students to behave as ‘guests/lodgers’ in their own homes
What did Clarke do? (Family)
Examined relationships within the family and said we can’t generalise the feeling of marriage
What did Becker do? (Education)
Outlined the teacher’s view of the ‘ideal pupil’ and how this is used to assess pupil progress and behaviour
What did Rist do? (Education)
Demonstrated how early labelling (in kindergarten) sticks with children throughout primary schooling
What did Lemert do? (Crime)
Demonstrated the difference between primary and secondary deviance
