Winter Week 1 - Symbolic Interactionism

Question 1

Three elements of Micro-Sociology:

Answer 1

1. Level of Analysis: face-to-face and concrete social interactions are privileged
2. Meanings rather than functions are privileged
   - intersubjectivity (agreement on a given set of meanings or a definition of the situation being studied) and interpretation
3. Lived experiences are more privileged rather than abstract understandings of these experiences

Question 2

Define: phenomenology

Answer 2

• the study of ‘intentionality’ based on ‘inner experience’
• the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being
• we make sense of the world by connecting our own experiences to our interpretations of the experiences of others, assumptions, woodcutter example

Question 3

Define: Intersubjectivity. Why is it hard to achieve true intersubjectivity?

Answer 3

• when a person and receiver share the same feelings of subjective meaning in an interaction
• having a person perform a social act and having a receiver of that message
• objective meaning; the receiver interpreting the actions of the doer, there can be multiple receiver
• subjective meaning: the intended meaning of an action in the mind of the producer