Symbolic Interactionism in Sociology

The symbolic interaction viewpoint, also known as symbolic interactionism, is actually a significant framework of sociological principle. This particular perspective depends on the symbolic significance that individuals create as well as rely upon in the method of social interaction. Though symbolic interactionism traces the origins of its to Max Weber’s assertion that people act according to the interpretation of theirs of the significance of the world of theirs, the American philosopher George Herbert Mead unveiled this point of view to American sociology in the 1920s.

Symbolic interaction principle analyzes society by dealing with the very subjective meanings that folks impose on objects, events, and behaviors. Subjective meanings are actually given primacy since it’s thought that individuals act based on what they think and not only on what’s objectively correct. As a result, society is actually believed to get socially constructed through man interpretation. People interpret one another ‘s behavior and it’s these interpretations which create the social bond. These interpretations are actually known as the “definition of the situation.”

For instance, why would people that are young smoke cigarettes even if all objective medical research points to the perils of doing it? The solution is actually in the characterization of the scenario that individuals create. Research discover that teenagers are well informed about the chances of tobacco, though they also believe that smoking is actually cool, that they themselves is going to be safe from harm, and that smoking tasks a good image to the peers of theirs.

Thus, that real facts about risk and smoking are overridden by the symbolic significance of smoking.

One shocking example of exactly how this theoretical idea plays out within the interpersonal construct of race is actually manifested in the reality that a lot of individuals, irrespective of race, think that less darker skinned blacks and Latinos are smarter compared to their darker skinned counterparts. This phenomenon happens due to the racist stereotype–the meaning–that has been encoded in skin color–the symbol–over generations. In terms of gender, we come across the problematic way where meaning is actually connected to the symbols “man” as well as “woman” in the sexist phenomena of college pupils regularly rating male professors a lot more highly compared to female ones.

Critics of this particular concept claim that symbolic interactionism neglects the macro level of interpersonal interpretation – the “big picture.” In additional words, symbolic interactionists might miss the bigger problems of society by focusing far too strongly on the “trees” instead of the “forest”. The perspective also gets criticism for slighting the influence of social forces as well as institutions on specific interactions.

In the situation of smoking, the functionalist viewpoint could possibly overlook the powerful job that the institution of mass media plays in shaping perceptions of smoking through advertising, as well as by portraying smoking in television and film. In the instances of gender and race, this particular perspective wouldn’t account for interpersonal forces like systemic racism or maybe gender discrimination, that strongly affect what race is believed by us and gender mean.

Source by Martin Hahn