SOC 323 - Exam #2 Review

Understand the five propositions of George Homans.

1.) The Success Proposition 2.) The Stimulus Proposition 3.) The Value Proposition 4.) The Deprivation-Satiation Proposition 5.) The Aggression-Approval Proposition:

Peter Blau's Five Propositions

1.) Rationality Principle 2.) Reciprocity Principle 3.) Justice Principle 4.) Marginal Utility Principle 5.) Imbalance Pricinple

Interaction:

*For humans to interact*, they must be able to *communicate*; to communicate effectively, they *must share a language.*

Functioning of social networks

*Network-generalized exchange networks are more likely than group-generalized networks* to produce *higher levels of profit, to promote greater trust, and to flourish in regard to group implementation*

Observer

*Person or groups of people* who *assume the role of an audience* during a *performance (by a social actor).*

Unobserved observer

*Someone who monitors, follows and pays attention to the behavior of social actors when social actors are unaware they are being watched*

Impressing Others

*Strategies that appear impressive* include *taking risks, performing role distance, and being able to exhibit both strain and ease*, depending on the social occasion.

Presupposition

*Taken for granted conditions* when pursuing a course of action (Ex. same as *assumption*)

Policies of ethnomethodological study

1.) An indefinitely large domain of appropriate setting is available for study. If researchers use a search policy that *any occasion whatsoever* has an opportunity to be chosen, objectivity is more likely. 2.) Scientific sociology is continually engaged in counting, graphing, interviewing, sampling, recording, reporting, planning, decision making and so on. *To achieve objectivity in the name of science, traditional sociology relies on empirical data collection and analysis.* 3.) Methodological approaches must reveal the subjective nature of human behavior and therefore should not rely on a standard approach, or a preconceived rule of research procedure, obtained from outside the actual setting under study. *All aspects of behavior are to be examined.* 4.) Every social setting is to be viewed as *self-organizing* with respect to the intelligible character of its own appearances as *either representations of or evidence of a social order.* 5.) The demonstrably rational properties of *indexical expressions and indexial actions is [sic] an ongoing achievement of the organized activities of everyday life.*

Social construction of reality

1.) Externalization ("we create it") 2.) Objectivation ("we take it for granted") 3.) Internalization ("reciprocate")

Three stages of the development of self

1.) Imitation Stage 2.) Play Stage 3.) Game stage

Backstage

Backstage acts as *they really are and let their guard down.*

Frontstage

Frontstage behaviors are *designed to give intentional performances through the use of specific props to illustrate the role that is one is playing*

What is Symbolic Interactionism?

It is based on the idea that *social reality* is constructed in each *human interaction* through the use of *symbols*

Overall Summary: Five Propositions and Five Principles

Links: Success → Rationality Deprivation-Satiation → Marginal Utility Aggression-Approval → Justice No matches: Stimulus Value Reciprocity Imbalance

Habitual Knowledge

Presents *"definitive" solutions to problems*, which are *organized in the flow of lived experiences, and require little attention.*

Useful Knowledge

Refers to *awareness of everyday events and being able to accomplish acts that represent a "means to an end; allow the individual to solve problems.*

Routine Knowledge

Refers to the ability to *differentiate between common situations (routine) and unique ones*

Knowledge or recipes

Standardized means of *dealing with specific situations that possess a "self-evident" quality or implication.*

4.) Marginal Utility Principle:

The *higher the expected rewards from the activity, the less valuable the activity, the less likely the performance of the activity*

Rationality Principle:

The *more profit people expect from one another (in an activity) the more likely they are to engage in that activity.*

5.) Imbalance Principle:

The *more stabilized and balanced one set of exchange relations is, the more likely other exchange relations are to become imbalanced and unstable (believable).*

4.) The Deprivation-Satiation Proposition

The principle of *diminishing returns.* a.) The *longer one goes without reward (deprivation), more they are willing to do get the reward* b.) The opposite: when *someone has enough of the desired reward, they are less likely to engage in the activities that secured that reward*

5.) The Aggression-Approval Proposition:

The principle of *distributive justice.* i.) *Aggression* - when a behavior *does not receive the expected reward*, or is *punished unexpectedly*, the response is *anger/aggression* (which the aggressor finds rewarding) ii.) *Approval* - when a *person's actions receive greater reward than anticipated*, or do *not get punished when expected*, the person will be more likely to *engage in approving behavior.*

3.) The Value Proposition

The principle of *value of outcome.* The *more you value something, the more you do to get it*. Thus, if you *highly value the company of someone, the more likely you are to engage in behavior the other finds desirable.*

Scottish moralists

They believed that the *"mind and the "self" were social products shaped by individuals' interactions with others*

2.) The Stimulus Proposition:

This is the *principle of experience.* If a set of *stimuli resembles an originally rewarded activity, the behavior is more likely to be repeated*

3.) Justice principle

a.) The *more exchange relations established, the more likely they are to be governed by norms of fair exchange.* b.) The *less forms of fairness in an exchange are realized, the higher the probability of negatively sanctioning the violator.*

Reciprocity Principle: (Twofold)

a.) The *more people have exchanged rewards, the higher the reciprocal obligations that guide subsequent exchanges* b.) The *more the reciprocal exchanges are violated the more disposed deprived parties are to sanction negatively the violations of the norms of reciprocity*

Difference between discredited and discreditable stigma

○ *Discreditable stigmas* are the marks of disgrace or dishonor that *can be hidden from audiences* ○ *Discredited stigmas* are marks of disgrace from which an actor *cannot hide.*

Gocus on evocation and suppression.

○ *Evocation* → Actor's cognitive focus is on *a desired feeling that is initially absent* ○ *Suppression* → Actor's cognitive focus is on the *undesired feeling which is initially present*

Understand points of critique: Ethnomethodology

○ *Failure to produce laws of behavior* ○ Narrow Scope → *Ignores macro-structural factor*

Meaning:

○ *Humans act on the basis of meaning* - is merely *common sense and cannot be argued against* ○ They arise during the interactive process, which itself it mediated by language. Language *allows individuals to take role and perspective of the other in order to better understand the true meaning of one's own and others' behavior.* ○ Meaning is *either taken for granted and thus pushed aside as unimportant or it is regarded as a mere neutral link between the factors responsible for human behavior and this behavior as the product of such factors*

Love

○ *Love is the extreme case of intrinsic attraction.* It appears to *make human beings unselfish, since they themselves enjoy giving pleasure to those they love*, but this *selfless devotion generally rests on interest in maintaining the other's love.* ○The *exchange process is most evident in love attachments*, but the *dynamics are different because the specified rewards are not as clear as in social exchanges.* ○ In love relationships, *there quite often is one person who is "more in love" than the other (the principle of least interest).*

Perception

○ *Objectivity is a goal of science, but objectivity is always influenced by perception. Perception itself is influenced by many factors, but especially but retention and memory.* ○ As far as memory is concerned it is not anything simple, and from the start it presents different forms and objects and, interconnected with these, different forms of givenness. Thus *one could refer to the so-called primary memory, the retention which is necessarily bound up with every perception. * ○What *one "sees" is a product of past memories and immediate reflection and interpretation of events.* An individual *refers back to some particular intuition and applies some sort of meaning from it to the present situation doing so whether the objects truly relate to one another or not.* ○Every perception of a thing has such a zone of background intuitions and this is also a *"conscious experience" or more briefly a consciousness of all indeed that in point of facts lies in the co-perceived objective background* ○*Recollections make it possible for individuals to perceive acts in certain ways.* It can *make its appearance in different forms of accomplishment.* The *retention of memories is an important factor in perception, and consequently in one's consciousness.*

Streams of consciousness

○ *One's stream of consciousness is in simultaneous relation to others' streams of consciousness. Individual's acts are influenced by other's peoples acts.* ○ Interdifferation is evident to all. *We are aware of others and can reflect upon their different charactersitcs; we are consciously aware of this reality.* This awareness extends beyond the spatial (the *physical space our bodies take within the natural environment*) it is conscious awareness that the *world is both united, through streams of consciousness, and divided, based on individual experience and interpretation of events.* ○ Assessing someone else's stream of consciousness is affected by what Schutz called *degrees of interpretability* . Through observation it is *generally clear whether certain people are engaged in social relationship. However, certain presumptions are often not true; we may misinterpret the interactions among the people we are observing.*

Degradation ceremonies

○ *Public attempts to inflict identity alteration. They are acts of embarrassment done purposely rather than accidentally* ○Usually the *attempts are purposeful acts of embarrassment toward individual whose identity your trying to smear * ○ *Describe planned and anticipated instances of status-forcing in which derelict individuals know in advance that they will lose self-credibility* ○ Identity degradation involves *destroying the offender's current identity and transforming it into a "lower" social type. *

Understand the points of critique: Phenomenology

○ *Scientific and grounded approach* to social theory is *absent* ○ *Vague concepts poorly supported by empirical evidence*

The "I"

○ *Spontaneous, unsocialized, unpredictable, and impulsive aspect* of the self. It is the *subject of one's actions*. ○ *An individual who fails to conform to the norms and expectations of society* is under the influence of the "I". ○ *Creative and imaginative* side of the self. ○ Represents the *organism's response to other's acts, behaviors, and attitudes.* ○ Associated with *change and the reconstruction* of the self.

Definition of "Self"

○ *The self involves the process whereby actors reflect on themselves as objects. Thus, the self has the rare ability to be both object and subject.* ○ Mead stated, "The *self has a character* which is different from that of the physiological organism proper. The *self is something which has a development; it is process of social experience and activity, that is develops in the given individual* as a result of *his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within the processes."* ○ The developmental processes of the self is not biological one; *it emerges from social forces and social experiences* Even the human body is not representative of the self until the mind has developed and recognizes it as such. ○ *The body can simply be there as an existent structure in the real world, but the self has the characteristic can then distinguish itself from other objects and from the body.*

Exchange network

○ A *specific social structure formed by two or more connected exchange relations between actors* ○ One this exchange network has been established, the connection between *dyadic (two-person) exchange and macrolevel structural phenomena is revealed * ○ Two different types: *(1) Group-generalized exchange* *(2) Network-generalized exchange*

Network-generalized exchange

○ A structure in which *each person provides benefits for one other person in the group, rather than benefiting from the group as a whole* ○ Thus, *rewards that one person receives are directly related to the resources given by other specific person*

The "I" and "me"

○ According to Mead, the self is composed of two parts: *the "I" (the unsocialized self) and the "me" (socialized self).* ○ Both aspects of the self are part of *individual's self-concept. The self is a product of the dialogue between "I" and the "me"*. ○ The combining of the "I" and the "me" leads to the *creation of individual personality and the full development of self.*

Imitation Stage:

○ Age 2 or 3 ○At this stage the *child is capable of understanding gestures* (for example, the parent coaxes the child to roll the ball by rolling the ball herself) and the *imitating behavior*. ○ This is an *elementary stage of learning*, but it represents learning nonetheless, as even imitation implies learning, and *babies learn that some behaviors are possible rewarded and other behaviors bring punishment*

Language

○ Allows individuals to *discuss and understand ideas and events that transcend the immediate environment.* ○Becomes the *mechanism of control* during the reflection process of *interaction between the organism and the environment.* ○ Represents *the development process*, from interpreting gestures to the capability of utilizing symbolic communication and interaction. ○ Sharing a language *allows people to put themselves in the role of the other and to understand why the other acts as it does*. ○ It is this reflexivity that *allows for the development of the self because persons are able to consciously adjust and modify their own behavior.*

Understand the grounds on which exchange theory is critiqued:

○ Assumption of *Rationality* ○ Intention to *Mental Process*

Roots of exchange theory → Behaviorism

○ B.F. Skinner saw these theories as constructing mystical entities that distract sociologists from the only concrete entities that distract sociologists from the only concrete entities of study: *behavior and the consequences that make behavior more or less likely to occur.* ○ *Culture itself is nothing more than a collection of human behaviors. Concepts such as ideas and values are useless.* What needs to be understood are things such as *costs and rewards* ○ Skinner was a pioneer in the study of operant behavior and was fascinated by the prospects of the *control of behavior of animals and human beings.* ○ At the core of his psychology was the notion of *stimulus-response arc: When the subject is presented with a stimulus, a response is automatically triggered.*

Group-generalized exchange

○ Book: *Occurs when all members of the group pool their resources and then eventually share in the rewards generated by pooling.* Structures of this type are subject to collapse because everyone involved receives an equal part of what is being shared, but *each person within the group may not have contribute resources to the group* ○ Professor: Type of social exchange system in which the rewards the *individual receives from others do not depend on the resources provided by that individual*

Roots of exchange theory → Utilitarian economics.

○ Describes people as *self-interested in the sense of maximizing pleasure and avoiding pain* ( similar to *hedonism = emphasizes maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain*) ○ Utilitarians argue that *behavior is more or less a moral activity according to the amount of utility it bestowes on individuals.* ○ It is a theory that the *greatest good for the greatest number should be the main consideration in making a choice of actions.*

Dramaturgy

○ Dramaturgy in sociology was developed by Goffman as a *method of examining social interaction as a series of small plays, or dramas*. ○ This is an easy concept to grasp, as many *individuals already recognize that their lives are filled with drama and constant turmoil-leading to such contemporary phrases* as "She acts like a drama queen." ○ Goffman's analysis of the presentation of the self is guided by the dramaturgical perspective → *he attempted to explain human interaction by comparing life to a staged drama.*

Roots of exchange theory → Determinism

○ Exchange theory is deterministic ○ Two types of determinism: *(1) Strong ontological → nature of being* *2) Weak epistemological → nature of knowing* ○Homans falls into the category of *strong ontological determinism, which denies conscious beings.* ○ He felt that consciousness is *metaphysical-a leftover religion. There is no soul; the mind replaces it.* ○ For Skinner, the mind is a *"black box" and people simply react to stimuli.*

William James: Consciousness (6)

○ First social scientists to develop a clear concept of self. He recognized that *humans have the capacity to view themselves as objects and to develop self-feelings and attitudes toward themselves"* ○ James believed that the *individual acquires a new nature through habit* ○ A second critical aspect of James's psychology was his rethinking of the role of *"consciousness" = always involves some degree of awareness of the person's self.* ○ The person appears in thought of two ways, "partly known and partly object and partly subject...For shortness we may call one the Me and the other the I...I shall therefore treat successively of *(A) the self as known, or the Me, the 'empirical ego' as it is sometimes called*; and of *(B) the self as knower, or the I, the 'pure ego' of certain authors"* ○ Empirical self, or me, = *the sum total of all the person can claim as one's own: their feelings, emotions, actions of self-seeking, and self-preservation.* ○People possess as many social selves as there are individuals who have images of them in mind. *The self as knower, the I, or pure ego, is a much more complicated subject*

Micro-macro link

○ Four-stage process that represents the transformation from interpersonal exchange to social exchange: 1.) Personal *exchange* transactions between people give rise to... 2.) Differentiation of *status and power* which leads to... 3.) *Legitimization and organization* which sow the seeds of... 4.) *Opposition and change*

Phenomena of order

○ Garfinkel began to stress the importance of ethnomethodologists' *conducting more studies on social order* ○ Such studies should "*specify the production and accountability of immortal, ordinary society-that miracle of familiar organizational things-as the local production and natural, reflexive accountability of the phenomena of order*

Conversation analysis

○ Garfinkel interprets an individual's use of words as means of *clarifying or repairing social problems created by human communication.* ○ He believes that a large part of human communication is *not what is said, but what is not said.* ○ What *people leave out of conversation is often far more important than the actual words spoken.* ○ The *nonverbal communication between the speaker and the spoken-to is of extreme importance.* ○ Goal: to *examine how conversation is organized.*

What did Blumer believe?

○ He believed that *humans construct their own actions and free of internal drives.* ○ *Actions are a consequence of reflexive and deliberate processes determined by the individual in response to the environment*

Understand the role of emotions and emotion work

○ Hochschild's theory of *emotion is an expansion of symbolic interactionist ideas but is designed to expand on the limitations of the work on emotions.* ○ Her theory encompasses a wide range of *emotions and focuses on how actors attempt to manage (work at) their feelings.* ○ Refers to the *act of trying to change in degree or quality an emotion or feeling* ○ Refers to the *effort-the act of trying-and not to the outcome, which may or may not be successful.* ○ Differs from emotion "control" or "suppression" ○ *Refers to more broadly to the act of evoking or shaping, as well as suppressing, feeling in oneself.*

Social Approval

○ Humans are *anxious to receive social approval* for their *decisions and actions, and opinions, and suggestions.* ○ The *approving agreement of others helps to confirm their judgement, to justify their conduct, and to validate their beliefs.* ○ Restraints imposed by social approval are *confined to circles of significant others.*

Symbols

○ Include such things as *words and gestures*. ○ The ability to communicate by the *use of language* becomes the *primary method of symbolic interaction.* ○ *Signifies something* ○ One of the most unique signs → *gestures*

Group formation

○ Individuals choose what *groups to interact with based on the rewards they can receive.* ○ *Groups that off the greatest number of rewards = the ones sought out* ○ *"Closed" groups, or groups that offer few rewards = ignored.* ○ Groups that offer rewards are attractive, and *because a group is attractive, individuals want to be accepted.* ○ (4) Integrative bonds: *Impressing others, Social Approval, Attractiveness, Love*

Objectivation

○ Influences the individual to view the *everyday-life world as an ordered reality with phenomena prearranged in patterns that seem to be independent of the actor.* ○ It is this level of consciousness that causes the actor to see the world in a *taken-for-granted fashion.*

Ethnomethodology

○ Is an approach to understanding social interaction and is "based on assumption that social reality is the result of our agreement to agree with one another. That is,* we negotiate reality by exchanging accounts of what is going on between us, with the unstated assumption that we will reach an agreement eventually."* ○ Literally means, *the methods of ordinary people that are used on a daily basis to accomplish their everyday needs* Etho = people Method = method Ology = refers to sutdy ○ *An examination of methods people commonly use to sustain some kind of consensus about the world and to solve problems characterized by highly irrational features.* ○ The study of ordinary members of *society in the everyday situations* in which they find themselves and *the ways in which they use commonsense knowledge, procedures, and considerations to gain an understanding of, navigate in, and act on those situations.*

Performance

○ It is *usually done on a front stage and is making the real self*. ○ *True/authentic self* can be *found (debatably) in the backstage.*

Roots of exchange theory → Role of the gift

○ Malkinoski found that Trobriand society is guided by *the principle of legal status, which involves well-balanced chains of reciprocal services.* The whole division of totemic clans is characterized by *a game of give-and-take, by reciprocity.* ○The concept of reciprocity became a ciritcal element in Homan's exchange theory. *The concept of exchange itself was influenced by Malinsoki's discussion of the gift.* ○Anthropologists and exchange theorists *argue that a crucial aspect of gift exchange bind society together through mutual obligations and increases social cohesion.*

Behaviorism (7)

○ Mead considered himself a behaviorist but not in the radical tradition of behaviorism that *focuses on the stimuli that elicit responses, or behaviors.* ○ Mead defined behaviorism: *as simply an approach to the study of the experience of individuals from the point of view of their conduct (behavior)* *Mind = covert = Hidden* *Behavior = overt = Visible* ○ The *stimuli interacts the mind first then the behavior* ○ Mead believed that: *The inner experiences of individuals who act can be studied by behaviorists, as long as a social-behavioristic approach led to the development of symbolic interactionism* ○ Instead of studying the mind introspectively, Mead focused on the *act (social act)*. *Acts = behaviors that respond to stimuli.* Mead *described a stimulus-act relationship.* ○ The difference is that the *inner consciousness responds to the stimulus before the individual respond*, thus *creating an act that takes into account the existence of the mind and freewill.*

Make sure you understand what symbolic interactionism borrowed from evolutionary theory (8)

○ Mead was particularly impressed by Darwin's *Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals*. In this book Darwin extended his theory of evolution into the field of *"conscious experience"* ○ He showed that there are *a number of acts that express emotions.* The part that *most vividly expresses emotions is the face* ○ Mead did *not agree with Darwin's theory of consciousness* For example, *Mead believed that consciousness is an emergent form of behavior* whereas *Darwin viewed consciousness as a psychological state* ○ Mead was critical of Darwin's argument concerning *emotions and their expression by animals* ○ Mead's attraction to Darwin rests on his emphasis on *process (evolutionary process) = process gives rise to different forms* ○ Mead's interpretations of Darwin's ideas led him to believe that *behavior is not accidental or random but formed through individuals' interactions with one another in a social environment.* ○ This adaption to the environment is an ongoing process sustained by *Social interaction (mutual determinism) = This interaction unfolds, the person's behavior is performed in adaption to the environment, and person and environment come mutually to influence each other* ○ *Behavioral adaption during social interaction often leads to emergent behavior that meets the needs of the changing environment.*

Attractiveness

○ Opinions that are *met with approval, and one's approval of another's opinion, increase one's level of attractiveness.* ○ We all like to *associate with people who agree with our opinions.* ○The role of *first impression is involved in perceived attractiveness, for impressions may be self-fulfilling as well as self-defeating.*

Pragmatism (4)

○ Pragmatists believe that *true reality does not exist "out there" in the real world; it is actively created as we act toward the world* ○ They *reject the idea of absolute truths and regard all ideas as provisional and subject to change in light of future research* ○ *Truth is determined by humans' adaptions to their environments*, and therefore, the *transitive character of both truth and consciousness is revealed. Reality, then is always relative to individuals.* ○ They believe that *human beings reflect on the meaning of stimulus before reacting. The meaning placed on various acts depends on the purpose of the act, the context in which it is performed, and the reactions of others to the act.*

German idealism (5)

○ Principle spokesmen of the variety of German idealism were: Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrick Von Schelling, and G.W.F. Hegel, whom Mead called the *Romantic Philosophers.* ○ *These philosophers argued that humans construct their own worlds and their realities.* ○ *They utilized the self-not-self process in experience and identified this process with the subject-object process.* ○ Mead learned from German tradition that *there is no consciousness* which is *not conscious of something*, therefore, the *subject and the object are inevitably interrelated.* ○*There cannot be a subject without the object's being aware of it, just as there cannot be an object without its being a subject* ○ Mead also believed that the development of self involves the process of reflexivity, which is the *ability of an individual to be an object to themselves. This idea would greatly influence Mead's concept of the generalized other*

Internalization

○ Process in which society attempts to *link individual members in a community through socialization process*. *When people share the same norms, values, and behavioral expectations, they share a similar social world.*

Understand the main premise of phenomenology.

○ Refers to the *work of a number of sociologists who share certain sympathies regarding phenomenological philosophy.* ○ Goal: *To reverse this process by exploring and analyzing the formative core of consciousness.* ○ Can be defined as a *philosophical sociology that begins with the individual and his or her own conscious experience as the focus of study and attempts to avoid prior assumptions, prejudices, and other dogmatic forms of thinking while investigating social behavior.*

Game stage:

○ Represents the final stage of development ○ Age 7 or 8 ○ *Knowing the rules of the game indicates the transition from simple role taking to participation in roles of special, standardized order. * ○ Abiding by the rules implies *the ability to exercise self-control*, especially when one is frustrated by others or the rules of the game (or society) ○ The *ability of individuals to adopt the attitude of the generalized other is what allows diverse and unique persons to share a sense of community.* ○The generalized other is kind of corporate individual or a plural noun; it represent the attitudes of the whole community. *Thus the development of the self depends on interactions with others within the community, and these interactions help to shape the individual's personality.*

Stocks of knowledge

○ Researches must often *draw upon their own experiences in order to fill in the blanks of the social situation under examination.* ○ Individuals must also *draw upon their stock of knowledge while interacting with one another in the social environment.* ○ Social recipes of conceptions of appropriate behavior that enable them to think of the *world as made up of 'types' of things like books, cars, houses, clothing, etc.* ○ People possess is *determined by their life experiences and education. A diverse awareness of events will dramatically increase one's stock of knowledge.*

Breaching experiments

○*Normal course of interaction was deliberately interrupted* ○ Social reality is *violated in order to shed light on the methods by which people construct social reality.* ○ Assumption behind this research is not only that the methodical production of social life occurs all the time but also that the *participants are unaware that the are engaging in such actions* ○ Objective: *Disrupt normal procedures so that the process by which the every world is constructed or reconstructed can be observed and studied.*

Commonsense

○ Some of the determinants that assume the label of commonsense *include viewing specific events as objective facts; viewing the meanings of events as products of a socially standardized process of naming, reification, and idealization of the user's stream of experience, etc. * ○ *Acknowledges that researches that researchers often reply on a taken-for-granted, commonsensical approach to the study of human behavior.* ○ Sociologists distinguish the *'product' from the 'process' meanings of a common understanding.* As *'product'* a common understanding is though to consist of a *shared agreement on substantive matters* ○ As *'process'* it consists of various methods whereby *something that a person says or does is recognized to accord with a rule.*

Understand the roots and origins of symbolic interactionism. (3)

○ Symbolic Interactionism is a termed coined by *Herbert Blumer and a theoretical perspective most generally associated with Geroge Herbert Mead.* ○ Clarify how *social psychology was largely interested in the social development of the individual* ○ Central task: *study how the individual develops socially as a result of participating in group life* ○ As essentially a *social-psychological perspective*, symbolic interactionism *focuses primarily on the issue of self and in small group interactions*

The "me"

○ The "me" is *the part of the self that is formed as the object of other's actions and views, including one's own reflections on oneself.* ○ *Judgmental and controlling side* of the self that reflects the *attitudes of other members of society*. ○ Represents the *organized set of attitudes which one introjects on one's private self.* ○ Has a *self-control aspect, in that it acts to stabilize* the self.

Role Distance

○ The *degree to which the individuals separate themselves from a given role (front stage-back stage separation)*. ○ If the role performed by an actor harms his/her self image, the actor may want to *quickly distance the "true" self from that role performance.*

Intersexuality

○ The *perception that one's sex fits neatly into on of two categories-male or female-is altered* by the reality that "for a variety of reasons, on be out of *every 2,000 births is characterized by a distinguishable degree of intersexuality"* ○ *Passing = "the work of achieving and making secure her rights to live as normal, natural female while having continually to provided for the possibility of detection and ruin carried on within socially structured conditions*

Charles H. Cooley: Looking-Glass Self (5)

○ The *self is viewed as a process in motion, in which individuals see themselves as objects, are aware of other objects in the environment, and modify their behaviors as the stimulation dictates.* ○ *Individuals learn to act as society (others) want to act (thus, individuals do not react solely on the stimulus-response mechanism).* ○ Society itself is an *interweaving and inter-working of mental selves. Through socialization, society is internalized and individual psyche; it becomes a part of the individual self through the interaction of many individuals, which links and fuses them into an organic whole* ○ Cooley argued that *a person's self develops through contact and interaction with others. By identifying a sense of self, individuals are able to view themselves the same way they do any other social object* ○ *Individuals gain a sense of self when they receive consistent messages from others.* Actors are most interested in and value most, the reactions of significant others, especially primary-group members.

Definition of "Mind"

○ The mind, or mentality, resides in the *ability of the organism to respond to the environment, which in turn responds, so that the individual can control responses to stimuli from the environment. * ○ Emerges when the *organism demonstrates its capacity to point out meanings to others and to itself.*

Play Stage:

○ The second stage of development ○ Age 5 or 6 ○ This point of development the *child has learned the use of language* and the *meanings of certain symbols*. Through language the child can *adopt the role or attitude of other persons.* ○ Children's imagination allows them to *"act out"* the roles of others. By role playing, the *child learns to become both subject and object, an important step in the development of the self.*

Interpretation

○ The simple *realization that humans interpret each other's actions is the foundation of symbolic interactionism* ○Two distinct steps: *(1) The actor indicates to himself the things that have meaning.* *(2) By virtue of this process of communicating with himself, interpretation becomes a matter of handling meanings.* ○ The importance that *Blumer placed on interpretation is an elaboration of Mead's argument against Watsonian behaviorism or any mechanical stimulus-response approach.* ○ Furthermore, *gestures are a key element in the interpretation process: they help to shape an awareness context.* ○ Uniquely *human process that it requires the definition and interpretation of language and gestures and the determination of the meaning of the actors of others as well*

Accounts

○ They are *ways in which actors explain (describe, criticize, and idealize) specific situations* ○ Garfinkel's ethnomethodological studies regard the subject they are studying as the result of accountability production. *Accounts are social creations and constructs built from past interactions.* ○ Accounting is the process by which *people offer accounts in order to make sense of the world*. ○ Ethnomethodlogists devote a lot of attention to analyzing people's accounts, as well as to the *ways in which accounts, as well as to the ways in which accounts are offered and accepted (or rejected) others.*

Understand how ethnomethodology is practiced.

○ To collect data generally include open-ended or in-depth interviews ○ Participant observation ○ Videotaping ○ The documentary method of interpretation ○ Ethnomethological experiments ○ Breaching experiments

Meanings

○ What is of utmost concern are *meanings that actors place on social acts committed by themselves and by others* ○ Because objects found in human environments carry no intrinsic meaning, *humans are capable of constructing objects' meanings.* ○ In addition, because actors are objects themselves, *their sense of self is open to meaning and amendable.* ○ *Interpretations, thoughts, beliefs, etc.*

Externalization

○ Wherein individuals, by their own human activity, *create their social worlds.* ○ They view the *social order as their as an ongoing human production.*

Interaction

○*The focus is primarily on individuals and their interactions with others* ○ Studying social interaction is the *key to understanding human behavior.* ○ Pertains to an *exchange*

Notion of the "inner career of action":

○By *naturalistic' study* = study of *conduct and group life as these occur naturally in the everyday existence of people-in the interaction of people as they associate in their daily lives*, as they engage in the *variety of activities needed to meet the situations that confront them in their day-to-day existence.* ○ This natural makeup of human *conduct and group life covers what is done by individuals, organizations, institutions, communities, and collectives as they carry on their lives* ○ *Participant observation preferable in Natural Setting → They get to the nature of social act*

Reality

○The interactionists perspective maintains a *belief in the ability of actors to modify their behaviors to meet the needs of the present and the immediate environment.* ○ *Internationalists are steadfast in the idea that reality exists present.* As Mead stated, *"The present of course implies a past and a future, and to these both we deny existence... Existence involves non-existence; it does take place. The world is a world of events* ○ Truth = Reality

The Success Proposition:

○This is the *principle of reward* a.) If the behavior is *rewarded in the past, it is more likely to be repeated in the present* b.) The *shorter the interval of time between behavior and reward, the more likely the repeat* c.) The *more often/frequent the reward, the more likely the repeat*