Symbolic Interactionism PDF

Symbolic Interactionism  Terminology in Arabic Symbolic interactionism: ‫التفاعلية الرمزية‬ Social Interaction: Any form of social encounter between individuals. Social interaction refers to both formal and informal situations in which people meet one another. An illustration of a fo...

Symbolic Interactionism  Terminology in Arabic Symbolic interactionism: ‫التفاعلية الرمزية‬ Social Interaction: Any form of social encounter between individuals. Social interaction refers to both formal and informal situations in which people meet one another. An illustration of a formal situation of social interaction is a school classroom; an example of informal interaction is two people meeting in the street or at a party. Goffman: The presentation of the self Goffman has an important work on the self. In his book “Presentation of self in everyday life” (1959) he discusses the tension between: I: the spontaneous self and Me: social constraints within the self. Goffman viewed social life as a form of interaction order that is constructed out of ritualized performances based upon dramaturgical practices. The dramaturgical perspective views social life as analogous to actors playing roles on a stage. In this perspective much of human behavior can be understood as impression management.  Goffman uses the dramaturgical approach to study the organization of social life and social interaction. The basic assumption of this approach is that individuals have an interest in controlling or managing the impressions that others have of them. The foremost principle in the dramaturgical approach is the performance. Interaction Refers to the reciprocal influence that partners exerce on their respective actions when they are in the immediate physical presence Performance Refers to all the activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers. Impression management Refers to strategies people use to convey a favorable impression or favorable self-image to other people. Example: dress, manner of speech, acts related to personal hygiene which people don’t do in front of others. Front stage Occasions or encounters in which people act out formal roles in which they are trying to convey a positive impression to others; that is, they are engaging in impression management. Back stage Times and places when the audience for the social status is not present and people do not have to engage actively in efforts at impression management.  The front is that part of the performance that generally functions in rather fixed and general ways to define the situation for those who observe the performance. Within the front stage, Goffman differentiated the setting and the personal front. The setting refers to the physical scene that ordinarily must be there if the actors are to perform. Without it the actors cannot perform.  The personal front consists of those items of expressive equipment that the audience identifies with the performers and expects them to carry with them into the setting. The personnel front is also subdivided into appearance and manner. Appearance includes those items that us the performer’s social status (the surgeon’s medical gown). Manner tells the audience what sort of role the performer expects to play in the situation. In general we expect appearance and manner to be Role The set of expectations for people occupying a social status. Social status A socially recognized position in a social system. Ascribed status An ascribed status is a status into which individuals are assigned without regard for their actions, desires or abilities Achieved status An achieved status is a status acquired through an individual’s own actions. Master status Is a position so important that it dominates all other statuses for both the individual holding the status and others. Stigma Book: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity Goffman notes that the term ‘stigma’ has been widely used in a way that echoes the original Greek etymology, in which a stigma is understood as a bodily mark that indicates something negative about the marked individual’s character. The individuals are marked to set them apart and to indicate to others that they should be avoided, but the term is contemporarily used to indicate the disgrace rather than the literal mark itself  Goffman defines stigma as an ‘attribute that is deeply discrediting’ and that works to reduce a person ‘from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one’. However, ‘a language of relationships, not attributes, is really needed’ to understand how stigma emerges and operates via social interaction.  The distinction between attribute and relationship is key to Goffman’s conception of stigma and sets the conditions for correctly locating stigma in social relations between people and categories, and not as a property of the stigmatized attribute itself. Those attributes that we identify as stigmatizing are not inherently negative but are the product of societal definitions and value judgements. Goffman uses the term ‘normal’ to refer to those people who conform to shared social expectations of identity and behaviour, while those who deviate may be stigmatised.