Analysis Of Different Theories Related To Social Interaction
Karl Marx’s theory is that “Society shapes ideas.” Through this, Marx believes in positive change as for our future. Within a capitalistic society, there is a social class conflict. There are contradictions between classes due to living in a capitalistic society and that your social class determines your actions as an individual. Within different groups, there are various types of people who work different jobs which usually determine their social class and lifestyle. People live the way they are taught while observing others. Those who determine what is the admired lifestyle are those in the ruling class otherwise known as high class. This way, there are the owners who own the companies, who own the mean of production and those who work underneath them, who are the workers who are usually oppressed and alienated.
People have developed the ideology which allows those in power to maintain their power in society, those who are poor, stay poor and those who are rich become richer. The experiences we strive to live come from those whom we look up to for the answers. It is taught through our mentors have instilled qualities in myself to be hardworking and it was taught to major in a specialized field of study rather than develop several of your intellectual and creative interests. We strive to be the best we can be by living the way we are taught. Therefore, we hope to earn a lot of money to show off our products in which we believe will mark our worth. We work ourselves to death to have the ability to possess the things we see as valuable, this is the ideology of consumption. This is the core part of our society which takes over everything we do, and away the ruling class dominates over the lower class. As individuals, we define ourselves by the items we purchase which leads to the development of class consciousness or rather, the understanding of why we do the things we do every day. Society is developed by interaction, therefore, social reality is more of a constant movement of events in which people interact with one another and without interaction between people, therefore without interaction, society would not exist.
Symbolic interaction is a micro perspective and originates from the theorist, George Herbert Mead, but Herbert Blumer developed the overall concept. Social interaction is not more of a theory, yet more of a theoretical framework and a supplemental way of looking at society due to it being focused on individuals. It is made up of society, individualism, agency, as well as social construction. Within these categories, the core principles are capable of defining the creations of an individual and socialization into a larger community. It is the way to explain social behavior in terms of how people interact with each other with symbols. While humans interact with others, individuals tend to develop their sense of self through the interaction with others. Next, individuals tend to give meaning to things based on our social interactions as well. For example, gestures are a part of the equation in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another people and in every culture of the world, each meaning may vary from one culture to the next in which each gesture may be defined as- known as the significant other. In this case, the significant other may include parents, siblings, authorities, usually during infancy and childhood. During our teen years, our peers may also become our significant others. This will often cause friction between us and our parents during those years. Lastly, the meaning we give something is not perpetual necessarily. We have the capability to change our definitions of things due to everyday experiences. Overall, social interactionism has the ability to examine society on a smaller scale, while giving the individual the same significance and impact as society as a whole. Phenomenology is quite similar to symbolic interaction, for they are both micro-level studies and include the concept of an agency but they do not analyze individuals and how they react.
Sociologist Alfred Schutz branched from Edmund Husserl ideas to study on the social world in detail. Social phenomenologists talk about the social construction of reality. Meaning that we give to different people, objects, things, is all fluid, where the meanings are never concrete. Phenomenological sociologists view social order as a creation of everyday interaction or “here and now” while analyzing conversations to find the methods in which people use in order to maintain relationships. This concept is viewed as common sense or practical knowledge where individuals do things naturally, without having to overthink a concept. We tend to give objects meaning based on our experiences where we classify them in a certain way, while also putting into consideration others’ reactions to the objects as well. In some cases, we find that some meanings are universal in which we share different ideas and stories about how a society should function.
Regards to diversity, we are constantly surrounded by our in-groups and outgroups. Our in-group is referred to as those where we feel comfortable and we know what to do and how to behave. On contrary, our outgroups are where an individual may feel like a sense of confusion of how to behave, competition or opposition even. This way, it is explained there is no sense of just one reality which exists. Intrigued by social order and the concept of phenomenology came along the idea of ethnomethodology by Harold Garfinkel. This idea focuses on the methods of the people his approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a shared social order.
Erving Goffman’s study of one’s idea of self is dedicated to the understanding of who we are. What makes you-you? It is all developed of what a role consists of. A role believes all the world is our stage and our social situations are scripts, and we are all actors. Each individual tends to become a performer in any situation they find themselves in while interacting with others. The whole purpose of performing is to have the ability to control their different audiences in order to please them. Goffman portrays self-behavior as different attributes to the Dramaturgical Framework. Other attributions which factor into the roleplaying is feeling compelled to perform for our various audiences. We find ourselves sometimes in situations in which we are unaware of how to behave and go about being “ourselves”. Every day we encounter new people which the desired plan of how to please them is unknown therefore becomes uncomfortable. In order to come more into terms of who an individual is, it usually is examined by a self-taken test which anticipates concluding who a person really is.
This “Twenty Statements Test” is made up of four modes: A mode- the physical self which is referred by height for example, B mode-which reveals social self which is one's social self, C mode- reflective self or behavior in which we act towards ourselves, and lastly, D mode- oceanic self which involves the different dimensions of the self which does not simply dit into the first three categories, and most likely holistic of oneself. Another concept in which Cooley conducted is the “Looking Glass Self”. Within the theory, we tend to think of how we are perceived by others, imagine what other people think of us, and we act to how we believe they expect us to be. Elements of social exchange take into consideration of self of metaphorically being developed by our performances that play in front of our different audiences. We tend to use people’s values to manage the impression of others meaning, we try to give off a very positive, picture-perfect image to create a great image of ourselves as well as maintain it. While surrounding ourselves with others we are not informed of their way of thinking, we hesitate to completely be open we want to perform in the best way as possible to impress our audience. This is known as the dramatic effect.
Another concept is in which, we view our self as situated identity. In every different situation, individuals switch roles and have a constant battle of juggling different characters based off of your environments that overall, we have multiple selves. For example, this may be for playing a role in which being a student, sister, daughter, mother, church member, etc. When an individual is at work, they dress professionally in uniform, carry themselves in a professional manner through their props as in their dress attire, language and attitude. The same individual may go to spend time with close relatives where they are much more comfortable in which they do not hesitate to be themselves as much. Although we do have multiple selves does not make it that it is fake, it is just self-concept and its structure in the way we interact with one another.
