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Define symbolic interactionism Sociology: A down-to-Earth Approach, 12e
Symbolic interactionism applied to society
Symbolic interactionism applied to society
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Introduction
The social theorist I chose for this paper is symbolic interactionist Erving Goffman. I chose Erving Goffman because of his intellectual and still relevant research on social behaviour and learning among individuals. He is one of a few social theorists whom I find completely interesting and noteworthy. Not only this, but I found that I wanted to learn more about him and soak in all of his ideas and his work because he is from Canada. I am a very proud Canadian and I am glad that such an influential social theorist whose work is still being put to use today came from the country that I am from. This paper will outline most, if not all, of Goffman’ss most important aspects to social life by providing you with his biography, his ideas, and how his ideas relate to the now, the twenty-first century. → ADD
Biography
Erving Manual Goffman was born in Mannville, Alberta, Canada on June 11, 1922 to Max and Ann, his immigrant Ukrainian Jewish parents along with his sister Frances. In 1937 Goffman attended St. John’s Technical High School. Goffman had much education and initially attended at the University of Manitoba for his interest in chemistry in 1939. After this period of his life, he worked at the National Film Board in Ottawa, Ontario where he met one of his mentors Dennis Wong who spiked Goffman’s interest in the study of sociology. This is when Goffman enrolled at the University of Toronto where he studied sociology and anthropology (Fine & Manning, 2003, p.35). Goffman graduated with his undergraduate sociology degree in 1945 from the University of Toronto and proceeded to pursue his graduate studies at the University of Chicago (Dillon, 2010, p. 266).
The transition for Goffman was very difficult and overwhelmi...
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...d a study at the St. Elizabeth’s mental hospital and found this to be a very harsh institution. Goffman found that “the total institution had accomplished its mission to be a “forcing house” for changing persons .. both the mortification of self and the privilege system undermined the patients’ sense of self (Fine & Manning, 2003, p.50). This is stating that St. Elizabeth’s was a place where the patients who were there had no choice but to change while taking away and undermining the patient’s individuality. “The total institution is able to mount an attack on the person’s self-conception, the sense that we have of who we “really” are (Fine & Manning, 2003, p.50).
While this paper cannot focus on all of Goffman’s ideas, he had many more noteworthy ideas including his very influential work on stigma, passing, language and the institutional frame analysis.
Relevance
Corrigan, Watson and Ottati (2003) argue this strong stigma has legitimized a historically inequitable system of treatment for those with mental illness. As far back as the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were sent to prisons because they were perceived as dangerous. Beginning in the 19th century, they were transitioned to asylums and hospitals due to the widely held belief that they were not only dangerous, but also i...
In the first half of the classic novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, author Ken Kesey uses many themes, symbols, and imagery to illustrate the reality of the lives of a group of mental patients. The story takes place during the 1950s in an Oregon psychiatric hospital and is narrated by a patient on the ward named Chief Bromden. When the novel’s protagonist, Randle P. McMurphy enters the confines of a mental institution from a prison farm, the rules inflicted by the Big Nurse begin to change. Chaos and disruption commence throughout the standard and regular flow of the hospital life, altering the well-established routines due to the threat that McMurphy opposes on the ward. Obviously, it becomes evident that Kesey will convey many viewpoints throughout the course of the story, however, I strongly believe that a recurring theme can be singled out. The main theme behind One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the idea of freedom and confinement and how it affects human behaviour.
In the early 1900’s societies were strictly defined. Members within society regulated rules in regards to gender, social class, racial groups, and education. Socializing and integrating with members of the society outside of your prescribed gender, social, and racial roles were not accepted in historical time periods. Members of society were expected to follow these roles and those whom deviated from them were punished, isolated, or frowned upon. During the early 1900’s author’s Charlotte Perkins Gilman and W.E.B. Du Bois wrote pieces which went against societal standards. Their literature pieces addressed issues in which were progressive issues of their time. However, both their pieces of work have reflected major social
Erving Goffman (1922-1982) held the position of Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as President of the American Sociological Association in the year leading up to his death in 1982. Goffman is considered as the pioneer of the study of face-to-face interaction and has made a substantial contribution to micro-sociology. He is recognised as a major figure in the symbolic interaction perspective. In 2007 he was listed as the sixth most cited author in the humanities and social sciences (The Times Higher Education Guide, 2007).
The human brain is a vast, unexplainable, and unpredictable organ. This is the way that many modern physicians view the mind. Imagine what physicians three hundred years ago understood about the way their patients thought. The treatment of the mentally ill in the eighteenth century was appalling. The understanding of mental illness was very small, but the animalistic treatment of patients was disgusting. William Hogarth depicts Bethlam, the largest mental illness hospital in Britain, in his 1733 painting The Madhouse1. The public’s view of mental illness was very poor and many people underestimated how mentally ill some patients were. The public and the doctors’ view on insanity was changing constantly, making it difficult to treat those who were hospitalized2. “Madhouses” became a dumping ground for people in society that could not be handled by the criminal justice system. People who refused to work, single mothers, and children who refused to follow orders were being sent to mental illness hospitals3. A lack of understanding was the main reason for the ineptness of the health system to deal with the mentally ill, but the treatment of the patients was cruel and inhumane. The British’s handling of mentally ill patients was in disarray.
Social reality itself is being defined. What social institution people believe they are taking part in, the setting, the roles that are being presented--none of these exists in itself, but only as it is made real by being acted out. Goffman is a social constructionist, except that he sees individuals as having little or no leeway in what they must construct; the situation itself makes its demands that they feel impelled to
It is said that, the basic principle of such tradition is that humans communicate through symbols, which are a common currency through which a sense of self is created through interaction with others. Mead's theory neatly avoids the trap of positing a sense of self that is constructed entirely through symbols and society by making a distinction between two different selves: "I" which is the unsocialized self; the font of individual desires and needs, and "me," the socialized self, the self within society. (p. 184) Elliot rightly identifies the flaws of symbolic interactionism: namely, the obsession with rationalism and the wholesale disavowal of the emotional aspects of the self. The American sociologist Irving Goffman would seem to articulate a rather more fluid version of selfhood. Irving's self is constantly engaged in per formative space, routinely playing specific roles within particular scenes of social interaction. (2001) This conceptualization of self too is not without its flaws, for although Irving maintains that there is a self behind the masks, it is not this self but rather its per formative role-playing that appears to be analyzed in Irving's theory.
This theory examines society as a complex collection of relationships and beliefs among people (Claerbaut, 2004). These relationships among people consist of the core of society. According to this perspective, society could not function without them. In regards to how people interact in their relationships, Boundless.com states, “The basic notion of symbolic interactionism is that human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or symbols. In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting, as opposed to being acted upon.” Ashley Crossman further describes the symbolic interactionalism perspective by
n Milos Forman’s movie One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest demonstrates the inhumane mistreatment of patients within a psych ward. Nurse Ratched, a very controlling and power-hungry nurse has demoted all her patients to sheepish submissive beings. Randle McMurphy shows up and creates chaos in Nurse Ratched’s order. This causes Ratched to resort to the only solution she sees feasible, abuse and eventually lobotomization. As the film portrays, the mentally ill weren’t receiving proper treatment until mental illness was taken seriously by doctors and deinstitutionalization occurred. Unlike McMurphy’s treatment, deinstitutionalization in the 1960s impacted mental illness treatment positively and created a more societal acceptance of people with mental illness.
These facilities provided “custodial care”, meaning they served as supervised shelter or confinement, rather than a source of effective treatment (Chow & Priebe, 2013; Glazer, 1992). Conditions were unfavorable and not much was being done to alleviate the state of the mentally ill. After much pressure from social activists to combat the issue of the poor living conditions of the mentally ill, the United States government eventually provided land and funding for the establishment of over 30 state psychiatric hospitals by the end of the 19th century (Grob, 1994; Unite for Sight, n.d.). Under this system of institutional care, the mentally ill could receive care and treatment from professional staff in a more structured environment, which seemed more promising than previous solutions. However, many of these institutions were underfunded, overcrowded, and operating with inadequate staff, leaving room for poor living conditions, the abuse of patients, and frequent human rights violations (Chow & Priebe, 2013; Dowdall, 1999; Unite for Sight, nd.). These factors, combined with the development of psychiatric drugs between the 1930’s and the 1950’s, drove the movement towards deinstitutionalization (Dowdall, 1999; Smoyak,
Symbolic interactionism perspective is defined as “the study of how people negotiate the meanings of social life during their interactions with others” (Rohall, Milkie, and Lucas, 2014, p.27). It asserts that “we construct meaning about things that are important in our own lives and in our society” (Rohall, Milkie, and Lucas, 2014, p.28). These meanings derive from social interactions among individuals which
On the topic of gender, he believes that we are constantly trying to give the best impression of our gender, and we form our gender on a daily basis. Goffman calls this “impression management.” He also believes that our identity is formed through our day-to-day interactions, so if someone was to question my gender (which has happened in the past), then I would, in turn, question my gender. Though I believe that at least some part of what Goffman is saying is true, authors Don Zimmerman and Candace West argue against his theory. In their collaborative work “Doing Gender,” the authors present the idea that others’ opinions of an individual’s gender, and which gender they see that individual as has nothing to do with one’s display of
In order to apply Goffman’s theories in a contemporary context, it’s important to first understand and recognize the main concepts outlined in his work. To begin, the performance can be defined as “all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in any way any of the other participants” (Goffman 1956:8). A performance is central to every social interaction. It can be seen as the manner in which the participants interact, react, and make meaning of their encounter. The audience then, is the individual(s) observing your performance. They become highly influential in the manner with which the interaction ensues, as the performer will constantly alter his behavior in an attempt to gain or receive a desired response from the audience. Likewise, the setting of an interaction is central in determining the type of behavior displayed. For instance, behavior in a formal upper-class restaurant will undoubtedly differ from the behavior patrons will display while socializing at a local pub. Appearance “may be taken to refer to those stimuli which function at the time to tell us of the performer’s social statuses” (Goffman 1956:15). Thus, the appearance of an individual portrays their current social status or role within society. A person wearing a white lab coat may caus...
In this essay we will critically evaluate Erving Goffman’s work on stigma and social interaction. Before we start evaluating Goffman’s theories let us first understand what both the terms actually mean.
(“The Interactionist Perspective.”) In regards to gender, characteristics of masculinity and femininity are a part of daily interactions. Symbolic interactionists believe gender identities are performed rather than assigned. According to the sociologist Erving Goffman, people will “attempt to control the perception of one’s own image. In society, men and women are expected to act in a way that represents their gender. In the event that a man is not perceived as masculine or a woman is not perceived as feminine, their social standings will reflect this perception. (“The Interactionist