Emile Durkheim's Theory Of Social Interaction

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Social Interaction is an essential element when understanding the role of a human in society and how a human conducts himself or herself. A key term for this interaction is a person’s status(a recognizable social position that an individual occupies. Page 128) in that society. Each person within that status has a role (the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status. Page 128) to complete during their social interactions. However, if a person cannot complete the roles that are assigned to them in that individual status then they experience role strain (the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status. Page 128). One example from the book is a professor who needs to keep writing research and lectures …show more content…

What Durkheim believes is that social control (mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals, Page 194) is critical to leading a healthy life because it creates boundaries. There are two types of control, formal social sanctions (mechanisms of social control by which rules or laws prohibit deviant criminal behavior. Page 194) and informal social sanctions (the usually unexpressed but widely known rules of group membership. Page 194) that keep order within societies. One example of formal sanctions could be looters from a store being prosecuted and an example of informal could be a teenager getting glares or snide comments for swearing in a public park. Without a strict informal social control there is no formal social control because there is no status quo to enforce in the …show more content…

Reading the story about Anna really left me wondering about the effects of early human development in response to socialization. I never thought about the scenario of it isn’t what the nature surrounding us that makes us human, it is society. The doctors tending to her seemed like they were making ground in healing the child but she died. If Anna wasn’t properly cared for and was lacking any developmental signs a human gains through socialization early on, but once rescued she was taught some social actions why did she die? Is there a certain age that the brain shuts off and is no longer able to learn all of the things a young child would be

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