What is the relationship between the self and society according to symbolic Interactionism?

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• Subject index

What it socialization? What is interaction? What do we mean by identity? How can we explain the notion of self? What do we mean by intra-action? The Sociology of the Individual is an innovative and though-provoking sociological exploration of how the ideas of the individual and society relate. Expertly combining conceptual depth with clarity of style, Athanasia Chalari: • explains the key sociological and psychological theories related to the investigation of the social and the personal • analyses the ways that both sociology and psychology can contribute to a more complete understanding and theorising of everyday life • uses a mix of international cases and everyday examples to encourage critical reflection. The Sociology of the Individual is an essential read for upper level undergraduates or postgraduates looking for a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of the connection between the social world and the inner life of the individual. Perfect for modules exploring the sociology of the self, self and society, and self and identity.

Chapter 5: The Self

The Self

The Self

(Sociological and Psychological Definitions)

The individual [has] ‘the capacity to decompose himself into parts and to feel any one of these as his proper self’. (Simmel, 1950: 58–9)

Why is the Self Important?

The definition and understanding of the meaning of the self is crucial and fundamentally important when we try to explore the connection between the individual and society. Such exploration is as problematic (if not more so) as the examination of the concept of identity. Following the complexity of the definition of identity, self is another term that has been extensively studied, explored and outlined by a variety of social sciences such as psychology, sociology, social anthropology, political science, economics, to name just a few. However, the roots of all these explorations ...

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• Locked out of Culture

  Different meanings for culture, identity, and power, may exist out in the real world. The connections made in this essay may not be true to everyone because all of us have different definitions for these key terms. Such evidence in this essay leads to a conclusion of foreseeing becoming trapped between two different styles of beliefs. We saw that, two different beliefs comes from the groups that one has associated. When compared against other people these beliefs and experiences can be held responsible, cultural problems arise.

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• Sociology and Human Behavior

  They use numerous theories and the work of other sociologists to provide evidence for their argument for the idea of the body and how it can be used in everyday society. The body can be thought as the location of the division between the two aspects because although people have the right to do as they please with their own bodies like getting a tattoo or expressing themselves through fashion, individuals still tend to follow the social norm as to not be excluded or become an outcast. So does the body fall into structure or agency? Arthur Frank described the body as a mode of communication, because the body itself is not voiceless, but it is speechless, and what h... ... middle of paper ... ...n structure and agency is the aging body. Society used to respect and worship their elder, thinking it was a natural and normal process, but in today’s society, people wish to hide the aging process and anything that goes along with it, considering it to be an ailment (Calasanti, 2005: 1).

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• Judith Butler Bodies That Matter

  In which, takes on the role of our language and accustomed normalization of society. Butler offers many ideas to prove some of her more radical idea’s such as examples from other philosophers, performativity, and worldwide examples on gender/sex. Some philosophers that seem to be of relevance to her fighting cause are Michel Foucault, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and George Herbert Mead. Her use of the doctrine of constitution takes ‘the social agent as an object rather than the subject of constitutive acts” (Performative). In other words, Dr. Butler will question the extent to which we as a human race assume the given individualism between one another.

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• The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life By Erving Goffman Essay

  It was never meant to be taken as a literal account of how an individual view themselves. It is put forward to offer a ‘general theory of face-to-face interaction, a theory that could be used to interpret any social exchange’ . The theory itself consists of both individual actions and structures which partly determine these meanings. In a society where individualism is becoming ever more prevalent, it is necessary for sociologists to study this, as the idea of what constitutes an individual is changing. Through Goffman’s theory of self, the individual was seen as making conscious and unconscious choices on how to project the image they want.

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• Society's Membership

  For instance, Kenji Yoshino in his essay “The New Civil Rights” discusses how covering offers a unique perspective on assimilation. The term covering, as he uses it, means “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream” (552). The authentic identity of an individual can suffer changes throughout his or her life in response to the environment and to the impact of life experiences. He or she might feel obligated to cover certain traits of his or her personality to fit into society's standards by conscious choices but in response to the environment's demands. Covering is a way of assimilation, which is the idea of integrating into a broader group.

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• Social Identity Theory

  As derived from social identity theory (SIT), secondhand embarrassment theory studies the effect a person’s social identity has on the level of secondhand embarrassment they experience, as a result of viewing a social media post. Social identity theory suggests that people are aware of their social groups and that these groups are important to how one thinks or feels about themselves as individuals (Tajfel & Turner, 197494). SIT also discusses that once people associate themselves with a group, they will strictly refer to their group as “us” and the other group as “they”. This will encourage individuals to act differently towards those not a part of their group (Kruglanski, Higgins, & Van Lange, 2012). SIT focuses more on the categorization of individuals into groups.

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• symbolic interaction

  It occurs through the interactions of others. In Chapter 11, Mead, Blumer, and Goffman critiqued symbolic interaction as a theory of society and also discussed the differences between symbolic interaction and social structure. George Herbert Mead asserts that people have to manage with the reality of their circumstances according to the situation. Some of the concepts that Mead believes is mind, self, and society. The mind reveals an individual’s ability to conceive what it perceives and change gestures into symbols.

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• JAyBobv Paper

  Identity is formed via interpretation of ones surroundings to create meaning, and, not only is the process of formation fluid, reflexive, and unstable, but it is also able to change as one’s surroundings do (McDonald 2004, p. 945; Stets & Carter 2012, p. 135). Identity is first realised during early life, via socialisation, and is subject to change throughout one’s life, particularly as ones roles change (Furze et al. 2012, pp. 78-91.). Additionally, identity is shaped by, and governs, one’s actions.

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• The Relationship Between Self and World

  According to the Central Argument the relationship between consciousness and self bears the same structure as that between consciousness and world. The self and the world are thus linked together as “two objects for the absolute, impersonal consciousness” (Ibid, 57). As a philosophy of human experience7, this account of the relationship between self and world seems to leave out too many aspects of our actual experience to provide a satisfying theory. As we look at the counterexamples above – the reading example and the up-bringing example – it seems quite clear that consciousness is not a function disconnected from the rest of the person; and that the complexity of the human person cannot be reduced to the relation ‘consciousness of the self’. Rather than thus simplifying the interplay between consciousness, self and world into an intelligible geometric structure (Bachelard [1958] 1994, 215), let us have a look at an example which may further blur those distinctions.

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• Sociological Perspectives: Functional Analysis, Conflict Theory And Symbolic Interactionism

  So, he inferred that what we define as real will become real as a result. However, it also believes that self-identity and sense are shaped by social interaction self-concept is developed by how others interact with us and label us. The scope of Social Exclusion In fact, there are broad scope of social exclusion. Nevertheless, some scholars tried to make clear for those. Silver (1994) emphasized that people could be excluded from a livelihood, consumption level education, skills, citizenship participation in the democratic process, the dominant race, ethnicity, class, sociability etc.

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