Symbolic Interactionism - Essay Example

Individual and Society By Introduction The symbolic interactionism emphasizeson the ive meaning of human and the social process and pragmatism. While society consists of organized and patterned with interactions among individual, Mead (1863-1931) argues thatindividual’s act based on symbols of meaning and through an encounter with others. According to Mead, social self is composed of an active ‘I’ that is independent of a particular situation and a receptive ‘me’ that is set and responsive. He continues to say that all communication takes place through a symbolic language. Therefore, this enables Symbolic interactionism generate more ideas on how a person acts towards things that have meaning for him. However, this essay will be focusing on work done byBlumer, who developed a huge proponent of Mead and suggested that the creation of reality is a continuous process. Symbolic interactionism focuses on the microscopic side of society, everyday life and how through symbolic interaction, individual communicate, interact and create order and meanings in their lives. The second part of the essay will focus on Goffman’s (Goffman, 8) work in relation to stigma.He emphasized thatbeingstigmatizedis only one of the two ‘faces’ of stigma, that is, how one has been label by society. According to online Oxford dictionary, symbolic interactionism is defined as “the view of social behavior that emphasizes linguistic or gestural communication and its subjective understanding, especially the role of language in the formation of the child as a social being” (Oxford dictionary online, 400). Symbolic Interactionism is a study of human group and conduct which holds the importance of creation of meaning as vital to human conduct. Moreover, the views of symbolic interactionism are basic ideas of how individual could communicate with one other through use of symbols, such as gestures and language. This helps one shape their thoughts and actionsby learning the meaning of symbols. Symbolic interactions occur when the patterns of an individual are shaped by society. A persons’social life is determined by how much that person interacts with others in the society. According to symbolic interactionist, the self is social. This is because, one is born into an existing society, but bound by language shared or symbolic meaning and interactions. (Fitzpatrick, 11) suggests that ‘Human beings act according to things created from meanings, since such things have meaning for them. Meaning of those things is derived from social interactions with others’. Development of symbolic interactionism enables Blumer gain the knowledge to categories three premises: meaning, language and thought. He assumed that the above concept could lead into understandinghow one creates his or her –self in terms of how to socialize in a larger group. The first premise, meaning, states that people acts towards people and things based upon the meanings that one have given to such people or things. Thus, individual builds up their conscious through observing and interpreting situations base on how one act. The second premise, language, gives individuals a means by which to negotiate through the use of symbols. Individual acquire meaning through interacting with other people. Language is symbolic to anindividual and society because it enables people give a means by which to assign a meaning through the use of symbols. The third premise, thought, defined as a mental conversation or dialogue that requires role taking, or imagining different points of view, that is the mind allows one to interpret the symbols of one language. Individual’s has gained the capability of taking the role of another.Therefore, it has enable one acquire the ability of how one can change their perspective in life. Social life and communication becomes possible through ‘role taking’, shared meaning and so forth. According to Mead, individuals improves according to self- motive or imagination and through their abilities. Meaning is not based on innate or objectbut assigned through engaging the use of language, that is, the symbolic interactionism. Mead therefore suggests that, the symbolic meaning is the foundation of society since it helps one obtain knowledge of interpreting the universe. Social Action Theory sees society as a product of human activity, rather than behavior as largely determined by the society. Social life is essentially reflexive, because the social world is constructed by its members by the use of life method. However, individuals develop the concept of self and an understanding of othersperceptionor the ability to be both the ‘I’ and ‘me’. According to the symbolic interactionism the concept of self was learned, but not inborn. It is more of an analysis of interaction within a group and their self. The capacity to think allows a person have some control over his or her behavior. Without thinking, understanding, meaning, interpreting context, nothing is fixed or absolute in a man. Symbolic interactionist suggests that the potential thing for an individual’s activity is that, individuals can engage by talking to each other and this entice communication. Blumer argues that sociology needs to gain knowledge and understanding of human nature in order for one to measure individuals’behavior. On the other hand, Durkheim suggests that an individual life has been constrained by social facts, such as how one should behave or how one should act in the society (Williams, 12). The second part of this essay will link and explore how individuals and the society use meanings of symbol and language to adapt into behaviors they encounter. It will focuson Goffman, a Canadian born; sociologist and psychoanalyst. In his pioneering work of stigma, he discussed the strategies employed by ‘abnormal’ or those with‘spoiled identities’ or stigma attached to themselves, such as mental illness, the drunk, the criminal the addict, the disable and the discriminated against. He defined stigma as ‘an attribute that discredits or disqualify an individual from full social acceptance’’ (Goffman, 3). However, according to Giddens (Giddens, 9) ‘stigma is any physical or social characteristic believed to be demeaning’. Moreover, stigma is a social process; a feature of social relation reflecting tension, conflict, silence, sabotaged, hypocrisy found in every human society and culture (Jones, 12). Campellstated that, the word stigma was created from Greeks (Campell, Deacon & H,6). It explains how individual’s bodily-assigned-marks such as burns, identify the person as an outsider. He argues people with stigma need to pass through a different kind of moral career which Goffman described as the most painful socialization process. He categories three types of stigma: physical defects, such as deformity of any physical ailment that cannot be seen as ‘normal’. The second type is personal weaknesses or blemishes on a person’s character or background. This stigmaidentify a personas being immoral, dishonest, mentally ill, an addict, a person living with HIV or AIDS and so forth. Finally, Tribal stigmas, which explains that certain people have been discredited based on the group one associates with such as religious, ethnical, sexual orientated, color and so forth (Burns, 23). These suggest that individuals who have been stigmatized receive different forms of treatment. However, stigma could be characterize based on the background of the members from where one originates from (Crossman, 10). Moreover, stigmas are not a reflection of inherent weaknesses on a person’s body or character. However, they are a ‘social label’ created by the ‘reaction’ of others in society, that is, the person involved is disqualified from full social acceptance. Therefore, stigma is an analysis of a particular form of social control. According to Goffman, the normal and the stigmatized are not two separate classes for people, but two faces stigma (Hochschild, 10). Sociological approach suggests that, stigma is not something one was born with it is merely the society and those with powers that made stigma be attached to an individual (Myers, 13). Myerssuggests deviant behavior could make someone who has beenstigmatizedgo astray from the mainstream activities when the person assumes that he or she is not part of social interactions. However, this could link into Durkheim concept of fatalistic suicide which one fells hopelessness and depression by being isolated from society or their social group. The stigmatized accept the label assigned to them and react to the values, norms and moral as interpreted on their action. According to Lemert, (Lemert&Branamam, 5) suggeststhat individuals act in response to moral commitment and accept rules in the society, because one perceive it is right to do so. Lee (Lee, 9) suggests that people are influencedby different level of awareness, that affect how one act in the world. Stigma is one of the negative result of poor impression management or the lack of ability to achieve others impression. However, this relates to the contemporary study of AIDS, which argues that individual with HIV infection or AIDS claimed that ‘Many people who are suffering from AIDS and not killed by the disease itself but bare killed by the stigma’ (Health and Development Networks, 10). People who are living with HIV infections have fear in their heart hence the cause of their condition. Lee (Lee, 9) suggests the modern society discipline and power is no longer sustained by threat and violence, instead individuals are thought to monitor and manage themselves in order to become docile. On the contrary, Durkheim argues that society shapes individuals more than the individual shapes society. However, individual living with HIV experience significant stigma, in their employment sphere, such as care settings, institutions settings and religious arena.This creates a pivotal fear to people living with HIV. Similarity, most of the workforce refuse to employ people who have encounters with HIV. This leads the makes these people isolate themselves from human society. Furthermore, media coverage perpetuate the myth of AIDS related stigma to individual via, TV, radio stations, new papers and so forth and broadcast that the stigmatized deserve to live that life as a punishment of their sexual misconduct. According to Giddens, structure based on the knowledge that agents have on society constructs the language in the individual who adapt and accept it (Hiroshi, 6). On the other hand, Ethnomethodologist suggests that the social world may appear to be intrinsically structured and might appear to exist, but it is only the surface impression created by people’s everyday interactions, and therefore, individual assume it is real and accept it. On the contrary, Garfinkelargues that language and the activity of talks is a central means by which one not only make sense of their world, but actually creates it. Foucaultclaims that ‘stigma’ is not a biological category, but it is a social construct. All human bodies are the product of social and discursive processes of inscription. On the contrary, social construction suggests that human beings are always agents in the active construction of social reality the way one depends on the way in which they understand or give meaning to their behavior. People are born into a pre-existing society and through generating a socialized and shared cultural character. Behavioris shaped and governed by what one has learned to do. In conclusion, Symbolic interactionists argued that there can be no self, no consciousness of self and no communication apart from society (Koku, 7). Similarly, society without people cannot exist. Goffman concluded that there is power in the labels when individuals’ accept the labels given to them by society and adapt to thosebehaviors. Social facts are constraints to the individual’s thoughts and actions. Further studies need to be conducted in order to come up with ways of how stigmas could be eliminated. 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