The Importance of Symbols in the Human World - Assignment Example

1. What is the importance of symbols in the human world? Symbols create representations of the human world through providing context for understanding interaction with each other and with the environment in which they live. Herman (2003) states that “Symbols have motivational significance; meanings and symbols allow individuals to carry out distinctively human action and interaction” (p. 1). One of the basic ideas that support the theory of symbolic interactionism is that human beings are defined by meanings that they apply to their experience within the world. Herman (2003) writes that “Meanings, then, are conceived as social products arising through the defining acts of individuals as they engage in social interactions – social products that may, in turn, exert influences upon them” (p. 1). Through symbols that have meaning, human beings are able to navigate the world as it relates to culture and environment, a sense of order created out of commonly understood symbols and the meanings for those symbols. Gaining control over meanings is essential in being successful within the social environment. An example of this sense of control can be seen through the application of the theories of symbolic interaction to the anti-social behaviors of crime. In a community in which social cohesion has been established, those who live in those areas will feel safer through the symbols of safety that they can observe and understand. This can mean anything from the presence of police to the installation of gates. The presence of police can actually also provide the reverse symbolism as the police are usually present where crime has occurred. It is the interpretation of their presence in relationship to their purpose that creates either a meaning of safety or threat (Denzin & Faust, 2011). 2. What is the foundation of symbolic interaction? The foundation of symbolic interaction was developed through observation of human behavior. The term was fist coined by Herbert Blumer in 1937, with applications of the term being appropriate to the work of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. Cooley approached the study of human behavior through language, process, and sympathetic introspection. His work was “steeped in morality and eclecticism” (Prus, 1996, p. 49). He also focused on the role of interaction in bonding people together. Cooley’s contention was that understanding these bonding practices was central to understanding society (Prus, 1996). Cooley wrote that “The ideal for sociology is to extend the behavior record to all the essential acts of man, making them intelligible, imaginable and predictable” (Prus, 1996, p. 49). The purpose of the sociological examination is to understand how behaviors are linked to the larger social dynamic. Mead wrote that “Out of language emerges the field of mind…We must regard mind, then, as arising and developing within the social process, with the empirical matrix of social interactions” (Prus, 1996, p. 54). Mead proposed that mind is not constructed of passively attained information, but that it actively engages community and participation in order to develop the learning process. The self, then, becomes “an object of one’s own awareness” (Prus, 1996, p. 54). The sense of self becomes developed through looking at others and then redefining one’s own perception of the self which is based upon observation and learned meanings. 3. How does the ‘self’ fit into symbolic interaction. In order to understand how the self fits into the world, symbolic interaction defines the self as a part of the community in participation and through the reception of meaning for the symbols that exist within that social environment. The self is often considered as part of the private domain, but the development of the self is greatly in part through the interactions one has with society. Personal identity and the self, as studied by sociologists, is created through the impact that society will have on the development of the individual through the dynamics of interaction (Elliott, 2008). The development of self is constructed through the understanding that one attains about the world and the meaning of the symbols within it. Mead emphasized that “the social self; each of us, as individuals, fashions a sense of our own selfhood through engagement with other selves” (Elliot, 2008, p. 31). Mead emphasized language as the heart of the development of the self. Through the meaning of symbols, understanding is attained through objects. In childhood, symbolic meaning is created about objects through which the beginnings of reflective thinking and autonomy are established. The connecting skill is language through which communication that is beyond the symbolic representation is given context (Elliot, 2008). 4. What are the two underlying assumptions and the three important theories in behaviorism? The two underlying assumptions that are related to behaviorism are that behavior in a person or in any organism is a response to stimuli and that “external stimuli can be manipulated to strengthen or reduce an organism’s or an individual’s behavior” (Tracey & Morrow, 2012, p. 41). Learning is defined through behaviorism when the outcome is observable through changes in behavior. The assumptions that have been made about behaviorism designate that learning is part of the response that is being made by an individual or organism to what has been pressed upon them in relationship to how they are reacting. The three important theories that are related to behaviorism are classical conditioning theory, connectionism, and operant conditioning theory. Ivan Pavlov worked with classical conditioning in which he showed that repeated stimulus would result in repeated behaviors when associated one relevant and one irrelevant stimulus. The irrelevant stimulus would eventually cause the same reaction as the relevant stimulus. Connectionism, as studied by Edward L. Thorndike, is examined for the influence of stimuli that occur after an event in relationship to future behavior. Tracey and Morrow (2012) write that connectionism was defined by four laws, the Law of Effect, the Law of Readiness, the Law of Identical Elements and the Law of Exercise (p. 44). Operant conditioning is a form of learning that was defined by B. F. Skinner that suggested that there is a relationship between learning, punishment and reward. Furthermore, learning was best done with small increments of learning given in order to increase the success of retention. A strictly behavioral perspective on teaching means that the learning process is structured so that learning becomes errorless. As an example, a teacher may wait 3 minutes to give praise to an accomplished task on the first day, but then lengthen that time between accomplishment and praise on the subsequent days. 5. What importance does ‘Connectionism’ play in the sociological perspective? Of the three forms of behavioral theory, connectionism has a great deal of importance in the sociological perspective. Mary Calkins, one of the first women to enter the field of psychology according to Dawson (2005), paired two people together with a third used as the participant in trying to make associations. This ‘shared associate task’ was intended to show how grouping was used to remember details of the two people. This task can be translated for how people begin to classify one another in relationship to social groupings such as race, age, and gender. Assumptions that are made through social grouping indicates that in order to recognize the meaning of behaviors, grouping them becomes a way in which to provide context for how those behaviors relate between people. Connectionism can be associated with the idea of the group mind, which is incidentally being used to examine the process of artificial intelligence. According to Godwin (2012) “knowledge in very large networks of simple processing units resides in patterns of connections, not in individuated local symbols” (p. 174). This translation of the idea of connectionism reveals that at the core of its ideas is that people are the results of the connections within society more than society is the result of individual interpretations of society. Connectionism and the concept of how people respond to stimuli through behavior can be reflected back to symbolic interaction as the perpetuation of society becomes both simulated and responded to by the people within the society. The group mind influences the individual more than the individual influences the group mind. 6. How does behavior contribute to making society? The functionalist approach can be seen through the behaviors of society as the components, which can be interpreted as roles, of a society must be performed to maintain a society. This does not mean that all components will always be working well, but there will be some form of function to support the overall social construction. Behavior becomes relevant to how the functioning of those components affect the society. As an example, the function of the police is relevant to how well the behaviors of those in those positions are developed. A corrupt police department will have an effect on the way in which society is performed through the corrupt behaviors (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2010). In order to understand the behaviors in society, then, one must understand the functions those behaviors represent. Through symbolically representing their roles within society, the other members understand what they can expect. As those roles are preformed through either genuine or corrupt means, the meanings of those roles are different for each community. As an example, in a community in which the police have a higher rate of arrests, the police may not be viewed as servants of the community. Where in a community where crime has been decreased through the efforts of the police, they may be seen as performing that role. Resources Dawson, M. R. W. (2005). Connectionism: A hands-on approach. Malden: MA. Denzin, N. K., & Faust, T. (2011). Studies in symbolic interaction: Vol. 37. Bingley, U.K: Emerald. Elliott, A. (2008). Concepts of the self. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Godwyn, M. (2012). Sociology of organizations: Structures and relationships. Los Angeles: SAGE. Herman, N. J. (2003). Symbolic interaction: An introduction to social psychology. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira. Prus, R. C. (1996). Symbolic interaction and ethnographic research: Intersubjectivity and the study of human lived experience. Albany: State University of New York Press. Tracey, D. H., & Morrow, L. M. (2012). Lenses on reading: An introduction to theories and models. New York: Guilford Press. Zastrow, C., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010). Understanding human behavior and the social environment. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning. Read More