Interactionist Perspective

Examples of Interactionist Perspective in the following topics:

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • The interactionist perspective on social inequality focuses on the way that micro-interactions maintain structural inequality.
  • The interactionist perspective on inequality focuses on how micro-interactions reflect and create unequal power dynamics.
  • The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power, or authority, than others.
  • An example using real social roles can help illustrate the interactionist perspective: A CEO has more power than a receptionist.
  • Design a scenario which illustrates the interactionist perspective on inequality in action

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • According to theorists working in the symbolic interactionist perspective, health and illness are socially constructed.
  • According to theorists working in the symbolic interactionist perspective, health and illness are socially constructed.
  • Symbolic interactionist researchers investigate how people create meaning during social interaction, how they present and construct the self (or "identity"), and how they define situations of co-presence with others.
  • In essence, interactionists focus on the specific meanings and causes people attribute to illness.
  • Explain and give examples of social constructions of health according to the symbolic interactionist perspective

• The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

  • Symbolic interactionists view the family as a site of social reproduction where meanings are negotiated and maintained by family members.
  • Role-taking is a key mechanism through which an individual can appreciate another person's perspective and better understand the significance of a particular action to that person.
  • Symbolic interactionists also explore the changing meanings attached to family.
  • The interactionist perspective emphasizes that families reinforce and rejuvenate bonds through symbolic mechanism rituals such as family meals and holidays.
  • Symbolic interactionists explore the changing meanings attached to family.

• The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

  • The symbolic interactionist perspective posits that age is socially constructed and determined by symbols resembling social interactions.
  • According to the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, old age, and aging, are socially constructed and determined by symbols that resemble aging in social interactions.
  • While aging itself is a biological process, the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective posits that the meaning behind being "young" or "old" is socially constructed.

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • Following founding symbolic interactionist George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer claimed that people interact with each other by attaching meaning to each other's actions instead of merely reacting to them.
  • One of the most influential symbolic interactionist theorists on race and ethnic relations was Robert Park.

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • From a symbolic interactionist perspective, gender is produced and reinforced through daily interactions and the use of symbols.
  • In sociology, interactionism is a theoretical perspective that understands social processes (such as conflict, cooperation, identity formation) as emerging from human interaction.
  • Scholars of this perspective study how individuals act within society, and believe that meaning is produced through the interactions of individuals.
  • According to interactionists, gender stratification exists because people act toward each other on the basis of the meanings they have for one another.
  • Erving Goffman, one of the forefathers of this theoretical perspective, emphasized the importance of control in social interactions.

• The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

  • This perspective is also rooted in phenomenological thought.
  • It should be noted that symbolic interactionists advocate a particular methodology.
  • Symbolic interactionists tend to employ more qualitative, rather than quantitative, methods in their research.
  • The most significant limitation of the symbolic interactionist perspective relates to its primary contribution: it overlooks macro-social structures (e.g., norms, culture) as a result of focusing on micro-level interactions.
  • Some symbolic interactionists, however, would counter that the incorporation of role theory into symbolic interactionism addresses this criticism.

• Evaluating Global Theories of Inequality

  • Social theorists think differently about global inequality based on their sociological perspective.
  • Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
  • Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
  • Interactionists recognize global inequality, but consider it only in the context of individual relations and, therefore, see no role for state intervention.

• Are We Prisoners of Socialization?

  • From this perspective, then, who we are depends on nature.
  • An interactionist studying socialization is concerned with face-to-face exchanges and symbolic communication.

• Symbolic Interactionism

  • This perspective is also rooted in phenomenological thought (see social constructionism and phenomenology).
  • It should also be noted that symbolic interactionists advocate a particular methodology.
  • As a result, Symbolic Interactionists argue against the division of society into micro, meso, and macro forms, and instead focus on the ways that interconnected people continuously construct, alter, signify, and affirm themselves and others in ways that create, sustain, and change existing social structures.