SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM
• Major framework of sociological
theory
• Relies on the symbolic meaning
that people develop and rely
upon in the process of social
interaction.
• Analyzes society by addressing
the subjective meanings that
people impose on objects, events
and behaviors.
• It is believe that the people
behave based on what they
believe and not on what is
objectively true.
GEORGE HERBERT
MEAD
• Pioneered the development of
symbolic interaction perspective
• Who argued that “people’s selves
are social products, but these
selves are also purposive and
creative”
3 BASIC PREMISES
1. Humans act toward things on
the basis of the meanings they
ascribe to those things.
• includes everything that a
human being note in their world
including physical objects, actions
and concepts.
2. The meaning of such things is
derived from or arises out of the
social interaction that one has
with others and the society.
• People interact with each
other by interpreting or defining
each other’s actions instead of
merely reacting to each other’s
actions.
3. These meanings are handled
in and modified through an
interpretative process used by
the person in dealing with the
things s/he encounters.
• naturally talk to ourselves in
order to sort out the meaning of
difficult situation.
KEY POINTS
• Roots in phenomenology, which
emphasizes the subjective
meaning of reality.
• Proposes a social theory of self
or a looking glass self
• Criticized for failing to take into
account large-scale macro social
structures and forces
KEY POINTS
• Symbolic interactionist study
meaning and communication,
they tend to use qualitative
methods
HERMENEUTIC
PHENOMENOLOGY
» HERMENEUTICS – a principle
or method
» PHENOMENOLOGY – study of
the development of human
consciousness and self-
awareness
2 CAMPS of
HERMANEUTIC
PHENOMENOLOGY
» DESCRIPTIVE
PHENOMENOLOGY by
Edmund Husserl
» INTERPRETIVE
PHENOMENOLOGY by
Martin Heidegger
» DESCRIPTIVE or
TRANSCENDENTAL
Phenomenology
– based on discovering the
objective universal essences of
lived experiences and
communicating them through
pure description
» DESCRIPTIVE or
TRANSCENDENTAL
Phenomenology
– focus on the correlation of the
“NOEMA” of experience (the
WHAT) and the “NOESIS” ( how it
was experienced”)
» INTERPRETIVE or
EXISTENTIAL Phenomenology
– interpretation of text or
language by an observer or the
“art and science of
interpretation”
» ISOLATING THEMES –
application of the skill of
reading text, such as
transcript, that is the
spoken accounts of
personal experience.
FOUR COMMON
FEATURES
» DESCRIPTION – the aim of
phenomena
» REDUCTION – a process that
involves suspending or
bracketing the phenomena so
that the “things themselves
can be returned to
» ESSENCES – the core
meaning of an individual’s
experience that makes it what
it is
» INTENTIONALITY – refers to
the consciousness since
individuals are always
conscious to something
» PHENOMENOLOGY focuses
on people’s perceptions of
the world or the perception of
“the things in their
appearing”.
RATIONAL
CHOICE THEORY
» the idea that social interaction
can be considered as social
exchange, which is patterned
on economic action that
people are motivated by the
rewards and
costs of actions and by the
profits that they can make at the
lowest possible costs.
• According to rational choice,
people make decisions
according to what would give
them the greatest satisfaction
at the lowest costs possible.
PILLARS of
RATIONAL
CHOICE
1. utility maximization;
2. structure of preferences;
3. decision-making under
conditions of uncertainty; and
4. centrality of individuals in the
explanation of collective
outcomes.
FEMINISM
» A range of political
movements, ideologies and
social movements that shared
a common goal: same
economic, social and political
social equality of sexes.
POLITICAL
MOVEMENTS
» LIBERAL FEMINISM - seeks
individualistic equality of men
and women through political
and legal reform without
altering the structure of the
society.
» RADICAL FEMINISM -
considers male-controlled
capitalist hierarchy as the
defining features of women
oppression and the total
uprooting and reconstruction
of the society.
» CONSERVATIVE FEMINISM -
conservative relative to the
society
» LIBERTANIAN FEMINISM –
conceives people as self-
owners and as entitled to
freedom from coercive
interference
» SEPARATIST FEMINISM - does
not support heterosexual
relationships
» ECOFEMINISTS – see men’s
control of land as responsible for
the oppression of women and
destruction of the natural
environment, criticized for
focusing too much on the
mystical connection between
women and nature
