SOC251 Mead and Goffman

Symbolic interactionism

Human beings create their lives through ongiong processes of interaction with other selves

• Homo sapiens (human) construct existence through communicative interaction

• This construction is based on the creation and use of symbols (objects or acts that represent and convey meanings)

  • E.g., spoken or written word, uniform

Mead

• Individual is a social construct, and society is the creation of socialized, interacting individuals

• Deny behaviorism (viewed human beings as products of their environment, organically conditioned to react in fixed ways to stimuli)

  • They misses the true nature of the social act; human assign meanings to and interpret those stimuli (cultural meanings that are assigned to the symbols)

  • Human not behave in conditioned ways. Instead, they pursue goals by understanding the situation

• Human are self-awareness, through cultural learning, socialization, those organic properties are gradually disciplined and transformed into emotions, perceptions, ambitions, and principles.

  • Individuals can become “minded selves” only in a social

    context, through symbolic interaction with others.

Mind

Simply conscious thought

• thought occurs by means of “self-talk” or inner conversation.

• Conversation: form of symbolic communication employing language

  • Socially created system of vocal and written designations to symbolized shared experiences

  • imparted through socialization

→ our mind come from the outside (socialized language), from society.

• internalized language → think → accessing and communicating about the world

Self

capacity to reflect back on its own actions or status, to take on the perspective of both subject and object. This capacity arises through learning.

3 stage to form “self”

• Preparatory stage: small children begin to imitate actions of significant others

• Play stage: children “take the role of other” as in hide and seek

• Game stage: learn to place themselves in multiple roles, coordinating their actions with others on a team, as in hockey or baseball

looking-glass self

we form our self-concept largely through the “mirrored reflections” of ourselves that we see in the reactions of others.

At each stage of forming “self”, a child is developing an expanded capacity to step outside of pure subjectivity, pure ego, and reflect on actions in the light of how others might judge them.

Generalized other

the self is fully attained when one can take on the collective attitudes of one’s community or society

our identities are constructed through social interaction.

社会整体的一般态度，对这个问题的思考说明自我发展到了更成熟的阶段

Goffman

Dramaturgical perpective

• In daily interactions, people act like actors, adjusting their performance according to the occasion and the audience

the arts of impression management take precedence over honest communication

Impression management

Social interaction is driven by this.

Participants try to shape the situation in ways that support their own interests and protect their self-image.

• People must manage the information others receive about them during interaction. (Expression given, verbal declaration, and so on)

• Even when people notice fake or awkward performance, norms of tact help preserve a surface agreement, because both sides want to avoid embarrassment.

performance

Backstage and frontstage setting

• Closed to audiences, the backstage is where we do the preparatory work, wearing costume and make-up, rehearsing the act prior to its delivery frontstage.

One is usually a part of a performance team, collaborates in staging a performance with others

• Preserving team loyalty and coordination is important in social establishments, especially to places where people gather regularly to deliver and receive serveices

Total institution

More restrictive life, individuals are cut off from the wider society and being control. E.g., asylums

前台后台理论：staff前台表现关心病人，后台控制虐待humiliation病人；病人前台服从，后台underlife保持尊严

Behavior in Public Places

Fleeting encounters, but order prevails

People minimize “interpersonal contact” with strangers; if contact is inadvertently made, we quickly use standardized apologies or excuse

Stigma identity

The stigmatized identity is spoiled because the “normals” classify, label and treat them as abnormal, so their life-chances are limited. They use interaction strategies to avoid and hide their stigmatized attributes.

Both “the normals” and the stigmatized identifies are doing pression management