SOCI 3660 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Erving Goffman, Research, Symbolic Interactionism
28 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Many argue the symbolizing process is the de ning feature of the human species. Peoples rst experiences with a particular drug are either 1) uneventful or 2) traumatic. Profs mom smoked weed for the rst time and ended up sitting in the snow cryingnever smoked again (traumatic) Adam smoked weed for the rst time, nothing happened. Then nally smoked again and got high. (uneventful because many rst time users cannot recognize the effects) Signs: a sign is directly connected to an object or event and calls fourth a xed or habitual response. Symbols: a symbol is any object, gesture, or word that becomes an abstract representation of something else. Whatever it represents constitutes its meaning: human constructs, arbitrary connection between symbol and meaning/response, for example: the alphabet, a country"s ag. Once we acquire language (a system of symbols), we are able to give things in our environment meaning.
