SOC 22000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Symbolic Interactionism, Verstehen

• School: Purdue University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 22000
• Professor: Steven Hillis

Document Summary

Society is created through daily interactions of individuals/groups and guided by symbols (micro-level face to face interaction: symbols identify others and our relationships (boyfriend and brother) Individuals determine how to act based on perceptions of themselves or others: people experience things, try to interpret them (give meaning), and then react based off shared interpretation. Essence: human beings construct their world of meaning as opposed to meanings being innate within the material world around them. All communication is symbolic and based upon interaction and meaning. Self-fulfilling prophecy: stude(cid:374)ts p(cid:396)efo(cid:396)(cid:373) a(cid:272)(cid:272)o(cid:396)di(cid:374)g to tea(cid:272)he(cid:396)(cid:859)s e(cid:454)pe(cid:272)tatio(cid:374)s: girls attribute success to effort and boys to intelligence. Process where people act & react in relation to others (central to understanding social life: must have other person on the mind, constantly interpreting & influencing one another. Shared meaning: mutual understanding that makes complex social behaviors possible: definition of the situation. Weber: ve(cid:396)stehe(cid:374) (cid:894)s(cid:455)(cid:373)patheti(cid:272) u(cid:374)de(cid:396)sta(cid:374)di(cid:374)g(cid:895) (cid:396)e(cid:395)ui(cid:396)ed to take othe(cid:396)(cid:859)s a(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s i(cid:374)to a(cid:272)(cid:272)ou(cid:374)t.