The third major framework of sociological theory is symbolic interaction. Instead of thinking of society in terms of abstract institutions, symbolic interaction emphasizes immediate social interaction as the place where \u201csociety\u201d exists. Because of the human capacity for reflection, people give meaning to their behavior. The creation of meaning is how they interpret the different behaviors, events, or things that happen in society.
\nAs its name implies, symbolic interaction relies extensively on the symbolic meaning that people develop and employ in the process of social interaction. Symbolic interaction theory emphasizes face-to-face interaction and thus is a form of microsociology, whereas functionalism and conflict theory are more macro sociological.
\nDerived from the work of the Chicago School, symbolic interaction theory analyzes society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events, and behaviors. Subjective meanings are important because, according to symbolic interaction, people behave based on what they believe, not just on what is objectively true. Symbolic interaction sees society as socially constructed through human interpretation. Social meanings are constantly modified through social interaction.
\nPeople interpret one another\u2019s behavior; these interpretations form social bonds. These interpretations are called the \u201cdefinition of the situation.\u201d For example, why would young people smoke cigarettes even though all objective medical evidence points to the danger of doing so? The answer is in the definition of the situation that people create. Studies find that teenagers are well informed about the risks of tobacco, but they also think that \u201csmoking is cool,\u201d that they themselves will be safe from harm, and that smoking projects an image\u2014a positive identity for boys as a \u201ctough guy\u201d and for girls as fun-loving, mature, and glamorous. Smoking is also defined by young women as keeping you thin\u2014an ideal constructed through dominant images of beauty. In other words, the symbolic meaning of smoking overrides the actual facts regarding smoking and risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The third major framework of sociological theory is symbolic interaction. Instead of thinking of society in terms of abstract institutions,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[842,413,540,392],"class_list":["post-3323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-applied-sociology","tag-ias","tag-sociology","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3324,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3323\/revisions\/3324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}