Here, reality is constructed by an idea. Symbolic interactionists offer another lens through which to analyze the social construction of reality. With a theoretical perspective focused on the symbols like language, gestures, and artifacts that people use to interact, this approach is interested in how people interpret those symbols in daily interactions. For example, we might feel fright at seeing a person holding a gun, unless, of course, it turns out to be a police officer.
Interactionists also recognize that language and body language reflect our values. One has only to learn a foreign tongue to know that not every English word can be easily translated into another language.
The same is true for gestures. The story line of a self-fulfilling prophecy appears in many literary works, perhaps most famously in the story of Oedipus. Oedipus is told by an oracle that he will murder his father and marry his mother.
In going out of his way to avoid his fate, Oedipus inadvertently fulfills it. As you can imagine, people employ many types of behaviors in day-to-day life. Currently, while reading this text, you are playing the role of a student.
Sociologists use the term status to describe the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to their rank and role in society. Some statuses are ascribed —those you do not select, such as son, elderly person, or female.
Others, called achieved statuses , are obtained by choice, such as a high school dropout, self-made millionaire, or nurse. As a daughter or son, you occupy a different status than as a neighbor or employee. One person can be associated with a multitude of roles and statuses.
If too much is required of a single role, individuals can experience role strain. Consider the duties of a parent: cooking, cleaning, driving, problem-solving, acting as a source of moral guidance—the list goes on. Similarly, a person can experience role conflict when one or more roles are contradictory. A parent who also has a full-time career can experience role conflict on a daily basis. When there is a deadline at the office but a sick child needs to be picked up from school, which comes first?
When you are working toward a promotion but your children want you to come to their school play, which do you choose? Being a college student can conflict with being an employee, being an athlete, or even being a friend. Our roles in life have a great effect on our decisions and who we become. All we can observe is behavior, or role performance.
Role performance is how a person expresses his or her role. Our definition of a situation as good or bad, to be embraced or avoided, dictates our response to it.
Ethnomethodology, as founded by sociologist Harold Garfinkel, is a theory that looks at how we make sense of everyday situations. Though we may view a situation differently from those around us, our backgrounds provide us with some basic assumptions about everyday life.
Ethnomethodology studies what those background assumptions are, how we arrive at them, and how they influence our perceptions of reality. In order to understand these assumptions, students of ethnomethodology are often taught to violate or challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions we have about everyday life. Example: In the United States, one background assumption is that emergency personnel, such as police officers, wear identifiable uniforms when on duty. The officer might have difficulty keeping onlookers at bay or redirecting traffic away from the scene.
When the background assumption is not fulfilled, members of the public will not respond as respectfully as they would if the officer were in uniform, and the officer will have a hard time performing required duties. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Identity and Reality Quiz Study Questions. Summary Social Construction of Reality. Ethnomethodology Ethnomethodology, as founded by sociologist Harold Garfinkel, is a theory that looks at how we make sense of everyday situations.
Another way of looking at this concept is through W. Merton as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Merton explains that with a self-fulfilling prophecy, even a false idea can become true if it is acted upon. Because of this false notion, people run to their bank and demand all of their cash at once.
Here, reality is constructed by an idea. Symbolic interactionists offer another lens through which to analyze the social construction of reality.
With a theoretical perspective focused on the symbols like language, gestures, and artifacts that people use to interact, this approach is interested in how people interpret those symbols in daily interactions. For example, we might feel fright at seeing a person holding a gun, unless, of course, it turns out to be a police officer.
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