Emile Durkheim Theory Of Social Deviance

The approach of looking at suicide as violating normal behaviors socially is what makes me go down into the idea of researching such a topic. In particular, what are the theoretical components of making and individual commit suicide? How does deviance correlate with the idea of suicide in sociology?

Symbolic interactionism perspective is a theory that is used to study social life. To do this, this theory relies on studying and observing the interactions among people and how they form meanings to things from those interactions. Although, there is much more to this theory than that. Blumer, the man who invented the term symbolic interactionism, presented three premises which help to understand this theory. The first one is, people act a certain way towards things depending on their meaning for that thing. The second premise is that we get meanings from social interaction, so we are taught meanings or we witness them from others. Lastly, the third premise is that meanings are able to change because people have the mental capacity to

The main idea of symbolic interactionism lies in the statement that human interactions take place through the interpretation of symbols and signs. Human actions and relationships are defined by symbols, which had been created and fulfilled with meaning by human beings themselves. And that makes symbols the essential part of any society. American sociologist George Herbert Mead, one of the founders of this theory, considered human actions as social behavior based on communication. He believed that people respond not only to the actions of the others but also to their intentions, and interpret them on the basis of the analysis and actions of our past experience in similar situations. For example, a reached out hand can symbolize one of the following: a greeting, attack, or a plea for help. Only by interpreting a symbol, we can react to it, as to shake hands with the other person, firmly grasp or leave.

Symbolic Interactionism (1)- The theory of symbolic interactionism conveys how society is made up of symbols that create meaning, develop communication, and produce world views. At the North Hanover Mall all interactions and even moods were established because of simple symbols. The overall mood of the mall was almost the same form person to person, a look of boredom was on the faces of many whether young or old. The attitude seemed to appear in people shortly after they entered the mall, once they had observed other individual’s body language and expressions, they shifted theirs as if they were trying to fit in with the crowd. Contrastingly when an employee

Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective that people use definitions, meanings, symbols, interpretations, and human interactions to compare themselves to others (Henslin, 2010, p. 15). Herbert Blumer, whom attended University of Chicago with one of the founders of the

Symbolic interactionism can be easily described as the “interactions of individuals with the larger institutions of social structure” (Ainbinder, 2015 p. 20). It can also be explained as focusing on ways, which meanings emerge through human life (symbolic interactionism, 2003 para. 2). In everyday life, it represents that people are repeatedly observing and understanding through their social interactions (Ainbinder, 2015 p. 20). Symbolic Interactionism can be defined in many ways, simply it means that everyday we are observing our surroundings.

Deviance, behavior that do not match norms, occurs in society. Thus, there exists several theories that help illustrate why deviance occurs in society. An example of one of the theories is the Conflict Theory. The Conflict Theory stresses the occurrence of conflict, competition, change, and constraint in a society.

Herbert Blumer, the first person to use the term symbolic interactionism, once suggested three basic premises for it. He put the first one as “humans act toward a thing on the basis of the meaning they assign to the thing” , which is to say that human’s perceptions and behaviors are not directly determined by objects or phenomena in the physical

Deviance according to sociologist is the behavior the one part takes in the that is not the norm, and can generate a negative reaction from certain groups. From a sociological perspective deviance is important because it reveals about the society we live in. Deviance requires us to examine and analyze why certain people and even certain groups chose to partake in a certain manor. By examining deviancent behavior we also recognize what the norm is. Labeling theory through a deviant approach states that deviance is caused by others people’s judgment of them, meaning that when a label is put on us more than often we tend conform to label. For example if people begin to label someone as an angry person then he will be under pressure to be

Symbolic Interactionism was formulated by Herbert Blumer. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and subconsciously rely upon in the process of social interaction. The youtube video presented illustrates the premises of symbolic interactionism in Chicago. It showed chicagoans replacing their car spaces with a lawn chair. These chairs were being put out in the snow to reserve a parking space. The importance of symbolic interactionism is shown through their views on objects. In this case, the chair is the object of choice. Assuming one person decided to claim their parking spot by leaving a chair in place of their vehicle, it gave the chair a different meaning. Instead of the chair being the object to use for sitting,

Symbolic Interactionism attaches significant meaning to the value of communication. According to symbolic interactionism, people attach meanings to symbols based on their understanding of the symbols. For example, if marriage is important in a society,

The two sociological theories of deviance I chose to study are the functional theories and the interactionist theories. The functional theories views crime and deviance as a result of structural tensions and a lack of moral regulation (Giddens, Duneier and Appelbaum 172). A important concept of the functionalist view is that of anomie, this idea suggests that there are “…situation[s] in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior” (Giddens, Duneier and Appelbaum 172). This view also suggests that deviance is necessary in modern society because it “…brings about change…” and sets boundaries “…between good and bad behaviors (Giddens, Duneier and Appelbaum 172)

In the Introduction to sociology textbook, it mentions deviant behavior and how it violates many individual’s social norms. The textbook states that deviance is not always punishable and that there is a slight difference from the types of crimes and its punishments. According to the textbook, there are two main types of crimes: violent and nonviolent crimes. Violent crimes refer to any crime against a person such as rape, murder, and even robbery. In the other hand, nonviolent crimes involves destruction or abduction of property like larceny, car theft and vandalism.

Symbolic interactionism as a term was coined by Herbert Blumer to further develop the theories of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. This perspective gives priority to the importance of understanding the meanings of social action. This framework works with the belief that human social behaviour is based on symbolic meanings that are found within a given situation (Tepperman et al., 2013 p.369). Symbolic interactionism, being a form of microsociology, focuses attention on the smallest systems of society, being individual people and their interaction. Symbolic interactionists, like all microsociologists, see society

Many believe that Blumer’s symbolic interactionism lacks hard evidence and testability. A person interprets a symbol and acts how they choose to act. This lacks the ability to be tested incorrect. Because this theory allows for the actor to respond in any way they want, then the theory can never be proven wrong meaning there is no testability (Melzer, Petros, and Reynolds 1975).