Sociological Theory And Symbolic Interactionism In Nursing

The Functionalist theory emphasizes the contributions (functions) that all parts of society (e.g., social institutions) make within society. This theory has contributed to sociology by providing a view “which emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain stability.” (Schafer 2013, pg13)

Symbolic Interactionism is the “ongoing use of language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). George Herbert Mead, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, developed this theory. He believed “that our thoughts, self-concept, and the wider community we live in are created through communication, verbal and non-verbal” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). There are “three core principles of symbolic interaction: meaning, language, and thinking” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 54). The meaning is “humans act toward people and things according to the meanings they assign to those people or things” (Em Griffin, 2012, p. 55). Language “arises out of the social

Nursing practice has revolutionized itself throughout the years. Today we realize the causes of current illnesses as complex and multifaceted (source). In past models, for instance the medical model, the approach was straightforward and neglected the patients active involvement in their care; the patient was viewed as the passive recipient and the doctor, an active agent that “fixed” their patients. ( source). New developed models since then, such as the biopsychosocial model, show us that care focuses on many factors. The model demonstrates understanding of how suffering, disease, and illness can be associated by many factors seen at the different levels in society and the medical sciences (source). Caring for each component is

She later described the human as an energy field with illness and health being manifestations of the human pattern. Her continued study outlined relationships her theory has based off of her propositions. One of the relationships is the transpersonal caring field, which stays within the unitary field of consciousness. It signifies the unitary spiritual connection between the nurse and the patient. A transpersonal caring relationship goes beyond the ego levels of the patient and the nurse. It creates new possibilities for interaction. The practitioner’s consciousness about the carative factors and intentions opened up connections in the unitary field. This enables more access to the patient’s inner healing. The provider communicates the transpersonal relationship through different ways such as being present in the relationship. Caring-healing modalities are often noninvasive, natural-human energetic field modalities. Transpersonal caring promotes self-patterns and possibilities. Advanced transpersonal caring modalities recognize wholeness, healing, comfort, balance, harmony and well-being (McEwen & Wills, 2014, pg.

Mead’s “theory of self” is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such as observing and interacting with others, responding to others' opinions about oneself, and internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about oneself. The social aspect of self is an important distinction. That’s because other sociologists and psychologists of Mead's time felt that the self was based on biological factors and inherited traits. This was the normal and conventional type of mindset from psychologists at the time. According to Mead, the self is not there from birth, but instead it is developed over time from social experiences and activities.

Symbolic interaction theory emerged in the early 1900s and is still one of the more frequently used theories in the family studies (Smith & Hamon, 2012). The theory assumes that people have different interpretations of situations due to their personal experiences (Smith & Hamon, 2012). By looking at the behaviors of individuals, symbolic interaction theory explains how multiple people have different reactions to the same situation (Smith & Hamon, 2012).

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 interactionists reject structure and believe that to study society, the only way to do so is to concentrate on the individual. Both theories believe in understanding the individual through the use of empathy. George Herbert Mead was mainly concerned with the importance of language. Language distinguishes humans from animals and allows us to be aware of our individuality.

A nurse-patient relationship is the basic requirements in all practice settings. Its usage is to manage communication between an organization and a public while maintaining boundaries in the therapeutic relationship. Based on Peplau’s interpersonal theory, communication takes place in a nurse-client relationship where therapeutic process occurs involving complex factors such as environment, attitudes, practices, and beliefs in the dominant culture (seu.edu, 2015). The actions of each person in a nurse-patient relationship is measured on the collaboration of their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Nurse’s work to attain, maintain, and restore the patient’s health until patient have fulfilled the health care needs. Patient must be guided and provided a well-respected environment until a better health and specific needs are fully considered in the relationship. In this kind of setting, nurse’s must create relationship with patients by communicating receptivity, assimilating the concepts of empathy, trust, genuineness, respect, and confidentiality into their interactions.

Wit is a movie about a woman dying of cancer. It is a powerful drama that chronicles the last few months of her life. The recurring theme throughout the movie is the nurses’ role as the compassionate, caring individual who humanizes the main character. The nurse seems to be everywhere and able to do just about everything that is needed. The nurses’ sole purpose in this film is to promote healing, preserve dignity and respect the patient as a whole person. The nursing theorist strongly represented in this film is Jean Watson. . This paper explains Jean Watson’s theoretical concept how the nurse in the movie utilizes her nursing theory model.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and summarize the philosophy of nursing and how nursing theory guides this nurse’s practice. Information used to do this paper was retrieved from the online database, Nursing and Allied Health Source and CINAHL through the SJR State Library. Our textbook, The Conceptual Foundations and the Merriam- Webster Dictionary website was also used. Some of the search phrases used were Jean Watson theory of human caring, philosophy of nursing, and Watson’s philosophy and theory of human caring in nursing on the online database. The word philosophy was also searched on the Merriam- Webster Dictionary website. There was an abundance information throughout my research on

Symbolic interactionism helps explain both of our individual personalities and the ways the human society is linked together (p.27). It also helps us differentiate social order and change through a process. The teachings of symbolic interactionism comes mostly from George Herbert Mead But,George was not the only one that influenced the thoughts and ideas of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interaction is theoretical perspective so it is still changing and evolving. It also has four kinds of understandings in the population and environment. One of the understandings is that symbolic interactionism is to understand why people engage or do not engage in social growth of the population . Symbolic Interactionism assumes that people from different social backgrounds, and different cultures may see different social issues within their social community. George Mead,Charles Cooley and Herbert Blumer shaped symbolic interactionism on the predictions of yourself causing you to behave a certain way so it becomes true.

By giving nurses a sense of identity, nursing theory can help patients, managers and other healthcare professionals to recognize the unique contribution that nurses make to the healthcare service (Draper 1990).Hildegard Peplau, one of the role model of nursing theorist, established a theory of interpersonal relationships in nursing. Her reason is the goal of the nurse-client relationship is to give a quality nursing care moving forward to health promotion and maintenance. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a basic assessment of her theory.

The symbolic interactionism theory is the view of social behavior of individual that emphasizes linguistic and the gestural communication in a society and its subjective understanding of different matters, but especially the role of language in the formation of the child as a social being and social behavior in the society.

Symbolic interaction offers a dramaturgical perspective of how people identify and create their social self through social interaction. Many social theorist studies social interaction/ self as a function to our society. In addition, microsociology develop the idea of applying social interaction on a smaller sample size within the society. Therefore, there were an increase in the study of human interaction and the self. Mead develop his idea through symbolic interaction and social psychology of the human mind. Simmel develop his idea through the perspective of symbolic interaction of urban sociology. Both sociologist focus on the inter social aspect of the human life.