Symbolic Interactionism Theory Of Smoking

According to Bernie Sanders, “It is time to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. It is time to end the arrest of so many people and the destruction of so many lives for possessing marijuana”. Cannabis is considered to be an illegal drug but is used for medical purpose. 587,700 people were arrested for marijuana in 2016. More people always get arrested for marijuana than other crimes like rape, murder, or robbery.

Experiment Description: Being a college student I am aware of just how asocial and isolated college students tend to be while on campus. My experiment consisted of sitting next to people, more specifically, searching for those who were sitting by themselves at a table with empty chairs surrounding them. After finding the best subjects I would then walk right up to their table without speaking and sit down right by them rather than on any of the several available chairs around them. I executed this experiment at the library located at Cal state Long Beach during lunch hours (12:15pm-1:00pm) meaning the library was usually crowded. I would look for someone sitting alone at a big table and would then go ahead and make

For this project, Breaking a Social Norm, I decided to violate people’s personal space. At the beginning, when I heard about this and how I felt in preparation for the experiment is that I am seriously skeptical, dreading, terrified, anxious, and this is going to be the toughest challenge in my life that I have ever encountered. I started the experiment on Black Friday at the Great Mall where there were going to be a lot of crowds and it is in the public. First, I sat next to this random stranger, a mid-thirties woman, who near the food court and I am thinking to myself just get it over with and pray that nothing bad will happen during the experiment. So, I sat to this stranger very close until there is no space. In addition, she was texting

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

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

Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions (Conley). A Symbolic Interactionist would view abortion on a case by case basis. Depending on the situation, they may support abortion or they may be anti-abortion. For instance, a symbolic interactionist may consider abortion acceptable and view it has the moral thing to do if woman becomes pregnant as of the result of being raped, but they may view abortion as unacceptable and wrong, in the case of a women being drunk and having a one night stand that ends with her becoming pregnant because lack of contraception.

Symbolic Interaction focuses on a micro view of society. It focuses on a small scale perspective of interaction between individuals. Imagine you`re with a friend instead of looking at large scale structures like education or law, since we are looking at the small scale symbolic interaction explains the individual in a society and their interactions with others and through that it can explain social order and change.

Symbolic interaction theory is symbols that give a meaning. Society is viewed as subjects and social status and that they are given symbols. Homeless people are approached through symbols. Symbols can be anything like for instance the way they act, the clothes they wear and the kind of food they eat.

a. Symbolic Interaction/pg. 23: a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another.

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the language and symbols that help us give meaning to the experiences in life. It also studies how people discuss the meaning of social life during interactions

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.

Last, symbolic interaction is the third of the three sociological perspectives. Symbolic interaction is things that human attach meanings to. Symbolic interaction is a micro-level theory. Micro-level theories are small scale theories. Heart shape symbols, for example, is a symbolic element. Humans use red hearts to represent the love hey have for each other. Symbolic interaction relates to divorce by a couple removing their wedding bands. Individuals who does not wear wedding bands symbolizes they are single or divorced. Also, by one of the spouse refusing to wear their wedding bands can offend the opposite partner and cause the marriage to stray towards divorce.

In the twenty first century, everyone knows the dangers of smoking, yet so many people still do it. It is well known that it is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the United States, yet people still willingly put their lives at risk for their deadly habit. In the early twentieth century, smoking was not deviant; it was normal. In contrast to symbol of death and disease it is today, from the 1900s to the 1960s, the cigarette was a cultural icon of sophistication, glamour, and sexiness. When health hazards of smoking were published, people failed to believe that it could have anything to do with lung cancer and disease, which is why it is still so puzzling why people continue to smoke today. The symbolic interaction theory with the perspectives of Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Erving Goffman explains why it was okay at one point in society to smoke, and is now considered deviant.

Symbolic interactionist is a micro level of social analysis, it is concerned with individual experiences and the wider society. As well as not focusing on the core structures or support the general theory of society like the functionalist does.

There has been a great increase in the number of deaths due to smoking. Headlines such as ‘’Second hand smoke kills 600,000 worldwide annually’’ (Falco, 2010) highlights that there’s a major problem. My question is, why are people still smoking? It should be a wake-up call for those who smoke but even with the hard facts presented, people still decide to smoke. As a psychology student, I was interested in exploring the phenomenology of smoking & wanted to address this matter further. To do this, I designed an interview schedule from which I have gained an individual’s emotion as well as perception towards smoking. Before I could do this I had to, myself, understand what an interview is & how I could professionally interview an individual