Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives David E. Rohall Melissa A. Milkie Jeffrey W. Lucas This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: ● any public performance or display, including transmission of any image of a network; ● preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; ● any rental, lease, or lending of the program

Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives Chapter 2: Perspectives in Sociological Social Psychology

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 Perspectives in Review  Symbolic interactionism (SI) is the study of how people negotiate the meaning of social life during their interactions with other people  The social structure and personality (SSP) perspective focuses on the connections between larger societal conditions (i.e., social structure) and the individual  Group processes (GP) studies how basic social processes operate in group contexts

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SI: Society and Agency  From the SI perspective, society exists as a network of interactions between people  Society imposes restrictions on us but we also have agency, the ability to act and think independently from those constraints  Society exists in a complex series of relationships; we negotiate these relationships internally and externally  There are three principles of SI

Blumer’s 3 Principles  Meanings arise through social interaction among individuals  People use the meanings they derive from interaction to guide their own behavior.  People employ an interpretive process regarding these interactions. Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: Principle #1  The first principle of SI is that meanings arise through social interaction among individuals  George Herbert Mead believed that the study of human gestures is at the center of social psychology  To have meaning individuals need an exchange of symbols and language  The process by which we use symbols and language to give meaning and value to objects and people is known as the social construction of reality

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SI: Principle #2  The second principle of SI is that people use the meanings they derive from interaction to guide their own behavior  According to SI, we are motivated to do so to overcome problems and achieve goals in life In other words, to get the things we want in life, we have to negotiate with other people.

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SI: Principle #3  The last principle of SI states that people employ an interpretive process regarding these interactions  People may come away from an interaction with different interpretations of it; we act on our interpretations  People base future behavior on their subjective interpretations of a present situation  This principle is the basis for the Thomas theorem: when people define situations as real, those situations become real in their consequences

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SI: The Chicago School of SI  The birthplace of symbolic interactionism is the University of Chicago, where both George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer worked in the early- to mid 20 th century  Chicago school of symbolic interactionism focuses on the study of the social processes involved in a given situation; the goal is not to quantify those processes or try to predict future behavior

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SI: Indiana and Iowa Schools of SI  The second school of symbolic interactionism is associated with scholars from Indiana University (such as Sheldon Stryker) and the University of Iowa (such as Manford Kuhn)  This school started after WWII  The Indiana and Iowa schools of symbolic interactionism emphasize the stable nature of social reality, hence, it is predictable and can be studied using quantitative techniques

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SSP: Social Structure and Personality  The social structure and personality perspective focuses on the connections between larger societal conditions and the individual  There are three main principles of this perspective

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SSP: Principle #1  The components principle states that we must be able to identify the elements or components of society most likely to affect a given attitude or behavior  SSP scholars study the impact of social structure, persisting patterns of behavior and interaction between people or social positions, on important life outcomes like our health and well-being  Social structure is studied in terms of our statuses, roles, and social networks

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SSP: How Social Networks Link People and Groups Together

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SSP: Principle #2  The proximity principle states that we often feel the effects of society through interpersonal interaction and communication with people around us  Most of society’s impact on us comes through institutions like work and family  People “feel” the effects of an economic downturn, for instance, through the loss of a job or if someone close loses a job

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 SSP: Principle #3  The Psychology principle focuses on how individuals internalize proximal experiences  Social forces include any way in which society compels individuals to act in accordance with an external norm, rule, or demand  This principle emphasizes the processes that lead people to follow the rules (or not)

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: The Group Processes Perspective  Group processes refers to the study of how basic social processes operate in group contexts  Groups are any interaction involving more than one person  Group processes scholars study basic processes and the impact of group structures on members

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: Basic Group Processes  Some of the processes studied by group scholars include: Power Status Justice Legitimacy  They try to understand how these processes develop in groups and/or how they impact relationships in those groups

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: Group Processes and Group Structures  Group structure exist in the form of its size and function  Small groups are defined as groups of two or more individuals—typically between 2 and 20 people—whose members are able to engage in direct, face-to-face inter­ actions

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: Dyads and Triads  Georg Simmel argued that group size can have a strong impact on relationships within groups  Dyads are two-person groups and triads are three-person groups  Moving from a dyad to a triad exponentially increases the number of relationships in the group while simultaneously decreasing intimacy levels

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: Model of the Relationship Changes in Dyads and Triads

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: Types of Groups  Charles Horton Cooley argued that there are two essential groups in society: Primary groups Secondary groups  Reference groups include people we look to as a source of standards and identity  The type of group we are in can effect how we think, feel, and behave

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 GP: Relationships among Groups  Social psychologists are also interested in inter-group dynamics, the relationships between two or more groups  They are also interested in individual behaviors in large-group settings  Collective behavior refers to the action or behavior of people in groups or crowds, a major subfield of sociological social psychology

Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007 Chapter 2: Bringing It All Together  Sociological social psychology includes scholars from three perspectives: Symbolic interactionists emphasize the social construction of reality Social structure and personality scholars emphasize the direct impact of social structure on the individual Group processes scholars study important group interactions related to power, status, justice, and legitimacy on members  These perspectives are not exclusive but emphasize different theories and processes