SOCI 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Symbolic Interactionism, Impression Management, Macrosociology
7 Sep 2018
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Day 11
• Why Protestantism could lead to higher rates of suicide
o Absence of clergy and confessions could lead to feelings of loneliness
▪ Anomie Suicide (lack of regulation, integration)
o Shows how current author use Durheim in their research
• Goffman: Presentation of Self
o Non-verbal communication is key for impression management
o Result is an information game
o Defensive and protective practices are needed to maintain our impressions and
definitions of the situation
o Examples: public apology performances
• Media and Redefined Notions of Front and Back Regions
o Reality TV/Talk Shows- constructing a “public/private” persona
o Facebook/Social Networking- redefining notions of private/public (Agger, 2015)
▪ ex) public shaming- a certain tweet will become famous causing one
person to be shamed
• Micro and Macrosociology
o Social interaction is always in a relationship with social structure
▪ Interaction helps establish the structure and structure is always in our
mind when we are interacting
▪ ex) students of Florida shooting are trying to use collective agency to
change the nation’s discourse on gun control
▪ Micro vs Macro
• Everyday behavior in small scale interaction vs large scale social
systems and long terms processes of change
• Social Interaction vs Social Structure
• Symbolic Interactionism vs Conflict Perspective and Functionalism
▪ Social structure refers to the “diverse ways in which the rules and norms
of everyday life become enduring patterns that shape and govern social
interactions” (Manza, 2016:99)
▪ Social structure guides our behavior
▪ People learn their behaviors and attitudes because of their location in the
social structure, and they act accordingly
MIDTERM REVIEW
• Concepts on study guide
• Essay questions
• Framing Strategies in regards to mass shootings
o Framed as an issue of basic rights (appeals to standard American values)
o Framed as an issue of mental health (becomes about people and not about gun
control)
o Florida students are adding their own frame for how they want the issue to be
discussed → have opened and challenged the discussion in a new way
o Framed as an issue of violent childhood videogames (blame culture, movies, etc)
o Often at the moment of tragedy they say it is a time for thoughts and prayers not
for a policy discussion
o Accusing kids of being crisis actors
• Getting an A
o Good command of theories and concepts
o Relational and critical thinking (comparing and contrasting concepts)
