Examples Of Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic interactionism focuses on the way we shape and create our social world through actions and information. This is based on meanings that we give to situations and how we convey these through symbols and language. George Herbert Mead suggests that behaviour is not just shaped by instinct. We give meanings to important things and attach different symbols to them. We have to interpret something and respond accordingly. To interpret ideas we have to take into account the roles of other people and we need to be able to see ourselves as others see us to function. This idea is not new. Robert Burns (a well-known Scottish poet) used the phrase “God give us the power to see ourselves as others see us.”
We can see in the

In the USA, flags are much more often used to denote patriotism. The confederate flag, used in the American Civil War 1861 to 1865, was widely used by the southern states of what is now the USA. The confederation comprised South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee. The confederate flag featured a star for each of the states in the confederation. In June 2015 the confederate flag was used by a murderer to kill nine black people in a church in Carolina in his video before launching the attack The flag of the USA has a star for each of the current 50 states. The logic of this is that individuals can recognise their allegiance in a federal country of 50 different states. This type of symbol can cause solidarity within the USA as it unites people from different states together. Flags are used widely by the different factions within Ukraine. However those who are loyal to the government in Kiev have been trying to destroy flags denoting those who wish to belong to an alternative regime, therefore causing conflict within

Psychologists use the phrase ‘flight or fight’ to denote the reactions that people have. Flight would simply mean that we try to run away from or ignore the problems, whereas fight means that if we are threatened we react by trying to defend ourselves and get through the task. Sociologists can suggest that there are alternatives to these commonplace reactions. One of these is to try to reduce the problems, possibly by negotiation. We can see the possibilities for this. Many people assumed that South Africa would need a revolution to overcome the apartheid regime. To many peoples’ surprise, South Africa became a democracy, although, with many problems when President F.W. de Klerk voluntarily renounced his presidency which then led to the end of the apartheid system and the late Nelson Mandela as leader of the African National Congress party, better known by the initials ANC, became the new President of South Africa. Negotiations can be very difficult and this is one of the reasons why there was a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC), which was similar to a court where witnesses who could claim that they had been victims of gross human rights violations gave their statements, sometimes at public hearings. The perpetrators of the violence also had the right to appear and give testimony and would ask for amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution. The term blame