Exam 8: Symbolic Interactionism

Spend 15 minutes observing face-to-face interaction in a public setting (e.g., campus cafeteria, church, coffee shop, library) and take detailed notes about what you are observing. Organize your notes and write a paper as follows: (a) Briefly describe the setting you observed and identify the social roles (e.g. the hungry/disinterested customer, the loyal friend, the dutiful/sullen daughter) of the social actors you observed. (b) Describe how the performance of each social role observed was executed (e.g., What script did the actors follow? What props were part of the interaction? What non-verbal signs were communicated during the interaction? What miscues did you observe?) (c) Identify whether the performances you observed could be classified as "front-stage behavior" or "back-stage behavior," and/or showed elements of both. Explain the reasons for your classification.

Sociologists refer to the family as a primary group because it:

Define what a social role is.

A school of American philosophy emphasizing the practical consequences of action is referred to as:

Team performance strategies:

In contemporary society, stigma is associated with:

Goffman used the metaphor of drama to elaborate on role behavior because, like in the theater, social role behavior is characterized by:

In performing our various social roles we typically use self-presentation strategies aimed at convincing others of the credibility of our performance. Goffman refers to this process as:

G.H. Mead argued that the self is:

Symbolic interactionism was a term coined in an offhand way (by Herbert Blumer) to describe a distinct theoretical perspective. Give two reasons that help explain why this term is an apt description of Goffman's conceptual analysis?

A successful social role performance is contingent on the actor's ability to:

According to Goffman, stigma is:

Identify the theorist, and explain why the self can only emerge out of social interaction.

Symbolic interactionists emphasize that:

Symbolic interactionists emphasize that social interaction: