Theories of Social and Cultural Reality - Personal Competence - Lecture Slides, Slides of Sociology

Download Theories of Social and Cultural Reality - Personal Competence - Lecture Slides and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Theories of Social & Cultural Reality Docsity.com The Social Construction of Reality Docsity.com Common Assumptions of SC • Communicative action is voluntary. • Knowledge is a social product • Knowledge is contextual • Theories create worlds • Scholarship is value laden. Docsity.com Communication Perspective • SC enables communication to be viewed as a perspective, rather than a subject matter. • Barnett Pearce – Communication and the Human Condition – Perspective: A way of looking at or thinking about something. – How should we look at something? • Whenever I look at something in terms of how it is constructed in interaction among people, I am taking a communication perspective. • Pearce’s Model (The Resource-Practice Loop) – Resources: all the building blocks I work with in life (ideas, values, stories, symbols, meanings, institutions, etc. used to build my reality). – Practices: what I do or perform (behaviors, forms of expression, actions). – Resources & practices are closely connected through my interaction with others. Docsity.com The SC of Self • Rom Harre: explains how I account for my behavior in particular situations. • Ethogeny – Developed by Harre & Secord – Ethogeny: the study of how I understand my actions with a predictable sequence of acts, called episodes (an event with a beginning & end that all people would agree on). – Helps determine what the episode means and how people understand the acts involved in it. • Structured Templates – These are theories about the course of action anticipated in the episode. – Example: 2 people have a theory of what it means to be “in love” and how that should be acted out. – Episodes are governed by rules. Docsity.com – Common elements in theories of the self: • Self-consciousness: – I think of myself as an object. – Double Singularity Principle (Harre): the consistency with which I define and practice I1 & I2. – The group’s idea of self must treat each I as a consistent unity. – I must see me as me, not as Batman, etc. • Agency: – I have certain powers to do things. – Seen when I plan something. • Autobiography: – A sense that I have a history and a future. – Seen when I tell you about me. Docsity.com The SC of Emotion • Emotions (James Averill) – Are belief systems that guide my definition of the situation. – Consists of internalized social norms and rules governing my feelings. – Syndromes: Averill’s label for emotions. • A set of responses that go together. • Socially constructed. – Each emotion has an object. – How an emotion is labeled plays a role in how the emotion is experienced. Docsity.com 4 Rules That Govern Emotions • Rules of appraisal. – Tells me what an emotion is, where it is directed, & whether it is positive or negative. • Rules of behavior. – Tells me how I should respond to the feeling: to hide it, express it in private, or vent it publicly. • Rules of prognosis. – Defines the progression and course of emotion. – How long should it last, what are its different stages, how does it begin, how does it end? • Rules of attribution. – Dictates how an emotion should be explained or justified. – What do I tell other about it? How do I express it publicly? – Example: “She was acting like a jerk and that made me mad.” Docsity.com Rule-Governing Approach • Susan Shimanoff • Rule: “a following prescription that indicates what behavior is obligated, preferred, or prohibited in certain contexts.” – Rules must be followable. – Rules are prescriptive – Rules are contextual – Rules specify appropriate behavior. • Rules are best stated in the if-then format. Docsity.com How to Find a Rule: • If you can answer yes to all three questions, you have found a rule: – Is the behavior controllable? – Is the behavior criticizable? – Is the behavior contextual? • Finding rules is not always easy. – Overt sanctions are the easiest to find. – Repairs, such as apologizing, often show that a rule has been violated. Docsity.com How People Use Rules • Rule-fulfilling & rule-ignorant behaviors – Acting without knowing the rule. • Conforming & error behaviors – Governed by rules, although I am not thinking at the time about whether or not I am following the rule. • Rule-following & rule violation behavior – I consciously follow or violate a rule. • Positive reflection or negative reflection – Following or violating Docsity.com Text-Context Loop Patterns • Text: an event or action being interpreted. • Loop: each is used from time to time to interpret the other (Reflexivity). • Charmed Loop: each context confirms the other. • Strange Loop: each context disconfirms the other. Docsity.com Logical Force • Logical force: rules tell us what interpretations and actions are logical in a given situation. • Four types of logical force: – Causal Force (Prefigurative) • I feel I am being pressured to spend the weekend with my in-laws. – Practical Force • I act to achieve a goal (study to get an A, pass the course, etc.). – Contextual Force • Pressure from the context. I may go to grad school because I feel this is just who I am (self-concept context). – Implicative Force • Pressure to change the context in some way, such as the context of family expectations. Docsity.com The Coordination Process • Coordination: involves the meshing of my actions with those of another to the point of feeling that the sequence of actions if logical or appropriate. • It is possible with CMM for me to have a perfectly satisfactory coordination with you without understanding you. Docsity.com Elaborated & Restricted Codes • Basis Bernstein • Shows how the structure of language used in everyday talk reflects and shapes the assumptions of a social group. • Basic Assumption: – the relationships established in a social group affect the type of speech used by the group. – Further, the structure of speech used by the group makes different things relevant or significant. – I learn my place in the world by virtue of the language codes I use. • Codes: sets of organized principles behind the language employed by members of a social group. Docsity.com • Elaborated Codes – Provide a wide range of ways to say something. – More complex. – I can make my ideas and intentions explicit. – Require more planning. – Appropriate for groups who don’t share my assumptions. • Restricted Codes – Have a narrower range of options. – Easier to predict what form it will take. – Do not allow for me to expand on what I mean. – Appropriate for groups in which my assumptions are shared. Docsity.com Open and Closed Role Systems • Open-role system – Expands the number of alternative for individuals in the group. – Use of elaborate codes. – Person-centered families. • Closed-role system – Reduces the number of alternative for the participants. – Use of restricted codes. – Position families. Docsity.com Opposition to SC • Because SC conflicts with the concept that reality is objective and independent. • Many believe that the rock exist before we even begin talking about it. • Structuralists contend that human experience is largely universal, owing to a common biological inheritance and common cognitive structure. – Chomsky: language structures are universal. – Osgood: the dimensions of meaning are universal. Docsity.com Ellis’s Challenges to SC • Communication cannot proceed without assuming that we live in a world of a priori realism. – We must assume that we are all talking about the same thing. – Based on two principles: • Semantic Realism – Words have standard meanings. – When I say “football” to Craig, I assume that he knows what I am talking about. – These meanings are fairly stable. – Meaning itself is real. • Coherentism – Meanings must be verifiable in experience. – A table is a table because I can see it and touch it. – This does not mean that the table exist objectively, but that we can all assume it does based on our common experience of “tableness.” Docsity.com Facticity of Objects • Social constructivists do not deny that the locomotive exits. • The issue is not whether the locomotive exists apart from human construction, but how it it seen, what it is, and how it relates to other objects in my experience. • The locomotive can never be viewed as meaningful apart from human experience. Docsity.com