Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Research Articles

Symbolic Interaction of Communication on Social Drug Users’ Community in Jakarta

This article considers how communication is very capable and changeable in nation’s culture. Breathtakingly, this phenomenon was afflicted in metropolitan community in Jakarta as a result of globalization which is spread to all civilizations of nations in the world. The differences in perception of each individual equally obtain stimulate can occur in their interaction, the freedom of individual is to interpret the existing situation makes this research is needed due to the subject is interaction’s people based on perspective of symbolic interaction. The result have shown the drug users in Jakarta created a new communication symbols to disguise the terms of drugs in their social environment into the domain of the community. Moreover, youth groups with a very complex social life and inquisitive who wants to try a new thing and imitate easily in part of the foreign culture such as drugs is grow up rapidly. The research used symbolic interaction analysis and the researcher revealed the symbols and the meanings of communication based on the theory of symbolic interactionism; objectivity, and internalization where user makes specialties in their interactions between drug users in Jakarta.

Religion, Leadership and School Principals; Symbolic Interactionism Perspective

This study aims to analyze the leadership behavior of the madrasa principal in internalizing the religious values of the symbolic interactionalism perspective in the madrasa. This research was conducted using a phenomenological type of qualitative approach, in which researchers used interviews, observations, and documentation to obtain data in the field. The data analysis was carried out circularly through data presentation, data reduction, and concluding. The results showed that the leadership behavior of the madrasa principal in internalizing religious values from the symbolic interactionalism perspective was reflected in ritual practices as religious symbols that were displayed personally and collegially. In addition, sincerity is used as the basis for his perpetuation at the madrasa. This study implies that religious values must be internalized in every managerial activity in the madrasa to achieve the desired goals.

How STEM-based CI and Leadership Support can Turn Possibly Bad Situations Into Opportunities?

In this study, we examined how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals’ perceptions of themselves as overqualified influence their career anxiety and career decidedness through their career identity under supportive leadership. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two time-lag studies in the fields of education (Study 1, N = 530) and engineering (Study 2, N = 515). Using role identity theory, our results showed that STEM employees’ perceived overqualification was positively related to their career identity. Based on the internal dynamics of role identity theory in terms of self-processing, we also found that STEM employees’ career identity reduced their career anxiety and increased their career decidedness. We showed that career identity mediated the effect of perceived overqualification on career anxiety and career decidedness. We also found that leader support moderated this mediating effect, based on the symbolic interactionist perspective of role identity. Specifically, overqualified STEM workers had a stronger career identity when their managers were more supportive. Overall, our findings indicate that in the presence of supportive leadership, perceived overqualification may positively affect the decision-making and career development of early-career STEM employees, as well as their organizations. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

The Importance of Being Attentive to Social Processes in School Bullying Research: Adopting a Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach

School bullying is a complex social phenomenon in need of further exploration regarding its connections to contextual aspects, group norms, and societal structures. This calls for research approaches that can get closer to participants’ experiences and the different social processes involved in school bullying. One such approach is the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach, which aims to be attentive to participants’ main concerns and social processes through both analysis and data collection. This approach comes as a theory-method package with its use of a symbolic interactionism perspective. In this paper, I will show how CGT as a theory-method package, as well as symbolic interactionism and sociology of childhood, has been helpful in my research on school bullying (focusing on social structures, norms, and processes). More specifically, I give different examples from the whole research process, e.g., maintaining a focus on participants’ main concerns, the coding process, being guided by sensitizing concepts, addressing issues of social justice and equity — and overall forming and maintaining a theoretically and ethically prepared researcher role. I also suggest that this approach is helpful in dealing with ethical and theoretical challenges when researching topics known to negatively affect people’s lives and wellbeing — and when the social context makes it difficult for participants to address victimizing structures, positions, and processes.

Cooperation between Parents of "demoralized sons" and educational institutions. A symbolic interactionist perspective

The subject of the article is part of a study on the problem of the penitentiary crisis of families. The study of biographical experiences of mothers and fathers of prisoners allowed to trace the trajectory of parenthood in relation to crime and demoralization of the (adult)child. Parents reconstructed the stages of escalating difficulties, described their experiences of time in prison isolation, and most importantly, presented the process of "reaching" the moment of incarceration of their adult sons. One of the elements of these reconstructions is a specific (self)diagnosis made by the parents, concerning the sources of criminal behavior and the dynamics of the accumulation of educational problems resulting in imprisonment. Respondents revealed a variety of remedial strategies aimed at stopping their children's criminal careers. In this paper I focused on one selected area of these interactions, i.e. ways of creating and organizing cooperation between parents and educational institutions. In the main part of the study, I discussed three key directions of activities revealed by parents. The characteristics of these areas allow us to answer the question - what are the characteristics of the interaction between parents and teachers in the situation of the threat of demoralization of a teenager, and what preventive and remedial measures against problematic students are taken by schools from the perspective of parents? I have framed the presented observations within the theoretical and methodological framework of the Symbolic Interactionism perspective.

Women's experiences of perinatal depression: Symptoms, barriers and enablers to disclosure, and effects on daily life and interaction within the family

ObjectiveNearly half of all cases of perinatal depression are not detected, despite routine appointments with healthcare professionals (HCP) during pregnancy and after childbirth. Early identification of perinatal depression is crucial to provide the required support and offer timely treatment. This study aimed to explore women's experiences of perinatal depression to help identification and management of perinatal depression by HCPs. DesignTheoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism and methodological design of ethnography was adopted. Face-to-face individual interviews were used. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse interview data. ParticipantsFifteen women who had experienced perinatal depression in the last five years were interviewed. FindingsThree themes were identified: 1) Getting closer to the perinatal depression; 2) Decision to disclose or hide real feelings; 3) Hidden face of perinatal depression. Key conclusions and implications for practiceFindings demonstrate the importance of HCPs’ attitudes towards women, as if women perceive they being dismissed or neglected by HCPs, may have an impact on women refraining from disclosing their feelings.

Relasi Komunitas Muslim Dan Hindu Di Bengkulu: Studi Interaksi Sosial Masyarakat Desa Suro Bali

Suro Bali is one of the villages in Bengkulu province where the people are involved in ethnic and religious interaction, especially, Hindu and Muslim communities. Furthermore, an intense interaction for decades certainly has an impact on Muslim society. This paper is intended to determine the impact of socio-religious interactions on the Muslim community in Suro Bali. The phenomenological perspective or interpretive perspective is a big umbrella from the perspective of symbolic interaction which is the guideline in this study with a focus on the interaction of the dominant communities in Suro Bali, who are Hinduism and Islam.The result show that the effect of social-religious interaction on Muslim communities in Suro Bali can be seen from several aspects. Among other things: tolerance practices, religious activities, cultural identity, intercultural life.

Humour, agency and the [re]negotiation of social order within workplace settings

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper was to explore the role and function of humour within sports coaching from a symbolic interactionist perspective. This was particularly in light of the structure of humour and how its resulting [inter]actions prevented as well as facilitated the advancement of individual agency. Data were gathered from a ten-month ethnographic study that traced the players and coaches of Senghenydd City Football Club (pseudonym) over the course of a competitive season). Exact methods of data collection included participant observation, reflective field notes, and ethnographic film. The results describe the presence of humour’s idiosyncratic nature (e.g., soft, hard, and aberrant), particularly in relation to how coaches and players influenced the negotiated order to which others had, to greater or lesser extents, comply. a reflective conclusion illustrates how concepts such as humour are entwined in everyday life, and thus contribute to the construction and negotiation of contexts, like coaching, .

Improving hosts’ pre-interaction capabilities for sustainability based on Airbnb host content emergence characteristics

The sharing of accommodation as a sustainable environmental solution for the lodging market is prevalent all over the world. However, the rapid expansion and low occupancy rate could be due to the accommodation hosts’ lack of attention to the pre-interaction content while reducing their carbon footprint, which have caused a significant impact on guests’ decision-making and prevented sharing accommodation. To improve the host pre-interaction capabilities and achieve the environmentally friendly potential of sharing accommodation, this research aims to explore the host expression characteristics including important topics and keywords of host pre-interaction content from a symbolic interaction perspective. Conducting the latent Dirichlet allocation machine learning model, keywords clustering characteristics emerged as main topics based on 38,814 listings from Airbnb in Beijing. The result of investigating the features in these topics and the word distribution in three types of properties shows that in a homogenous accommodation community, hosts who make the pre-interaction have more orders than those who do not. At the same time, the focus of hosts on expressing explicit and abundant topic symbols can effectively increase the attractiveness of their listings. However, accommodation hosts who just post a long text but do not emphasize listing key topics would not convince guests to use the accommodation. A variety of practical implications of findings has been discussed for sharing accommodation practitioners to answer the challenge of sustainability.

Calidad de vida percibida y significados de la experiencia de morbilidad materna extrema: un estudio cualitativo

Abstract Experiencing extreme maternal morbidity (EMM) implies multiple changes, where the perception of quality of life is modified, generating a gap between what is perceived and what is desired. The aim is to understand the meanings attributed to EMM by survivors of the experience and the effect of these meanings on the processes of reconstruction of daily life. A qualitative study from the perspective of symbolic interactionism that included an analysis based on elements of grounded theory by conducting semi-structured interviews with women from a Colombian city. The experience of EMM is understood by the participants as “a suffering that is worthwhile” and is constructed from the meanings given to each stage that is experienced: (1) pregnancy: an unexpected event that is better when accompanied by a partner/family; (2) the complication: separation distress; (3) life after near-death. Women’s perception of quality of life depends on both the experience of the event and social support, as well as on the baby’s survival. The role of health services is critical because loneliness, worry, and stress intensify when health personnel have a dehumanized relationship with women.

SOCIAL INTERACTION AMID COVID-19 AND RESPONSES TO THE PANDEMIC IN SARAWAK

This article documents social interaction among rural and urban indigenous communities in Sarawak during the COVID-19 pandemic and their responses to the outbreak at individual, household and community levels. The study on social interaction is crucial to shed light on larger social institutions and to examine how social actions are organized across space and time. The study framed within the symbolic interactionist perspective - emphasize the role of symbols and language as the core elements of social interaction. Research methods used in the study are participant observation and interviews to understand relevant context and process. In participant observation, researchers took part in socio-cultural activities of the community in the villages and their dwellings places in urban areas and participated in social media platforms. Data from observation and interactions (face-to-face or mediated by technology) analysed based on themes and contents. The findings show that social interaction among community members significantly altered during the pandemic in terms of the mode of interactions, frequencies, locations, reasons, duration, types and topics of interactions. These include the shift of face-to-face interactions to digital interactions, reduced numbers of interactions, significant more home-based interactions, and then unequal access to digital interactions. Other findings highlight that cultural themes related to communalism, supernaturalism and family and/or children influenced the community members’ engagement in social interactions. The community responses towards the outbreak varied according to the socio-economic background of individuals and households. Through these data the study shed light on how community members interacted during the pandemic; the exchanged of ideas and information, conflict during interactions, responses to the pandemic and the issues surround inequality of access to information and communication technologies.

The Abda’u Ritual: Ethnographic Communication Study of Tulehu Society in the Moluccas, Indonesia

The study focuses on the emerging phenomenon of abda’u ritual at the Eid al-Adha celebration in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Eid al-Adha celebration by the Tulehu society in the Moluccas, Indonesia is to identify the trust and values local tradition as a form of struggle, defense and flag upholding, struggle for sacrificial animals with ideology upholding of Islamic teachings. This ritual uses the communication media of three goats to be sacrificial animals and is distributed to three the indigenous village which is contested by abda’u participants. This research employed a subjective interpretive paradigm with an ethnographic communication approach pioneered by Dell Hymes based on a symbolic interaction perspective the abda’u ritual at the Eid al-Adha celebration. The symbol of devotion to Allah is a distribution by sharing with other communities that become the glue to arouse sacrifice through the sentence Lailaha ilallah muhammadarrasulullah. The findings show that the abda’u communication ritual is formed based on awareness to preserve the procession of the sacrifice of the sacrificed animals, and the social solidarity, syiar of Islam, enforcing Islam ideological through devotion to Allah.

An Empirical Study on the Use of Emojis by College Students From the Perspective of Symbolic Interactionism

The present paper, by referring to the theory of Symbolic Interactionism, through the questionnaire survey among college students, studies the functions and influences of emoji use in online communication. It is found that emojis have linguistic, social and aesthetic functions. However, it also has certain disadvantages and limitations.

Co-constructing conversations about suicide: the Meeting Space Framework.

This article draws on research conducted for the author's doctoral thesis. It presents the development of the Meeting Space Framework to address what is needed to engage in meaningful conversations about suicide, from the perspective of student nurses. An interpretive methodology of constructivist grounded theory was used, underpinned by the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism. The core category of Meeting Spaces resulted; engaging in meaningful conversations about suicide is co-created in illuminating space within the context of a human pivotal encounter (positive) as opposed to an unceremonious pivotal encounter (negative). A certain kind of space is required to support engagement in meaningful conversations about suicide. It requires humanness and an intention and ability to see the whole person beyond the limiting word of 'suicide'.

Vocational Teacher Educators’ Role Identity: A Case Study in Malta

This paper gains a deeper understanding of the professional role identities of vocational teacher educators (VTEs) when compared with mainstream teacher educators (MTEs) in Malta. It is framed using identity theory from the structural symbolic interactionism perspective (Burke and Stets 2009). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, adopting thematic analysis. Findings show that VTEs and MTEs underpin their teaching differently, influenced by the perceptions they have about their professional role identities. There is no “one size fits all” solution for each country, yet this study contributes to a field with a limited research base and offers new insights to identity theory.

Social Interaction and Social Relations: A Sociological Analysis

ABSTRACT This paper reviews critically the relevance of social interaction and social relations as the core foundation for all human endeavours, making it possible for people to live together in every existing society. This is with a view to give a clear understanding and to demonstrate its centrality in the existence of human societies and in the emergence of the discipline of sociology. The objective of this paper is to create an understanding of social interaction and social relations. The paper employed the symbolic interactionist perspective to review the components and types of social interaction, socialisation and how it has evolved over the years. The study reveals that social interaction and social relations are very important, and form an integral part of human societies and this is why stigmatisation and ostracism are very effective as tools of social control and regulation. The study also reveals that social interaction and social relations form both micro and macro sociological orientations and have evolved over time, and this evolution has been facilitated by advancement in technology and globalisation. The paper concludes that the development of human beings and their societies depends on social interactions and social relations. The study recommends that the turn that social interaction and social relations takes can determine the level of development because if, social interaction is chaotic, it will bring about confusion and conflict and there will be little or no development. But, if social interaction were that of cooperation, more development would be recorded by society

Digitalisation of Oral Traditions and Documenting Contemporary Social Issues: A Study on the Little Known Karbi Films of Karbi Anglong Assam

ABSTRACT This paper reviews critically the relevance of social interaction and social relations as the core foundation for all human endeavours, making it possible for people to live together in every existing society. This is with a view to give a clear understanding and to demonstrate its centrality in the existence of human societies and in the emergence of the discipline of sociology. The objective of this paper is to create an understanding of social interaction and social relations. The paper employed the symbolic interactionist perspective to review the components and types of social interaction, socialisation and how it has evolved over the years. The study reveals that social interaction and social relations are very important, and form an integral part of human societies and this is why stigmatisation and ostracism are very effective as tools of social control and regulation. The study also reveals that social interaction and social relations form both micro and macro sociological orientations and have evolved over time, and this evolution has been facilitated by advancement in technology and globalisation. The paper concludes that the development of human beings and their societies depends on social interactions and social relations. The study recommends that the turn that social interaction and social relations takes can determine the level of development because if, social interaction is chaotic, it will bring about confusion and conflict and there will be little or no development. But, if social interaction were that of cooperation, more development would be recorded by society.

Emotionally Engaged Parent Versus Professional Teacher: Strategies for Maintaining Borders Between the Dual Teacher-Parent Role in School

Abstract The paper presents findings on primary teachers’ and other school actors’ constructions of the teacher and parental role. Specifically, it focuses on strategies for maintaining borders between the personal (parent) and professional (teacher) roles in school environments in Slovakia. We approached the concepts of role and identity from the perspective of social constructivism and symbolic interactionism. Thirty-one interviews and focus groups with school actors were analysed using critical discourse analysis. In the next step, discourses on managing the dual role were analysed using thematic analysis. Results show participants described regulating or restricting verbal, emotional and behavioural expression, and engaged in favouritism avoidance as strategies for separating out the roles. All point to the need to eliminate favouritism as a key meaning in the construction of the teacher role through impartialness and parental role as favourably inclined to create inter-role conflict. We stress the importance of exploring teacher and parental roles in various circumstances in order to obtain a complex picture of negotiating these roles in everyday life.

How Does the Professional Status Influence Botswana Teachers’ Self-Perceived Professional Identity: From the Social Symbolic Interaction Perspective

How Does the Professional Status Influence Botswana Teachers’ Self-Perceived Professional Identity: From the Social Symbolic Interaction Perspective

Informal Sperm Donation in Russia

Rising infertility across the globe has created a growing demand for assisted reproductive technologies (ART). In recent years, apart from sperm donation in formal settings such as fertility clinics, informal donation practices have emerged and spread across Russia. These reproductive donation practices have become possible due to the development of social networks and private online platforms. We conducted a pilot study (eleven semi-structured interviews) of the informal sperm donation in Russia and analyzed donor-recipient interactions, donors’ expectations and experiences of finding recipients online. We focus on donors' motivations and on the meanings, which donors invest in this practice that consumes significant resources on their part (medical tests and artificial insemination costs, travel and accommodation expenses, sometimes mutually agreed financial support of future offspring). We interpreted the practices that coalesced around informal donation from the perspective of symbolic interactionism, because it allowed us to showcase how actors reflected on and formulated the meanings of their actions in the absence of externally imposed rules (legal regulations, established moral conventions). Since informal donation practices do not fit into the traditional schemes of interpretation, such research requires the actors involved in informal donation either to create their own schemes or to modify the existing conceptual frames in creative ways. The study shows that informal donors do not only provide their genetic material but also spend time and invested considerable resources to ensure their procreation, including eventual financial support of the child. At the same time, these men are not interested in marital relations or paternal relations with their offspring. Thus, the informal sperm donors do not associate the parental project with traditional family and its values. We conclude that ART engendered a new phenomenon, which might be described as extramarital reproduction. Assisted reproduction outside marriage ­gains footing in Russia and requires more detailed further study.