The Contribution of Interactionism to Our Understanding of Society

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The Contribution of Interactionism to Our Understanding of Society The key underling principle that the interactionist perspective is based upon is the claim that social reality is constructed through actions and interactions of people. Interactionism developed rapidly in the 1960's as a response to structural perspectives like Functionalism and Marxism. There are 3 main branches of Interactionism, these are as follows. Social action theory argues that social 'actors' carry out actions to pursue goals. Their values and their perception of the situation influences their choice of goals and the selection of the means to achieve them. Symbolic interactionism is centred around the concept of 'self'. The self is how we see ourselves as objects in the social world, to show that individuals are self-reflective and that by using their understanding of past experiences they can modify present action. Ethnomethodology examines the method by which individuals make sense of everyday reality. Social reality is seen as precarious and th...

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