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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page research paper that contrasts and compares Talcott Parsons' theory of structural functionalism and George Herbert Mead's thoughts on symbolic interaction. The writer argues that these theories offer two very different perspectives on how individuals and societies function. Mead's theory is concerned with the origination of consciousness and how people interact and communicate. Parsons is more focused on the larger picture of how societal institutions interact. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khparmea.rtf
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is concerned with the origination of consciousness and how people interact and communicate. Parsons is more focused on the larger picture of how societal institutions interact. Examination of both perspectives
demonstrates that Meads theory is better able to illuminate understanding of human behavior. Mead views gesture as a key means by which social intercourse is affected (Ridener, 1998). He
sharply differentiates however between non-significant or unselfconscious gestures, which can be found on the level of animal behavior, and those that he considers to be significant or self-determined, which are
indicative of human interaction. Human thought arises from symbols, which--according to Mead--usually consist of "vocal gestures...which arouse in the individual himself the response which is he is calling out in
the other, and such that from the point of view of that response he is able to direct his later conduct" (Ridener, 1998). In other words, symbolic interaction is not
purely instinctive, but rather involves interpretation, that is, an individual as to decipher the meaning of actions or remarks of another person. One must not only comprehend the symbolic meaning
of words and phrases, but also the manner in which the remark is said, that is, the suggested attitude and connotation. Mean proposed that human communication is a process that
involves constant self-conscious adjustment of the parties involved to the conduct of each other, a "repeated fitting together of liens of action through definitions and redefinitions, interpretations and reinterpretations (Ridener,
1998). Following the work of William James, Mead argues that consciousness should be comprehended as a "thought-steam," which arises from the "dynamic relationship between a person and his environment"
(Ridener, 1998). In other words, every person is, from birth, continuously involved in a succession of social interchanges with other people that serves to shape the mind, which means
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