Reflection 1

Reflection 1

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Reflection 1

The Symbolic Interaction Theory

It reflects on relationships among the people in the society. It is the communication through which we exchange the messages by using various languages and symbols. Language and the symbols people use play a crucial role in the socializing of an individual within his or her society (Kuhn, 1964).

We are influenced by our culture and social processes, such as the social norms of our society will reflect that what are acceptable values and what are not acceptable in our community. I am from a well-developed country which has a diversified population coming from numerous cultural backgrounds. One thing unique about my society is that it respects diversity. People here are more into individualism, but they are very supportive to others. The social norms of my society talk about tolerance, acceptance, and morality. We never judge people by their race, class, status, origin, and language they speak.

However, we develop our self-concepts through interaction with others. There are so much to learn from people with different cultural backgrounds. Communication with them helps you learn a lot of new things. There are people with different 1st languages, and these languages are unique, learning a few words of those languages is always fun. Moreover, they tell you many things about their culture and their customs.

Similarly, our social structures are worked out through the social interactions with others. When people will interact and get together, then there are possibilities for the formation of social institutions, groups, roles, and different statuses. People connect with each other and they are able to get into the pattern of relationships.

The Social Exchange Theory

It is one of the essential theories of Psychology, and it claims that all the social changes which are happening in the society are taking place due to the interaction of people from different backgrounds (Blau, 2017). It reflects on social behavior as the processes for human interaction and connections.

Social Exchange theory describes how we feel about a relationship with another person. At the same time, it speaks of our way of looking at relationships by using the concepts of reward and cost. To stay in a relationship a person expects a certain level of rewards from another person in order to build a relationship with him or her.

Moreover, the exchange of social and material resources is natural. Living in a society, it is the requirement to give and take in the relationships. At the same time, there is no balance in the exchange of social resources. If two people are in a relationship and one of them is compromising more and sacrificing more to maintain the relationship, so he or she is the one who is bearing more cost while other is enjoying the rewards. At the same time, it is also the case with material resources. Some of the people get more while others get less being part of society.

In addition, people strive to minimize cost and maximize rewards. Costs are considered as the negative results whereas rewards are regarded as the positive results. The strong relationships are those which are supposed to maximize the rewards and minimize the costs. However, these are subjective terms.

References

Blau, P. (2017). Exchange and power in social life. Routledge.

Kuhn, M. H. (1964). Major trends in symbolic interaction theory in the past twenty-five years. The Sociological Quarterly, 5(1), 61-84.