A Subscription to
Social Interaction
I.
Specific
Hypothesis
If the complex
framework of the structural-functional
approach[1]
are the theaters of our conscience that control a large percentage of how people
interact with us; then like night and day the “arena of inequality” and the
theaters of our conscience are co-eternal amongst a society that subscribes to
sensory and symbolic deprivation. Then the social-conflict
approach[2],
which contains two important conflict approaches in society: Gender-Conflict[3]
and Race-Conflict Approach[4],
subscribes to symbolic deprivation and its manifest and latent functions, which
has a direct effect on how we perform specific task, in a specific manner, at a
specific time, causing us to use logic, emotion, external, and internal forces
as an excuse when we make decisions in the “arena of inequality” as to why we
should ‘not do’ or ‘do’ what messages seep into our conscience directing us,
either as a collective or as an individual, “generating conflict and change.”
II.
Structural-Function
Approach
“In 1960 Richard Cloward and Lloyd
Ohlin[5]
identified three types of illegitimate juvenile subcultures; criminal, conflict, and retreatist.” (Hagen, 2013, p. 164) This identification condensed two and a half
centuries of research, bringing understanding to crime, the criminal element,
criminal origins, and how the demonological
theory is connected to the origins of crime. Cloward and Ohlin gave great understanding
from a sociological perspective. “At the heart of sociology is a special point
of view called the sociological
perspective. Comprised of four basic
components that make it unique: General
Social Patterns, Strange in the Familiar, Society in everyday life,
Marginally/Crisis.” (University, 2014)
“All social structures, from a
simple handshake to complex religious rituals, function to keep society going,
at least in its present form.” (Macionis, 2010, p. 14) When meeting up with friends and/or family to
socialize, there is an immediate formal greeting, followed by a communicating
of current news or information to one another, and then moving on to the reason
for their meeting. That reason can be the
smoking of a blunt, a romantic rendezvous, a church function, school function,
etc. The reason for the meeting is the manifest function, and any unrecognized
or unintended consequence of that meeting, whether good or bad, is the latent function. Social
dysfunction comes into play when we are not aware of the messages that seep
into our conscience directing us in a certain social pattern of conflict and
change. Sensory deprivation and Symbolic
deprivation come through symbols and
a person’s status and role, at social functions. At these social functions when people “don’t
hit it off” their theaters conflict, making them socially incompatible. To sum it all up, how we deal with or respond
to these roles, status, and symbols either begin our social constructs of
reality or maintain our current social contract, causing us to become socially
functional or socially dysfunctional.
III.
Sensory
Deprivation and Symbolic Deprivation
Sensory
Deprivation and Symbolic
Deprivation are two types of deprivation that are the foundation of what
occurs in the “arena of inequality,” and are part of the theme of this research
paper. Sensory and Symbolic deprivation
starts out as manifest functions in the “arena of inequality” that leads to
latent functions, which are at the root of the sociological approaches,
supported by sociological data as evidence supporting my hypothesis. In chapter 8 of Williams’ & Arrigo’s
book, Ethics, Crime, and Criminal Justice
(2012), on page 153, they explore Bentham’s Pleasure Principle. For instance, fecundity is a latent function
of sensory and symbolic deprivation as they compare and contrast studying for
an exam and going out with friends. Even though you retain all the material you
need for a test or class discussion, you miss out on socializing with friends,
meeting new people, and/or making new contacts. In summary, what symbols one uses to identify people, places, things, or events with
to acquire a perspective, shows the environment and activities one took part in
while developing in the “arena of inequality,” progressing through conflict,
and changing physically and morally, using the Social-Conflict Approach.
1. “Gender-Conflict focuses on the
inequality and conflict between men and women,” (Macionis,
2010, p. 15) while Gender Stratification “is also about
social hierarchy.” (Macionis, 2010, p. 334) The social hierarchy of Gender Stratification
“affects the opportunities and challenges we face throughout our lives.” “Gender is at work even before the birth of a
child, because especially in lower-income nations, parents hope that their
firstborn will be a boy rather than a girl.” (Macionis, 2010, p. 332) Moreover, “Parents even send gender messages
in the way they handle infants.” (Macionis, 2010, p. 332) Most women identify objects, places, and
things through sexual objects, private parts, or sexual positions, while most men
identify those same objects, places, and things through action and
violence. This fact is supported by
Macionis (2010) in his textbook entitled Sociology,
on page 332: “…The female world revolves
around cooperation and emotion, and the male world puts a premium on
independence and action.” “[A] national
monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census
Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Among the age groupings of those 35 years and
older, women had earnings that ranged from 75 percent to 78 percent of the
earnings of their male counterparts. Among younger workers, the earnings
differences between women and men were not as great.” (Statistics, 2013) This financial data indicates how the family
structure has become co-eternal with the individuals that make up one’s family,
and not like it was during the first 80 years of the 20th century.
2. Race-Conflict
plays a very important role in social interaction. “This is why sociologist study patterns of”
interaction ranging from Assimilation and Segregation to Genocide, Pluralism,
and Miscegenation; whether it is a biologically transmitted trait, shared
culturally, or just ‘different’ from societal norms. Race and ethnicity in the United States has
always, and will always be a factor in conflict and inequality. “Among both
women and men age 25 and older, the weekly earnings of those without a high
school diploma ($386 for women and $508 for men) were about two- fifths of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher
($1,001 for women and $1,371 for men) in 2012…earnings for women with a college
degree have increased by 28 percent since 1979, while those of male college
graduates have risen by [only] 17 percent.” (Statistics, 2013)
While “[J]obs with the highest concentration of women” are Cosmetologist (93%),
Child Care Workers (94%), and Secretary or Administrative Asst. (96.7%) (Macionis, 2010, p. 335) , “[T]he amount of housework, which is usually
considered ‘women’s work’, has gone down since women have started being
co-bread winners of their households, but their share of it remains indistinguishable.”
(Macionis, 2010, p. 337) The manifest functions of the law are to
maintain order in society, but its latent function produces a hard lesson
learned by the individual who breaks the law.
“…the vast majority of those arrested or labeled as criminal are from
lower social classes. Criminality for
traditional crimes is higher among lower-class individuals, totally apart from
bias in statistics or the administration of justice. Part of the excessively high rate is likely
to be due to their lack of power and sophistication in shielding themselves
from formal litigation proceedings.” (Hagen, 2013, p. 65)
In addition, Delbert Elliot’s
Integrative Theory “involves synthesizing the gap between aspirations and
achievement, attachment and commitment, and exposure to identifying with
deviant peers.” (Hagen, 2013, pp. 199-200)
James Flynn, “observed in the 80s that
IQ scores had consistently increased in the past decades”… “3 IQ points per
decade and thought that intelligence itself had not increased, but abstract
problem-solving ability had, making people more intellectually capable”…
“Factors that may have played a role are computers, long-schooling, media
stimulation, better health and nutrition, and more parental attention (Hagen, 2013, p. 151) . These statistics and facts stratify what
symbols are used and the persons that use them in the “arena of inequality,”
and how race, gender, and symbols contribute to the constructs of the theaters
that play a large role in manifest and latent functions in social interaction.
3. “Three
waves of feminist movements in the United States” have brought us to 2014,
where the woman is equal in every aspect of today’s society. Feminism is also at the core of sensory and
symbolic deprivation. Sexual activity every
day, deprivation of sexual activity, or deprivation of sexual affection can
lead to one having feelings of inadequacy which lead to a short temper,
committing an act of violence, or withdrawing from society unhealthily. Even though suicide rates are higher for men
than women in the world, in the United States suicide rates in the U.S. “occur
where people live far apart from one another.” (Macionis, 2010, p. 14)
The psychology of a woman says while men
want to have sex with multiple partners, women want to have sex multiple times
with a stable, long-term partner (Kalsher, 2008, p. 310) . This desire to pleasure themselves, derives
from a ‘double your pleasure’ and ‘double your fun’ way of thinking by women
that is derived from Bentham’s seven pleasure
principles. “It demands immediate,
total gratification and is not capable of considering the potential costs of
seeking this goal.” (Kalsher, 2008, p. 342) “Somatotypes
are body builds that relate to personality characteristics (temperaments).” They can be found in, The Joint (2014), a local newspaper that features both men and
women whom were arrested during a certain time period, one can see that
somatotyping is no longer a clear indicator for a man or woman’s personality,
but biological theories like Assimilation, Genocide, Segregation, Pluralism,
and Miscegenation are key factors in “making us aware of the many ways in which
sensory and symbolic deprivation places men and women in positions of power in
the “arena of inequality.” (Macionis,
2010, p. 15) Carol “Gilligan’s work on moral development
led her to conclude that there are significant gender differences in the ways
men and women respond to moral dilemmas” (Williams & Arrigo, 2012, p. 134) . This is where the true Exchange comes in between men and women. The exchange is not sex for money, love,
etc., but “that morality may very well develop out of more than a[s] single
orientation: one focusing on justice,
rights, and logic (for men) and another on interpersonal relationships,
compassion, and care (for women)” (Williams & Arrigo, 2012, p. 134)
each sex is a delicate counter-balance for the other.
4. The
Symbolic-Interaction Approach is a
micro-level orientation, and the “result from the ongoing experiences of tens
of millions of people.” Furthermore, society
is nothing more than the shared reality that people construct as they interact (Macionis, 2010, p. 17) . Some symbols are universal while some vary
with nationality, race, and ethnicity.
Everything from “[A] word, a whistle, a wall covered in graffiti, a
flashing red light, [or] a raised fist” are just some examples of symbols that
are used within various cultures through cultural folkways (Macionis, 2010, p. 62) . Some societies create new symbols all the
time, like “cyber-symbols” used for texting and/or Instant Messaging. In The Final Call newspaper (2014), it stated
that, “Mr. Powell described what it would be like taking a computer microchip
and asking the finest scientists back in the mid-1500s to reverse engineer the
technology then explain what it was.
They would not have the technological tools, nor the arc of knowledge to
even begin to describe or interpret what they were looking at.” (Muhammad,
2014) We
are in this very context as we have arrived at present day internet. We have a marvel of technology, but cannot
explain past the proverbial depths of what we have. In “Columbus, Georgia, in front of the River
Center, on Broad Street, is located one of the Fountain City’s greatest
fountains entitled, DRAMA.” “The stone
water sculpture embodies” technology created by god and man. “The force of the water and sequencing of
lights are all modulated by computer” (Muhr) ,
as is the theaters of our minds. This symbolic
interaction is the basis for the Symbolic-Interaction Approach which plays a
large role in constructing the theaters in the human mind, playing at different
levels of the conscience and sub-conscience mind.
“Dramaturgical
analysis offers a fresh look at the concepts of status and role. A status is like a part in a play, and a role
serves as a script, supplying dialogue and action for the characters. Goffman described each individual’s
“performance” as the presentation of self.” (Macionis, 2010, p. 145)
The manifest function of
the first Georgia state constitution was to establish statehood. It was drafted in 1776, a year later in 1777
another constitution was drafted, “followed by the constitutions of 1789, 1798,
1861, 1877, 1945, 1976, and 1983.” (West, 2006) Every year this constitution was re-drafted,
its latent function evinced a different theater of intelligence being played on
the great state of Georgia. Noah Hutton on his web
page, The Beautiful Brain, explains
in detail how these theaters are constructed. “Some cognitive scientists, such as Robert
Stickgold of Harvard, have used the relationship between the seen and unseen in
theater as a good metaphor for the relationship between the conscious and
non-conscious activity in our brains when we sleep. The metaphor goes something
like this: One leading theory about sleep, called the activation-synthesis
hypothesis, posits that sleep is a time for the brain to sift through all the
experiences and thoughts we’ve kept in our short-term buffer throughout the
day, decide what’s worth keeping, and then weave those survivors into the
complex web of memory we already have within us, for us to carry along until
tomorrow, at least. That process happens quite unconsciously– in the
“backstage” regions of the mind, as we sleep. This process of sifting– of
activation, then synthesis– generates waves of activation throughout the brain,
probing neurons that store information not only from what happened that day,
but also activating those that deal with longer-term memories that may be of
associative use as we try to relate the new stuff to the older stuff, and see
how the new memories might be of use in preparing for the future, a constant
pursuit of the mind (Hutton, 2012) .” The psychodynamic
view of these theaters or dreams are
best described by Sigmund Freud as a latent function of the brain, “…Freud, who popularized the view that dreams
reveal the unconscious---thoughts, impulses, and wishes, that lie outside the
realm of conscious experience (Kalsher, 2008, pp. 137-138) . If dreams aren’t reflections of hidden wishes
or impulses... According to this perspective, dreams are simply our subjective
experience of what is, in essence, random neural activity in the brain.” (Kalsher,
2008, p. 138)
Whereas the physiological view suggest
the manifest function that “dreams are usually silent, but are filled with
visual images.”(Kalsher, 2008, p. 138) Some dreams cause the individual to experience
smells, touch, and taste. “Those waves
of activation end up seeding our dream consciousness– the theory goes– by
creating a stream of objects, people, feelings, places, and everything else,
that sort of “bubbles up” from that non-conscious background memory-sorting
process, and surfaces in our conscious, dream-state. In this sense, it’s that
raw material that bubbles up from the backstage process that is seized upon by
our conscious minds– the fully-lit, gazed-upon stage of the theater– which then
weaves it all together, onstage, into our dream narrative, imposing meaning, as
we do, in the strangest–or sometimes most poignant– of places.” (Hutton, 2012) When our mind shifts back-n-forth between the
material and spiritual world, we experience a form of psychosis that is a blessing
and a curse at the same time which allows us to see the truth about ourselves,
others, situations, and events; taking these treasures of God to enrich our
lives, but it is too often we succumb to the pressures of these blessing,
committing suicide or homicide.
IV.
Sociological
Data
Through
Sensory and Symbolic deprivation we see how all the approaches of sociology are
applied. In the critical review in
Macionis (2010) textbook entitled Sociology,
on page 117, it states:
“Like
the work of Piaget, Kohlberg’s model explains moral development in terms of
distinct stages. But whether this model
applies to people in all societies remains unclear. Further, many people in the United States
apparently never reach the post-conventional level of moral reasoning, although
exactly why is still an open question.
Another problem with Kohlberg’s research is that his subjects were all
boys. He committed a common research
error, described in Chapter 2 [of this same text], by generalizing the results
of male subjects to all people.”
When messages seep into our conscious, they are latent directives from that
higher power within ourselves directing us to ‘act as if’, so that the overall
plan of the higher power is carried out. Sometimes we are directed to be kind,
and don’t feel like being kind, or we are directed to be mean to someone, but
danger and common sense says do not. As
human beings we have ‘free will’, and it is this free will that allows us to
make the choice of ‘to do’ or ‘not to do’.
This is Civil Disobedience,
and “civil disobedience involves a peaceful refusal to obey existing laws that
are felt to be unjust---a conscientious disrespect for laws that conflict with
one’s commitment to higher ethical principles.” (Williams & Arrigo, 2012,
p. 128)
1. Society and culture have a lot of
influence on the construct of a person’s reality, social media is the biggest influence. All the mediums that are used for work, rest,
and play, are the avenues through which the “arena of inequality” functions, establishing
the norms of society; by which rewards and punishments are handed out. Social Media is a manifest function through
which people meet, work, and communicate every day, whether they are on the
phone, Facebook chatting, Skyping, or Instant Messaging. Soul Train was a dance show started by Don
Cornelius in 1970, which featured current singers and their music; played for a
studio full of guest who would dance to every song for one-hour non-stop. In 2014 there is no more Soul Train, only
reality T.V. shows like, American Idol,
Survivor, The Amazing Race, Hell’s
Kitchen, using average ordinary everyday type people, truly giving them
their 15 minutes of fame. Made sitcoms
out of dramaturgical analysis like Person
of Interest, 2 Broke Girls, and Law and Order: SVU which contains everyday life of our
new millennium. Moving on to movies like
Thor:
The Dark World, Captain America:
The Winter Soldier, 42, Wolf on Wall Street and musical
creations like Jay-Z’s Magna Carter…Holy
Grail. The protagonist in these
movies shows the heroics of men and women from the 80s and 90s, the decades
that produced the Millennials. They show
the bias of how real-life heroes were received prior to 1985, in the “Canyon of
Heroes” when Vietnam vets were finally hailed for their great sacrifice in the
jungles of Vietnam. With a change in
late night talk show host on the Tonight Show and David Letterman, along with
Jimmy Kimmel and the return of The Arsenio Hall Show, and all their move from
studios in New York to their L.A. counterparts. Even the game show Jeopardy did a premium show entitled Champion of Decades where champions from the 80s, 90s, up to
present day competed against one another in a present day forum, this premium
denotes “a shift forward” into a new sociological frontier. Not only combining sociological theories, but
technological devices that were once separate devices like the calculator,
planner, phone, laptop, iPAD, Nook, GPS, camera, video camera, phone book,
mail, etc., now you can purchase a Nokia 1025 phone that is all these devices,
and more, into one; or purchase an app to acquire a feature your phone doesn’t
have. The next six questions offer an alternative to how these comforting
pieces of technology affect us negatively: “How many contacts do you have in your
cellphone right now? How many of those are personal contacts or business
contacts? How many jobs have you held in the past 5 years? Are you still doing
the same exact thing that you were doing last year? Are you being targeted on
social media? Are you being targeted everywhere you go?” (Wells, 2013).
2. Georgia’s
Safe Carry Protection Act “takes effect July 1” (Howard, 2014) and the state of Colorado’s recent
legalization of marijuana are examples of political structures at work in the “arena
of inequality.” Acts of god are also at
work in the “arena of inequality,” evinced by tornados “from Arkansas, Oklahoma
and Iowa to Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee,” and North Carolina. (Muskal & Pearce, 2014) Social structures began changing in the early
part of the 20th century as African-Americans began to break the
color barrier into Sports, Hollywood, Armed Forces, Medicine, Science, etc.;
now African-Americans are breaking a new barrier. This year during the Nation of Islam’s annual
Savior’s Day event, Louis Farrakhan gave a lecture entitled, How Strong is our Foundation: Can we Survive? This lecture and its title alone, along
with Oprah Winfrey’s new television network, OWN, and the television network, Bounce, is evidence of African-Americans and women [minorities]
breaking new barriers in the 21st century. Turning a once bias into groundbreaking
corporate entities. On the eve when a
17-year old African-American gets accepted into 5 Ivy League colleges,
“Coffey was raised in D.C.’s Ward 8 by his hard-working mother in a
single-parent household. Growing up in the less than financially ideal
environment—mired in stereotypes and roadblocks—did not discourage Coffey and
he offered the following advice to children who struggle in similar
circumstances. Banneker is known for
its strict rules, including no cell phones and no going to lockers between
classes. According to Principal Anita Berger, the strategy has paid off big
time. One hundred percent of Banneker students consistently graduate high
school and go on to receive offers from colleges and universities.” (Staff, 2014)
an eighth grade
African-American fires a .357 magnum at a rival crew, hitting and killing an
innocent bystander. You can see the bias
in comparing and contrasting Khaton and Coffey’s lives in the “arena of
inequality.” Similarly as young
African-Americans you can see their promise, but also how they are victims to their
own theater of violence (culture) in many ways:
“A 14-year-old gunman opened fire during a dispute on a New York City bus in
Brooklyn on Thursday evening, fatally shooting a 39-year-old passenger in the
head. The attack happened about 6:20 p.m. on a B15 bus
on Marcus Garvey Boulevard near Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The
police said there was an argument involving several teenagers on the bus,
though they did not know what it was about. The gunman fired more than one
shot, the police said, and witnesses described hearing three or four” (Lee, 2014)
Another
interpretation of these two young men’s lives, who went in two different
directions is, Ivy League or Penitentiary,
whether higher or lower, all institutions promote some form of learning. This
is clear evidence of new theaters emerging.
V.
Conclusion
The theaters in our conscience are our body’s biological and natural security
app that sets up a world, in our heads, that takes care of us. Those theaters
that are closer to the forefront of our mind is based on our working memory
(short-term memory), and those in the deeper levels of the sub-conscience are
based on our unemployed memory (long-term memory) (Kalsher, 2008, p. 203) . Our working memory is the foundation for our
overall intelligence, and is activated by using internal and external retrieval
cues (Kalsher, 2008,
pp. 204-5) . Symbolic deprivation produces conflict in the
“arena of inequality.” This type of
deprivation begins the “social constructs of our reality” in the theaters of
our minds, setting forth stipulations in
social contracts, which will cause others and ourselves, to identify status,
role, sets, skills, abilities, limits, beliefs, personality types, and “social
construction of emotions and how we manage them.” As a result, some are very successful in the “arena
of inequality” while others succumb to the pressures of conflict leading to
sensory deprivation, which is a more severe form of deprivation. Furthermore, how
we maintain that reality is determined by how the external world upholds to the
stipulations set forth in our social contract.
Because the “arena of inequality” always produces conflict, challenges
to our contract, in whole or in part, keeps constant upgrades on that contract. These theaters determine our personal space
in social interaction, helping us identify boundaries in the “arena of
inequality” that must be protected. As a result we protect ourselves, the symbols
in our theaters, and maintain our contract by being aggressive and/or on the
offensive, assertive, and/or “defensive to some kind of attack.” (Wikipedia, 2014) In the process of protecting our personal
space we produce conflict and change, declaring our independence in the “arena
of inequality,” utilizing the eight principles of felicity calculus. Cultural universals are contained in all
societies and cultures, but the difference in symbols within those societies
and cultures are based on race, gender, age, and income class. It is through interaction that we transform
elements of the world into symbols that stimulate us on a consistent basis
wherever we may go. The Symbolic-Interaction Approach forms the self, according
to George Mead’s theory of social
behaviorism, via social experience (Macionis, 2010,
p. 118) . We socially interact throughout our daily
lives, pursuing short and long term objectives, conforming to socioeconomic
folkways and norms.
[1] Structural-Functional Approach –
framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts
work together to promote solidarity and stability.
[2] Social-Conflict Approach – framework
for building theory that sees society as an “arena of inequality” that
generates conflict and change.
[3] Gender-Conflict Approach – a point of
view that focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men.
[4] Race-Conflict Approach – point of view
that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and
ethnic categories.
[5]
Differential
opportunity theory – working class
juveniles will choose one or another type of gang adjustment to their anomic
situation depending on the availability of illegitimate opportunity structures
in their neighborhood. Hagen, F. E. (2013). Introduction to Criminology: Theories, Methods, and
Criminal Behavior 8th ed. In F. E. Hagen, Introduction to Criminology:
Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior 8th ed. (p. 164). Thousand Oaks:
SAGE.
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