Social Psychology and Symbolism essays

Social Psychology and Symbolism essays Social psychology according to Gordon Allport is the attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined or implied presence of others.(Allport as cited in Hewitt 2000;3) Sociologists are concerned with social psychology in how organized social life is possible, how it works and how it evolves over time. Whereas psychologists are focused on how individuals learn and what they learn, sociologists are concerned with socialization and how groups and organizations adapt to the environment as well as how environments adapt to groups and organizations. In a sense, how we create society and how society creates us. The sociological aspect of social psychology focuses on what transpires between people rather then within people. Symbolic interaction focuses on how meaning emerges from interaction. We gain meaning by how we act and the purpose of that action. In order to act or react in regard to an action, we have to first interpret that action. So without our interpretation of an action, an action has no meaning. Social acts depend On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the United States by flying two planes into the World Trade Center in New York and another plane into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. . Inhumane action disrupted our world as we knew it. This action not only took thousands of innocent lives, but also affected our everyday daily routine. All air travel ceased, thousands were left stranded, the city shut down as even the stock market closed. The United States was left in shock and disbelief. The world which we knew as safe was Why did the terrorists choose the buildings which they did? They chose buildings that represent certain things to our society. T ...