Lec 3. Chapter 2. Theories

I. Symbolic Interaction Theory: focus on reciprocal acts (between people) and meaning

1. Symbols: words or gestures that stand for something else

2. Interactions: everyday words and actions that take place between people

3. Family as Unity of Interacting Personalities: Ernest Burgess (1926) defines

a. Social roles: partly structure our marital and family interactions

i. 1 or more social roles: for each person—wife, mom, child,etc.

ii. sense of self: symbolic interactionists study how roles affect

b. members create families: not just society

c. social interaction: requires interpretation and sense making

4. Hothschild’s Second Shift: looks at use “family myths”to justify leisure gap

a. = sharing housework:20% families;70% men do 1/3 -½; 10% do <1/3

5. Critique:

a. power minimized: takes more than communication to resolve conflict

b. psychology, self ignored: independent of roles

c. individualism: personal happiness above responsibility, intact union

d. ignores larger social context:soc.forces affect fam,e.g. racism,sexism

II. Social Exchange Theory: measures actions and relationships in terms of cost-benefit

1. Resources: looks, intel., charm, humor, etc.—used to get what is wanted

2. equity: corollary—exchange must be fair, equitable

a. result of inequity: anger, discomfort, distress can result in attempts to

restore equity, psychological equity (convince self, others), or end rel.

b. cooperative exchanges: max. joint profit; mutual trust/commitment

c. competitive exchanges: each partner trying to max. own profit

i. tertiary(no)involve in cargiving: try to max. vs. prim,second

3. Critique: sometimes act altruistically without reward; how compare values?