TRUEFALSE QUESTIONS - KEY TERMS symbols rituals interaction roles ge...

Chapter 1 Symbolic Interactionism Theory

KEY TERMS

symbols rituals

interaction roles

gestures salience

social norms identity

TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS

(True) 1. Symbolic Interactionism provides the means by which to study social interactions in a scientific fashion.

(False) 2. The “I” part of the self is those learned roles that are determined by interactions with others.

(True) 3. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America by William Isaac Thomas and Florian Znaniecki was one of the first books to state that the family has a role in the socialization process.

(False) 4. According to this assumption, as people come into contact with different things and experiences, they interpret what is being learned, people are reactors who passively respond to surroundings.

(True) 5. Meaning is learned and processed through our social interactions.

(True) 6. Observations, interviews, interactions with others, and ethnographies are all examples of good data collection methodologies for symbolic interactionism theory application.

(True) 7. We learn about meaning through interaction with others.

(True) 8. People interpret what is being learned as they come in contact with new things.

(True) 9. Humans will always reflect on what they experience and use this as a guide for future behavior.

(True) 10. People learn the rules and values of society through everyday interaction within that culture.

(False) 11. Infants are born with predetermined ideas about who they are.

(False) 12. As long as you have a strong sense of self, it does not matter what others around you think, according to this theory.

(Exploring Family Theories 4e Suzanne R. Smith, Raeann R. Hamon) (Instructor Manual with Test Bank) 1 / 4

(True) 13. The culture in which you live will affect the way you behave.

(True) 14. Those things that are most important to us are said to be most salient.

(False) 15. A social norm is a nonverbal communication during which an act represents something else.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

• A key contribution of the early pragmatic philosophers of symbolic interactionism was:
• The belief that the world was always changing.
• That social structure is constantly changing and developing.
• That meaning is derived from interactions with objects.
• All of the above.

• What major historical/societal event took place during the rise of symbolic interactionism?
• World War I
• The Industrial Revolution
• The Sexual Revolution
• The American Revolution

• During the Industrial Revolution, many Americans felt “as though they had little or no control

over their lives… and society” (Smith & Hamon 2016). Symbolic Interactionism proposed that:

• People are not victims of a predetermined course in history.
• Communication and interactions can change how things happen in society.
• Both A and B are correct.
• None of the above.

• George Herbert Mead’s contributions to symbolic interactionism focused on the development of

the sense of self. The second stage, the game stage, is characterized by:

• Using gestures to practice behaviors associated with different roles.
• Taking on the perspective of another person.
• Taking on the perspective of multiple people, simultaneously.
• Anticipating how one’s behaviors affect not only our immediate environment, but

also our society.

• In the vignette provided at the beginning of the chapter, which concept best describes how

Thanh’s perfect evening at the party and his wife Keiko’s worst night of her life coincide?

• Thomas Theorem
• Looking-glass self
• Self-concept
• Symbols

• Who was the first person to use the term symbolic interactionism?
• George Herbert Mead
• Charles Horton Cooley
• William Isaac Thomas
• Herbert Blumer 2 / 4

• Which is NOT an overarching theme of symbolic interactionism?
• The world as a static structure.
• Meaning is a central element of human behavior.
• The self.
• The role of culture in social interactions

• The capacity of people to step outside of themselves and treat themselves as an object in their

own environment, to describe themselves and to act toward themselves, Mead called

• the mind.
• the self.
• the definition of the situation.
• the looking glass self.
• the “I.”

• What did Cooley call the internalized image of ourselves which is a reflection of others’ appraisals

of us?

• the mind
• the self
• the definition of the situation
• the looking glass self
• the “I”

• Charles Horton Cooley developed which term to describe the process that happens when

individuals think about how they appear to others, make a judgment about what the other person thinks about them, and then incorporates those ideas into their own concept of self?

• generalized other
• definition of the situation
• looking-glass self
• social norm

• Which of the following propositions about symbolic interaction is TRUE?
• People will react to something according to the meaning that the thing has for them.
• We learn about meaning through interactions with others.
• As people come into contact with different things and experiences, they interpret what is

being learned.

• People learn the rules and values of society through everyday interactions within that

culture.

• All of the above are true.

• According to Smith and Hamon, which of the following is TRUE about symbolic interaction?
• Gestures are expectations about how to act in a given situation.
• Salience suggests that the more important a role is to us, the more time we invest

in this role.

• Symbols are the product of social interaction and always have the same meaning across

situations.

• Strict discipline is the best way of learning about the rules and values of a culture. 3 / 4

• According to Smith and Hamon, which of the following is an overarching assumption/theme of

symbolic interaction?

• The nature of humans is that they are self-oriented.
• People learn values from innate connections with the physical environment (e.g., nature,

trees, sky).

• Humans learn about meaning through their social interactions.
• Infants are born with predetermined ideas about who they are.

• Which of the following is a contemporary critique of symbolic interaction theory?
• Key concepts are confusing, difficult to define and difficult to test.
• This is a linear model trying to explain complex families and situations.
• Symbolic interaction gives too much attention to the importance of emotions and the role

of the unconscious.

• Symbolic interaction places too much emphasis on the ability of individuals to create their

own realities and doesn’t pay enough attention to the fact that we live in a world that we do not create ourselves.

• According to symbolic interaction theory, the stress generated within a person when he/she

cannot comply or has difficulty complying with a role or set of roles is considered to be

• role overload.
• role strain.
• role incongruity.
• role enactment.
• none of the above.

• According to symbolic interaction theory, the more important a role is to us, the greater its
• salience.
• gestures.
• social norms.
• none of the above

• Which person is most recognized of all of those who have influenced symbolic interactionism?
• George Herbert Mead
• Charles Horton Cooley
• William Isaac Thomas
• Herbert Blumer

• During which stage of play can children understand what each person’s role in the family is,

including their own, according to George Herbert Mead?

• play stage
• game stage
• generalized other
• symbolic stage
• / 4