Social selves
PART A
What criticisms can be made of the social interactionist approach to the self? Are these criticisms valid?
Different social groups have their own behaviors. The social interactionist approach is a hypothesis of language acquisition techniques, which include spoken, visual, and written forms. The approach looks at a significant contribution of the society towards the development of an individual. The theory describes language development with respect to the role played by social interaction. It stresses the role played by social interaction between a child at developmental stages and linguistically well-informed adults. The approach is based on social, cultural theory, initial stages, current strand, and rational frame theory. It is mainly based on psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s social-cultural theory and suggests learning is largely a social process. This essay criticizes the social interactionist approach to the self.
The social interactionist approach is mainly criticized for not being a single theory but a framework of many different theories. The approach is based on social, cultural theory, initial stages, current strand, and rational frame theories. Critics claim that the theoretical approach is very general as well as broad when looking for specific theories. Social interactionism is a theoretical framework instead of a theory and can only be accessed through effective conceptualizations. Social interactionism framework is vague in empirical data analysis as well as predicting social life outcomes, just like other theoretical frameworks (Sarem et al., p64-74). The majority of scholars have difficulties when using the approach. Moreover, it is not possible to test interactionism with respect to how a certain theory claims about specific variables in a context.
The social interactionist approach is criticized due to the empirical data in which the approach is based on. The critics suggest that the approach empirical data is general and exaggerates the middle class parental to child interaction in America and Europe. Social interactionist theorists like Roy Pea, Catherine Snow, and Andrew Gopnik claim children’s language acquisition is significantly determined by how their interaction with adults (Psynso). Several anthropological studies have suggested children in other world’s cultures grow to be fluent in a language, but they are not spoken in a way similar to traditional lessons. According to de Villiers ^& de Villiers (1992), parents offer children direct feedback rarely on grammar appropriateness. Also, linguistic and social practices vary across different cultures. Some cultures do apply some of the concepts the theory presents, yet children in those cultures learn language similarly to children in western cultures. Anthropological studies of western cultures and low educated families claim many children in the world do not speak in a similar way to that of western-educated families. However, the children become fluent in a language when they grow up.
The social interactionist approach emphasizes only the role of the collective society in the development of an individual. The approach fails to consider roles played by and individual in shaping the development. The acquisition of knowledge is complex, as well as a complicated process that is determined by both environmental and genetic factors. However, the social interactionism approach stresses only the role of the environment (social interactions) in the language acquisition process and undermines the role played by individual genetical factors. Vygotsky maintains that the mind is not separate from a collective group, and knowing is relative depends on the situation the learners find themselves. He fails to appreciate it is possible for individuals to rise above society norm due to their ability as well as effort for personal understanding. The individual with such ability includes Gifted child geniuses and students (Henschel). Moreover, the approach does not apply all social, cultural groups. At times social groups are not either whole or equal where learners can gain the same levels of engagement. Inequality is created due to the variation of group collaboration and participation from one individual to another. For example, individuals with learning disabilities or difficulties might not acquire the same meaning from a social group. These differences create learning constraints among individuals.
The other critique is that the approach is based on only armchair psychology (only sitting and thinking about the problem). The collection of accurate and objective data about brain activities with respect to language relationships is a very difficult process. The social interaction approach emphasizes responses, reinforcements, and stimuli but to not identify the cognitive processes that occur in the learning of languages. Innatism approach claims that humans are born with brains equipped with knowledge as well as ideas. At birth, human language is not blank, and thus all language is not acquired from social interactions. However, social interactionists explain only the significance of interactions in learning and language acquisition but fail to describe the language development fundamentals.
In conclusion, nature and nurture are central to the interactionism approach to the self. Children can learn a language through their desire to communicate and socialize. The environment within which an individual life significantly influences his or her communication. All theories of language acquisition are a creation of ideas, and thus they are all subjected to debate and criticisms. The criticism of the social interactionist approach to self is valid, but it remains important in explaining the acquisition of language.
PART B
‘Race is socially constructed.’ Discuss.
In our society, the race is a social construction. The race is the physical differences that are considered significant by groups and cultures. The world has been viewed as respect to tags such as Arab, African, Mexican, and Caucasian, among other racial constructs. Human rights groups have attempted to end the racial categorizations perception, but their efforts have been fruitless. The race has significant impacts on people’s life possibilities in terms of reaping benefits of easy access to resources in our society. Over the years, various racial issues have been important debate subjects.
The race has existed over the years, and it can be traced to historical periods. Before the sixth century A.D, blackness was associated with wrongdoing, evil, sick signs, disease, and other types of negative attributes. On the other hand, white color was associated with godly things. This shows that the society during that time created a perception that there was a difference between the two colors. These beliefs and values were passed and acquired by people over the years and used for racial categorizations, especially during slavery in the slavery era.
Commonly, a social construct is used without demonstrating its meaning. It is important to understand the meaning of social construct to have a clear reflection of its capacity to define human life. All human beings are created equally, but some have been socially viewed as more dominant than others. The society comes up with mechanisms for establishing social classes specifically according to skin color. Trevor Noah in his autobiography “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood,” shares how race is socially categorized. He says half of his family considered him as inferior during the other half as superior because he belonged to a white father and a black mother. He explains that during the apartheid era, his racial categorization would change socially and legally (Noah, Scientifically, and biologically, all human beings are the same because there is no gene that is a certain racial group that says white that lacks in others like black people. This demonstrates that race was not constructed from a biological point of view.
The race is not a biological but a social construct. There is no gene or set of genes that are common to either all blacks or all whites. If race was a biological construct (genetic), categorizations of people would remain constant in all countries (The New York Times). However, you may find a black individual in the United States categorized as colored in South Africa. For example, when President Barack Obama was running for the presidency there were various opinions form both pundits and voters. To some individuals, president Obama was too black whereas he was not black enough to others. There were disagreements even within American social groups. Some African Americans felt he was not black enough because he did not come from slavery like most them. Obama’s father moved from Kenya to the United States. Obama political “… partisan biases in the perception of skin tone are activated as a function of political intergroup conflict” ( Kemmelmeier et al., p149). The disagreements between the two social groups point out that race is a social construction. The race is social construct because it is possible to disagree that a person belongs to either one race or another. The presence of consensual rules such as social status and slave history for determining a person’s race shows that race is socially constructed.
According to Frankenberg’s book, The social construction of whiteness: white women, race matters people’s daily lives are affected by race regardless of whether they like it or not. In the world, human beings are colored white, black, and Asian, among others and this affects how lives are influenced by how we view others as well as how others view us ((Frankenberg, 2005). This ranges from the type of jobs, friends, money, nutrition, and schools that we attend. More interestingly, the social setting we inhibit is influenced by, at least, on social establishment such as race. Takaki, in A different mirror: A history of multicultural America views race as a social construction which is created by the dominant group in our society. For example, belonging to the black race implies that you are inferior compared to the whites (Takaki, 2008, p. 15-25).
All human beings are born without any racial beliefs, attitudes, and values. Individual are born in social setups in which they have no any information about either themselves or others. Children acquire values, beliefs, and attitudes through socializing in their surrounding as they grow. Most of values, beliefs, and attitudes might contribute to racism. This demonstrates that there is no single human being who is born with a racist mind. Therefore, race is a social construction because individuals acquire the racial values, attitudes, and belief from the environment they live in. Furthermore, if racial was a biological construct people could be born with the beliefs as opposed to acquiring them form the social environment
In conclusion, racial categorization is a social contract whereby values, beliefs, and attitudes are passed through generations. There have different racial categorizations across borders. Race can be traced form the past where a group of people wanted social classes for their own benefits through dominating others. In today’s world, human rights activist efforts have considerably changed the boundaries that constituted either blacks or whites. Finally, all human beings are born equally; the racial categorization was established by individuals who wanted to be more dominant than others.
Bibliography
Psynso. “Social Interactionist Theory.” Psynso, 2016, psynso.com/social-interactionist-theory/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020.
Henschel, Kate. “Interactionist Theory of Language Acquisition and ESL.” Bright Hub Education, 10 Oct. 2010, www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-teaching-tips/90410-the-interactionist-theory-of-language-acquisition-in-esl/.
Noah, Trevor. Born a crime: Stories from a South African childhood. Hachette UK, 2016.
Sarem, Saeid Najafi, and Yusef Shirzadi. “A critical review of the interactionist approach to second language acquisition.” Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research 1.1 (2014): 62-74.
Kemmelmeier, Markus, and H. Lyssette Chavez. “Biases in the perception of Barack Obama’s skin tone.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 14.1 (2014): 137-161.
The New York Times. “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs – NYTimes.Com.” Nytimes.Com, 2016, www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/how-fluid-is-racial-identity/race-and-racial-identity-are-social-constructs.
Frankenberg, R. (2005). White women, race matters the social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis Univ. Of Minnesota Press.
Takaki, R.T. (2008). A different mirror : a history of multicultural America. New York: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, And Co.