Bryttni Pugh

Dippong

Reflection One

28 May 2016

Chapter One & The Three Faces of Social Psychology

Chapter ones introductory information about social psychology includes the five

theoretical perspectives: role theory, reinforcement theory, cognitive theory, symbolic interaction

theory, and evolutionary theory. I became fascinated with the tale of the glass man by Cervantes

within the symbolic interaction theory because he shows how an individual uniquely perceives

oneself and how one reacts to others and the surroundings based on his own beliefs of who he is.

The man made me think about how his identity came to be. Similar to the familiar saying, Which

came first the chicken or the egg? I thought about which came first in terms of identity original

and genuine thoughts about oneself, or thoughts about oneself that came from anothers

perspective or the way he or she viewed someone else. Ive always thought of myself to be quite

an introverted person, but people often tell me how I encompass the qualities of one; do I think

that I hold these qualities in my identity because I believe that they are true or because others lead

me to believe that they are? On another note, the book refers to someone who believes they have

a unique quality, like the ability to see ghosts, as one with an unusual identity, but I did not know

usual and unusual identities existed. Perhaps I should ask someone to define their own unique

identity before making any judgements.

Along with symbolic interactionism, the article The Three Faces of Social Psychology

states that a person perceives others and objects as meaningful rather than those people and objects

already holding a meaning. This description of a persons interpretation of the world allows me to
better understand why my peers and I have different explanations for certain topics, especially

ones that are opinionated or debatable. For instance, viewing a dance performance is a different

experience for each person; I may find that a ballet piece meant something personal because I

could relate to what was happening on stage whilst someone else may find that it is just a simple

love story. The article also states that behavior is not an automatic reaction but a construction of

personal interpretations. Ive not thought about behavior in this manner, since I thought my

reaction stemmed from my interpretation; however, I now think that behavior is not a simple

reaction because I behave in a manner that stems from how I interpret a situation not in a manner

that stems from an automatic response with no considerable thought. Additionally, the general

topics within the article are the three faces psychological social psychology, symbolic

interactionism, and psychology sociology and how sociologists like Marx, Weber, and Durkheim

worked to contribute to these faces as well as how they helped to distinguish sociology from

psychology. I was unaware that there was any issue telling the disciplines apart, but that shows

that the last twenty to thirty and counting years of research has been rather successful and carefully

analyzed.