Social Interaction
For a long time, it is widely believed that studying our daily routines ( micro-interactions on a micro-scale) should be the major subject of psychology, rather than sociology. Yet social-interactionists may not agreed upon this because these trivial traces of communication among social members give form to what we do and determine how we behave in an institutionalized society. Besides, individuals would respond to the society differently according to their educational backgrounds, motivations, and interests, thus combined, creating a creative picture of a real society.
Facial Expression is an important part of our non-verbal communication system. Unlike other species, whose muscular movements are generally rigid, human being develops a more flexible and varied types of facial expressions through evolution. As Charles Darwin said, later supported by a number of field experiments, the way we portray our feelings through facial expression is innate and is basically the same throughout the world. For example, smiling is a universal sign of friendliness.Yet on the other hand, it is also found out that most of our non-verbal signs -- gestures, facial expressions, body movements-- vary across different cultures. Nodding heads, for instance, means differently between India and Anglo-American countries. In India, people nod when they mean no while in other countries it's exactly the opposite.
Ethnomethodology is another important theory. Rather than focusing on a particular symbol such as a gesture, a word or body movement. Ethnomethodology emphasizes the power of conventions and rules. People unconsciously follow certain tacit conventions when they engage in a conversation with another. These "cooperative principles", once breached, will lead to a failure in successful communication. For instance, if a woman may " What about the meal today?" You may have no other choice but to say "It's tasty!"(though it may not be the reality).
The way we organized or controlled our activities and behaviors is called "impression management". This is closely related to the third important theory on social interaction, called Dramaturgical Theory, raised by Goffman. Goffman believes that individuals possess different status in our society. （For instance, you may be the daughter of your mother, teacher of your student, leader of a team）It is these "status sets" that define our different roles, just like the theater. Therefore, in order to maintain and "show" your status to others, one would get used to constantly adjusting their emotions, poses, behaviors in order to construct the unseen information they may "give off" when they encounter others. This may sound thrilling, because it seems that we always adopt roles as the actor does in theater. Whenever you want to be yourself, your subconscious will tell you that you can never forget about your identity.
