Chapter 9: Symbolic Interactionism

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. ______ was a major symbolic interactionism theorist.

a. Weber

b. Mead

c. Marx

d. Chenault

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Symbolic Interactionism: Social Work Relevance and Historical Roots

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Symbolic interactionism views ______ as central to everything humans do.

a. role of self

b. self-identity

c. social interaction

d. primary group

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Key Concepts In Symbolic Interactionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Which statement is true about social interaction, as understood by symbolic interactionlism?

a. It creates an image of the passive determined organism.

b. It changes individuals but not the society.

c. It means that actors simply influenced by others.

d. It is achieved through the use of symbols and language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Social Interaction

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Which of the following statements is consistent with symbolic interactionlism?

a. Humans are simply shaped by nature and culture.

b. Humans can act upon their environments and heredity.

c. The self is understood a static entity, not a process.

d. Humans think based on how they act.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Combined Role of Thinking and Action

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Which of the following statements is consistent with symbolic interactionlism?

a. Everything about humans is stable and fixed.

b. Society is a static, not dynamic, entity.

c. Humans are always acting according to earlier influences.

d. Human action is unpredictable due to situational factors.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Everything About Humans Is a Process and Is Constantly Changing

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. A two-year-old child uses quite foul language and carries a beer without having any understanding of what she is saying or doing. According to symbolic interactionlism, the child is in the ______ of the emergence of self.

a. reference group stage

b. play stage

c. preparatory stage

d. game stage

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Table 9.1

Difficulty Level: Hard

7. A four-year old child enjoys playing Uno with the “rules” he comes up with during the course of the game. According to symbolic interactionlism, he is in the ______ of the emergence of self.

a. reference group stage

b. play stage

c. preparatory stage

d. game stage

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Table 9.1

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. When playing a soccer game, an 8-year girl knew where everyone was supposed to be on the field and what they were supposed to be doing. She yelled at the coach when she saw the defenders on her team were NOT focusing on defending. According to symbolic interactionlism, the child is in the ______ of the emergence of self.

a. reference group stage

b. play stage

c. preparatory stage

d. game stage

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Table 9.1

Difficulty Level: Hard

9. An American-born-Chinese youth only speaks English at school with her peers and only speaks Chinese at home with her parents. According to symbolic interactionlism, the individual is in the ______ of the emergence of self.

a. reference group stage

b. play stage

c. preparatory stage

d. game stage

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Table 9.1

Difficulty Level: Hard

10. ______ is generally credited with the development of the looking glass self concept.

a. Cooley

b. Mead

c. Goffman

d. Weber

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Taking the Role of the Other and the Looking Glass Self

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. Mead defined the ______ as the larger social context which gives meaning to our individual behaviors.

a. symbolic interaction

b. generalized other

c. reference groups

d. the looking glass self

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Application of Symbolic Interactionism to Case Examples

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Our concept of self develops from seeing how others respond to us. This phenomenon is defined as ______.

a. Symbolic interaction

b. Generalized other

c. Reference groups

d. The looking glass self

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Taking the Role of the Other and the Looking Glass Self

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. ______ developed a dramaturgical approach that analyzed the social order of human interactions, which includes common rituals and routines.

a. Cooley

b. Mead

c. Goffman

d. Weber

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Erving Goffman and Symbolic Interactionism

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. According to Cooley, which of the following statement about the self is correct?

a. The self arises as a reflection of others on the self.

b. The self is separable from social dimensions.

c. The self is separable our autonomous interpretations.

d. The self is developed from how others respond to us.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Taking The Role of the Other and the Looking Glass Self

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. A straight “A” student who would avoid a difficult teacher is best explained by which of the following concepts?

a. face

b. stigma

c. total institution

d. role

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Erving Goffman and Symbolic Interactionism

Difficulty Level: Hard

16. According to Goffman, any aspect of an individual’s identity that is discredited, rejected or devalued in his/her social context is called ______.

a. face

b. stigma

c. total institution

d. role

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Erving Goffman and Symbolic Interactionism

Difficulty Level: Easy

17. Mental health patients who are institutionalized start with at least a portion of citizen rights or freedoms and ends up stripped of almost everything. This can be best explained by which of the following concepts?

a. face

b. stigma

c. total institution

d. role

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Erving Goffman and Symbolic Interactionism

Difficulty Level: Hard

18. ______ is a mind activity and involves imagining the world from the perspective of others and directing one’s actions accordingly.

a. Meditation

b. Dialectics

c. Mindfulness

d. Role-taking

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Taking the Role of the Other, or Role-Taking

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. Which of the following concept is relevant to symbolic interactionism theory?

a. operant conditioning

b. social interaction

c. social learning

d. classical conditioning

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Chapter Summary

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Regarding symbolic interactionism theory, which of the following statement is TRUE?

a. People define their situation as action unfolds rather than sensing their environment directly.

b. A social reality exists independent of people’s interpretation, definition, and interaction with themselves.

c. People respond to an objective reality directly rather than defining the situation as it exists.

d. Humans only exist in a social reality which is created by interacting with themselves and a social world.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Definition of the Situation

Difficulty Level: Hard

21. Which of the following statements is consistent with symbolic interactionists’ interpretation of human behavior?

a. Human behavior is simply shaped by nature.

b. Human behavior is caused by past experiences.

c. Human behavior is determined by observed stimuli.

d. Human behavior is constantly growing and changing.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: How Does This Theory Address Growth And Change (E.G., For The Individual And Community)?

Difficulty Level: Hard

22. What is TRUE about early forms of the social work profession?

a. Its professionals developed an academic discipline focusing on a “value free science” perspective.

b. It focused on macro-level social phenomena that allowed for collection of observable data.

c. It placed the emphasis on developing a set of skills that were identifiable as “professional” in nature.

d. Its research was based on quantitative methods that placed an emphasis on the value of science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Application of Symbolic Interactionism Theory to Social Work Practice

Difficulty Level: Hard

23. What is the similarity between the major two social work thinkers, Mary Richmond and Jane Addams?

a. They used a more medically-based perspective in their attempt to arrive at the “social diagnosis.”

b. They emphasized the importance of understanding the cultural and social conditions in which clients existed.

c. They acknowledged the importance of both person and environment when developing strategies to try to help clients.

d. They emphasized the importance of relationship between the worker and the client as a product of their interactions.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Symbolic Interactionism in the Social Work Literature

Difficulty Level: Hard

24. According to the “functional” perspective beginning in the 1920s, it is the ______.

a. interaction between the client and the worker that accounts for the process of change

b. interaction among different professions that accounts for the process of change

c. interaction between the client and the environment that accounts for the process of change

d. interaction among different systems that that accounts for the process of change

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Symbolic Interactionism in the Social Work Literature

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Interactionists believe that as humans evolved with language and the ability to reason, they were able to turn back on nature itself, actively directing how natural forces act. This statement demonstrates the importance of which of the following symbolic interactionist theme?

a. the definition of the situation

b. the role of the active human being

c. everything about humans as a process

d. the combined role of thinking and action

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Combined Role of Thinking and Action

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. According to Mead, behavior only includes action that can be directly observed.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Combined Role of Thinking and Action

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Symbolic interactionists do NOT believe that there is an objective reality that exists independent of our interpretation or definition.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Definition of the Situation

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. This development of self and meaning-making which occurs through social and intrapersonal dialogue is a hallmark of symbolic interactionist thought.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: What Does This Theory Say About Human Behavior?

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Maintaining a micro and meso focus, symbolic interactionists do NOT critique different forms of stigmatization, e.g., based on race, gender, sexual orientation and sexual expression, ability or religious belief.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: How Holistic Is This Theory?

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. In symbolic interactionism, people are at least somewhat free to interact, think, define, and make decisions in the present based on the immediate situation.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Role of the Active Human Being

Difficulty Level: Hard

Short Answer

1. What are the three theoretical assumptions of symbolic interactionism?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Symbolic Interactionism: Social Work Relevance and Historical Roots

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Elaborate on Mead’s idea of the self.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Everything About Humans Is a Process and Is Constantly Changing

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Compare and contrast reference groups and primary groups.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Taking the Role of the Other and the Looking Glass Self

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Why is symbolic interactionism critical of social science’s emphases on the use of scientific methods? What kind of research does symbolic interactionism value?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: What Sources Of Knowledge Does This Theory Support (E.G., Client’s Voice, Social Worker’s Practice Wisdom, Qualitative and Quantitative Research Studies)?

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. How is symbolic interactionism theory consistent with social work values including social justice, self-determination, the dignity and worth of each person, and the importance of human relationships?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: How Consistent Is This Theory With Social Work Values and Ethics?

Difficulty Level: Medium