WORDS ARE POWERFUL

I will not forget that one incident during my sixth grade. It was the day when I first met the world’s meanest person to me. Looking out for a chair to sit on, I noticed that the one in the middle was empty and so I decided to go on it. I found everyone in the classroom so amiable and appreciated a ‘transferee’ like me except for that one. A girl approached to where I was sitting and began to hit the desk of the chair saying, “Layas! Ako ang nakaupo diyan!” Terrified by her abruptness, I timidly said ‘sorry’ and was just like a dog lowering down its ears slowly leaving the chair. It was then when I started to feel something would be going wrong all the way in my new school. Every time I would be reciting, she would often criticize. Then, the rest of the class, especially her friends, would laugh with her. I have always been intimidated by that. Her meanness continued until high school. I could hardly imagine why she, together with some of her friends, was like that to me. Their negative responses gradually reduced me into what I perceive myself to be—nothing but a sort of laughing stock. I did not even know if I was just being too sensitive or it was just her being too nasty.

All the while I have thought of my personality as something that is negative and unacceptable. It is generally my high school classmates who brought humiliation to my character. It is like they are bullying me emotionally. I find this situation true to the theory of symbolic interactionism. It is under Max Weber’s assertion that symbolic interactionism explains how individuals analyze society (including themselves) by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose them (Crossman, 2011). Most of my high school classmates imposed me critics about my personality. Hence, I later become paranoid with them (and the people around me) because of the harmful perceptions about myself. This is when my self-concept about my personality changes. I have perceived in myself that being reserved or mahinhin is something that I should not be proud of.

With symbolic interactionism, the concept of the self can be framed. This is where the “looking-glass self / generalized other,” which is the sum total of responses and expectations that we pick up from the people around us, is being formed. We naturally give more weight to the views of significant others (Symbolic Interactionism, 2013). If in my family and real friends, I can visualize myself as someone who is loved and acceptable; to my high school classmates, I can see myself as someone who is hateful and a laughing stock.

https://www.boundless.com/sociology/understanding-sociology/the-theoretical-perspectives-in-sociology/the-symbolic-interactionist-perspective/

The concept of the “looking glass self (or generalized other)" argued that the way we think about ourselves is particularly apt to be a reflection of other people's appraisals and that our self-concepts are built up in the primary groups. (Cooley, 2013).

Self-concept is the image we have of who and what we are (formed in childhood by how significant others treat/respond to us).  The self-concept is not fixed and unchanging (LaRossa & Reitzes, 1993). I am elated and totally agree with this notion. If my self-concept during my high school days is something what I perceive myself to be—nothing but a sort of a laughing stock; my self-concept now is much more confident and optimistic. This is the reason why I got interested in the symbolic interactionism theory.  I am grateful and can relate much of my character development to this principle. Criticisms have made me much stronger to be able to withstand not only painful words I encounter but to go on with life as well despite of how incessant we may be able to encounter them.

SOURCES:

Crossman, Ashley. (2011). Symbolic Interaction Theory An Overview. Retrieved December 22, 2013, from: http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociological-Theory/a/Symbolic-Interaction-Theory.htm

(Symbolic Interactionism, 2013) Univeristy of Twente. (2013, November 26). Symbolic Interactionism. Retrieved December 22, 2013, from: http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/theory%20clusters/interpersonal%20communication%20and%20relations/symbolic_interactionism/

The Looking Glass Self (Photograph). Retrieved December 22, 2013, from: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/understanding-sociology/the-theoretical-perspectives-in-sociology/the-symbolic-interactionist-perspective/

(Cooley, 2013). Symbolic Interactionism. Retrieved December 23, 2013, from: http://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/Theories/BAMsymint.htm

 (LaRossa & Reitzes, 1993). Symbolic Interactionism Theory (adapted from Scott, Plunkett’s Course Pack). Retrieved December 23, 2013, from: http://www.csun.edu/~whw2380/542/Symbolic%20Interactionism%20Lecture.htm