Social Interaction AND Social Process- Meaning AND Definition PDF

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Many people think about society through the lens of social relationships. One might consider the relationship between a father and a son, an employer and an employee, a leader and a follower, a merchant and a customer, or the relationship between friends, enemies, and children. Inquiring into the na...

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SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL PROCESS: MEANING AND DEFINITION Many people think about society through the lens of social relationships. One might consider the relationship between a father and a son, an employer and an employee, a leader and a follower, a merchant and a customer, or the relationship between friends, enemies, and children. Inquiring into the nature of such relationships appears to be an elaboration of the obvious because they are among society's most visible features. Fundamental ways of organising social data are represented by social relationships. In short, a society can be viewed as a system of relationships if desired.

When it comes to analysing social relationships, one quickly discovers that they are far more complicated than they appear at first. Between two or more actors in mutual contact, they involve reciprocal obligations, reciprocal statuses, and reciprocal ends and means. They refer to the manner in which people interact with one another.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of socially defined relationships exist in any society. There could be as many as fifteen people in one's immediate family. How many relationships a society uses is simply a matter of how many criteria it considers when defining individual behaviour. The immediate family's fifteen relationships are based on three factors: age, sex, and generation. There is no limit to the number of possible relationships outside of the family because an infinite number of criteria can be used.

As a result, cataloguing all of the meaningful relationships in which humans are involved would be a never-ending task. Instead, they could be classified as general types and dealt with as such. Any classification, on the other hand, must serve a purpose. Classification is useless in the social sciences, as it is in all sciences, unless it captures significant traits that aid causal analysis. As a result, social relationships are classified and discussed according to the type of interaction they exhibit. Conflict, competition, and cooperation are the three most important types of interaction to consider here. Each of these has several sub-types, but just mentioning the most

important ones demonstrates how understanding the various forms of interaction is critical to understanding society.

By definition, social interaction entails physical contact, which necessitates the use of a material or sensory medium. It does not have to involve the direct contact of one body with another, but it does necessitate the presence of direct or indirect sensory stimulation between the two parties. However, the physical medium is only a necessary, not sufficient, basis of contact. Individuals can have physical contact but not social contact. Two tribes living on opposite sides of a swamp and having no contact with one another, for example, may be bitten by mosquitoes that carry malaria from one tribe to the next. It is meaningful or symbolic contact, not just physical contact, that counts. A handshake, a spoken phrase, a letter, or a smile can all be used to express good will. A meaningful stimulus is added to the sensory stimulus. A will is an indirect and shaky material link between a deceased person's heirs, but its physical appearance is far less important than its meaning. It is not social in the human sense until material or sensory contact acquires meaning for the subjective selves of the people involved. Humans' social behaviour is made up of learned responses to meaningful responses from others. In other words, human interaction is communicative interaction. Humans' social behaviour is made up of learned responses to meaningful responses from others. In other words, human interaction is communicative interaction.

The fundamental feature of communication is that one person infers what idea or feeling the other person is trying to convey from the other's behaviour (whether speech, gesture, or posture). He then reacts to the implied idea or feeling, rather than the behaviour itself. The other person then responds to his response in terms of the idea or feeling he expressed, as well as the meaning he conveyed. When a girl receives flowers, she examines them and smells them, but her primary concern is with the person who sent them and why they were sent. Were they sent to settle a dispute, commemorate an occasion, seal a promise, bid farewell, or cheer up a sick person? She will be at a loss for what to do unless she can answer such questions. In the

system of mutual expectations previously described as being present in the interacting situation, it is the meanings behind the behaviour that are involved.

Every individual is a social and cultural being. It is extremely difficult for people to live alone. Humans live in a variety of groups and associations at all times. They have a specific way of acting and behaving. The behaviour of each individual is influenced by the behaviour of others at all times. The essence of social life is interaction. "The mutual influences that affect groups," Green defines social interaction. In their efforts to solve problems and achieve goals, these groups also have an impact on one another." "Social interaction is a process whereby men interpenetrate each other's minds," Dawson and Gettys write. "It is the reciprocal influence that human beings exert on each other through inter stimulation and response," Gish defined social interaction. As a result, we can define social interaction as the entire range of social relationships in which individuals engage in reciprocal stimulation and response.

Social interaction has a definite impact on the social relationships that exist between people. The following are two prerequisites for social interaction:

I Interaction with others ii) Communication

It should now be clear that any meaningful classification of types of interaction must take into account the significance of social contact.

Social Contact

Radio, letters, telephones, and other forms of communication can be used to establish social contact. The first and most important phase of interaction is social contact. It could be both positive and negative. They lead to cooperation, mutual understanding, and assimilation if they are positive. They create hatred, jealousy, and conflict if they are negative. Social processes are the above types of social interaction. "The manner in which the relations of the members of a group are brought together to acquire a

certain distinctive character," MacIver says. "By social processes, we mean those ways of interacting by which we can establish systems of relationships or find out what happens when relationships change or what happens when changes disrupt already existing modes of life," according to Gillin and Gillin. We can use three important terms in this context: cooperation, competition, and conflict. Direct and Symbolic Interaction

Direct or symbolic interaction is possible. Direct interaction refers to a person's actions that are visible through bodily contact with other people, such as pushing, fighting, embracing, and so on. Symbolic interaction includes vocal or other gestures, as well as spoken or written language. A symbol is a condensed version of a series of events. It could be a subject, a value, or any type of expected response.

Inter-Stimulation and Response The central nature of interaction is inter-stimulation and response. One person stimulates the actions, thoughts, or emotions of another, and the other responds. Interaction boosts mental activity, encourages idea comparison, assigns new tasks, and accelerates and uncovers an individual's potential. Importance of Social Interaction

Social interaction is the foundation of society. It is the most inclusive form of social interaction. Individuals cannot survive in a society without interacting with one another. Groups form through interaction with other groups, and they disintegrate without external stimulation. Only when a large number of people interact does society exist. Human interaction occurs within a framework of social expectations, rules, and norms. It is the evolution and transformation of culture and structure.

Communication

Communication is necessary for social interaction. Aside from that, communications are necessary components of social interaction. The media for communication include language, gestures, symbols, radio, telephone, television, newspaper, and so on. Human interaction is, without a doubt, a communicative one. In this context, we can add that co-operation, competition, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation are common forms of social interaction.

Cooperation entails working together to achieve a common goal. It's a collaborative effort. It is a conscious form of social interaction in which two or more people cooperate to achieve a common goal. Cooperation can come in a variety of forms. Cooperation is a psychological and social requirement for humans. Competition, on the other hand, is an unspoken, impersonal, and ongoing struggle for satisfaction between individuals and groups. It's a race to get something that doesn't exist in large enough quantities to meet demand.

In social life, both competition and cooperation are necessary. Competition serves a variety of purposes in society. Competition exists on various levels. It could be a combination of economic, cultural, social, and political factors. There is no such thing as an exclusively competitive or cooperative society. Conflict, in addition to competition and cooperation, is an important process in human relations.

Conflict is both a deliberate action and a personal activity. It has no consistency, but it is a worldwide phenomenon. Individual differences, cultural differences, conflicts of interest, social change, and other factors all contribute to conflict. Aside from that, conflict has a constructive and positive purpose. The effects of conflict are both integrative and disintegrative.

Interaction is a two-way process in which each individual or group stimulates the other and modifies the behaviour of the participants to varying degrees. Individual

members of a group's behaviour and personality traits influence the behaviour of others and have a significant impact on the group's overall functioning. The behaviour of each individual is influenced by the actions of others. This is referred to as the interaction process, and it is central to social life. "Social interaction is the general process in which two or more persons are in meaningful contact as a result of which their behaviour is modified, however slightly," Eldredge and Merril write. The term "social interaction" refers to the entire range of social relationships in which individuals engage in reciprocal stimulation and response. There are two types of social interaction: person-to-person and group-to-group. Cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation are the most common forms of social interaction. Social processes are the result of a combination of these factors. The following are examples of social interaction and social processes:

i. Timeline of events ii. Recurrence of events iii. Relationship between events iv. Continuity of events v. Unique outcomes

In reality, society is a stage for the expression of various social processes. Social processes are essential to a community's survival. Wherever two or more people are in reciprocal relationships, society exists. It is a collection of people who make up a society. As a result, we can distinguish between two types of social interaction: i. conjunctive and ii. disjunctive.

Interaction begins with social contact. The term "social process" encompasses a wide range of viewpoints. Social behaviour can be classified according to (a) its inherent nature, (b) its inherent drives, instincts, interests, desires, and so on, and (c) the observable behaviours that observers can agree on. The distinctive ways in which interaction occurs are referred to as social processes. People interact through reciprocal obligations, reciprocal statuses, and reciprocal ends and means. The pattern

or mode of interaction can be used to investigate these social relationships. These interactions are referred to as social processes.

Sociologists defined social processes in a variety of ways. A W. Green defined social processes as "the distinctive ways in which people interact." "Social processes" refers to "the various modes of interaction between individuals and groups, including cooperation and conflict, social differentiation and integration, development, arrest, and decay," according to Ginsberg. The term "social process," according to Horton and Hunt, refers to "repetitive forms of behaviour that are commonly found in social life."...