Explain symbolic interactionist theory and include Matsueda’s four features of the self and delinquent behavior

What will be an ideal response?


The answer should include the following points:


  • social order as a dynamic process that is the ever-evolving product of an ongoing system of social interaction and communication

  • theory proposes to explain delinquent behavior in terms of self-development mediated by language

  • focus on the process by which shared meanings, behavioral expectations, and reflected appraisals are built up through interaction and applied to behavior



Matsueda’s four features of the self and delinquent behavior are:


  • the self is formed by how an individual perceives that others view him or her and thus is rooted in symbolic interaction

  • the self is an object that “arises partly endogenously within situations, and partly exogenously from prior situational self being carried over from previous experience”

  • the self as an object becomes a process that has been determined by the self at a previous point in time and by prior resolutions of problematic situations

  • delinquent behavior takes place partly because habits are formed and partly because the stable perception of oneself is shaped by the standpoint of others

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