-MARXISM AND

SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM
THEORIES-
Marxism Theory according to
Quexbook,2018
■ Marxism is a social, political,and economic philosophy
named after Karl Max, which examines the effect of
capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic
development and argues for a worker revolution to
overturn capitalism in favor of communism.
■ Marxism posits that the struggle between social classes,
especially between the bourgeoisie, or capitalist, and the
proletariat, or workers,defines economic relations in a
capitalist economy and will intervitably lead to
revolutionary communism.
• Karl Marx is along with Freud, one of a
handful of thinkers from the last two
centuries who has had a truly
transformative effect on society, on
culture, and on our very understanding
of ourselves. Although there were a few
critic’s claiming an end to Marxist
thought (and even an end to ideology)
after the fall of the communist system in
the former Soviet Union, Marxist
thought has continued to have an
important influence on critical thought,
all the more so recently after the rise of
globalization studies. As protests at
recent G7 and IMF meetings make
clear, the school can also still have
important political effects.
• Louis Althusser represents an
important break in Marxist
thought, particularly when it
comes to the notion of ideology.
His Lacan-inspired version of
Marxism significantly changed
the way many Marxist
approached both capitalism and
hegemony after the Second World
War.
• Fredric Jameson is surely the most
influential contemporary Marxist
thinker in the United States. His own
alternations of and dialogue with
Althusserian and Lacanian thought
have established him as an important
influence on the rise of globalization
studies, an important critical school
of the last few years. In particular, he
has attempted to make sense of the
continuing staying power of
capitalism and the ways that
capitalism has transformed since
Marx wrote his critiques in the
nineteenth century, addressing such
issues as multi-national (or “late”)
capitalism, the power of the media,
and the influence of posmodernity on
Marxist Debate.
TWO TYPES OF
PEOPLE
ACCORDING TO
KARL MAX
 |

Proletariat Bourgeoisie
PROLETARIAT

■ The proletariat refers to the working

class, typically those who sell their labor
for wages. In a Marxist context, it is seen
as the class that does not own the means
of production and is thus reliant on
employment for survival.
BOURGEOISIE

■ The bourgeoisie refers to the capitalist class,

characterized by ownership of the means of
production, such as factories and businesses.
In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie is
contrasted with the proletariat, as they
control and profit from the labor of the
working class.
THE THREE
SOURCES OF
INCOME
■ Owners of simple labor power or laborers whose main
source of income is labor.

■ Owners of capital or capitalist whose main source of

income is profit or surplus value.

■ Landowners whose main source of income is ground rent.

 THE THREE
LEVES OF
CULTURE MODEL
■ Infrastructure
-population, basic biological need, and resources (labor, equipment etc.)

■ Structure
-pattern of organization (government, education, production regulation etc.)

■ Superstructure
-social institutions (law, religion, politics, art, science, superstition, values, emotion,
tradition, etc.)
Let’s Discuss:
■ Marx provides a two-stage argument for the labor theory of
value. The first stage is to argue that if two objects can be
compared in the sense of being put on either side of an
equals sign then there must be a third thing of identical
magnitude in both of them to which they are both
reducible. As commodities can be exchanged against each
other, there must, Max argues, be a third thing that they
have in common. This then motivates the second stage,
which is a search for the appropriate ‘third thing’, which is
labor in Marx’s view, as the only plausible common
element. Both steps of the argument are, of course, highly
contestable.
■ Capitalism is distinctive, Max argues, in that if
involves not merely the exchange of commodities, but
the advancement of capital, in the form of money, with
the purpose of generating profit through the purchase
of commodities and their transformation into other
commodities which can command a higher price, and
thus yield a profit.
■ Marx claims that no previous theorist has been able
adequately to explain how capitalism as a whole can
make a profit. Marx’s own solution relies on the idea
of exploitation of the worker. In setting up conditions
of production the capitalist purchase the worker’s labor
power –his ability to labor – for the day.
■ The cost of his commodity is determined in the same
way as the cost of every other, i.e in terms of the amount
of socially necessary labor power required to produce it.
In this case the value of a day’s labor power is the value
of the commodities necessary to keep the worker alive
for a day.
■ Suppose that such commodities take four hours to
produce. Thus, the first four hours of the working day is
spenr on producing value equivalent to the value of the
wages the worker will be paid. This is known as
necessary labor. Any work the worker does above this is
known as surplus labor, producing surplus value for the
capitalist. Surplus value, according to Marx, is the
source of all profit.
■ In Marx’s analysis labor power is the only commodity
which can produce more value than it is worth, and for
this reason it is knows as a variable capital. Other
commodities simply pass their value on the finished
commodities, but do not create any extra value. They
are know as constant capital.

■ Profit, then, is the result of the labor performed by the

worker beyond that necessary to create the value of
his or her wages. This is the surplus value theory of
profit.
■ However, even if the labor theory of value is
considered discredited, there are elements of his theory
that remain of worth. The Cambridge Economist Joan
Robinson, in An essay on Marxian Economics, picked
out two aspects of particular note.
■ First, Max’s refusal to accept that capitalism involves a
harmony of interest between workers and capitalist,
replacing this with a class based analysis of the
worker’s struggle for better wages and conditions of
work, versus the capitalist’s drive for eved greater
profits.
■ Second, Marx’s denial that three is any long-run
tendency to equilibrium in the market, and his
description of mechanism which underlined the trade
cycle of boom and bust Both provide a salutary
corrective to aspects of orthodox economic theory.
 SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONIS
M
Is a social psychological theory developed from the work of
Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead in the early
part of the twentieth century. According to this theory, people
inhabit a world that is in large part socially constructed.
CHARLES HORTON
COOLEY GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
 EXAMPLES OF
SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONIS
M IN EVERYDAY
LIFE
Relationship of roles

■ Symbolic interactionism plays a big role in

family and relationships. Your understanding of
a word or event changes based on interactions
with it.
Meaning behind Symbolic Interaction

■ The way you see the world colors your understanding

of it. Look no further than symbolic interactionism to
see how this is true.

Interested to explore more about behaviors? check out

operant conditioning examples
 OPERANT
CONDITIONING
EXAMPLES
WHAT IS OPERANT
CONDITIONING?
■ Operant conditioning is a learning process whereby deliberate
behaviors are reinforced through consequences. It differs from
classical conditioning, also called respondent or Pavlovian
conditioning, in which involuntary behaviors are triggered by
external stimuli..
■ With classical conditioning, a dog that has learned the sound of
a bell precedes the arrival of food may begin to salivate at the
sound of a bell, even if no food arrives. By contrast, a dog
might learn that, by sitting and staying, it will earn a treat. If
the dog then gets better at sitting and staying in order to
receive the treat, then this is an example of operant
conditioning.
Operant Conditioning and Timing

■ The core concept of operant conditioning is simple: when a

certain deliberate behavior is reinforced, that behavior will
become more common. Psychology divides reinforcement into
four main categories:

Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Punishment
■ Extinction
 EXAMPLE OF
POSITIVE
REINFORCEMENT
■ A Continuous Reinforcement Schedule (commonly
abbreviated CRF) provide reinforcement for all noted
behaviors. That is, every time the behavior occurs,
reinforcement is provided.

■ An Intermittent Reinforcement Schedule [ commonly

abbreviated INT] reinforces some target behaviors but over all
them.
■ Positive reinforcement describes the best-
known examples of operant conditioning:
receiving a reward for acting in a certain
way.
■ 1. Many people train their pets with
positive reinforcement. Praising a pet or
providing a treat when they obey
instructions like being told to sit or heel
– both helps the pet understand what is
desired and encourages it to obey future
commands. A high level in hopes of
receiving another bonus in the future.
■2. When a child receives praise for
performing a chore without
complaint, like cleaning their room,
they are more likely to continue to
perform that chore in the future.
■ 3. When a worker is rewarded with a
performance bonus for exceptional sales
figures, she is inclined to continue
performing at a high level in hopes of
receiving another bonus in the future.
 EXAMPLE OF
NEGATIVE
REINFORCEMEN
T
What is Negative Reinforcement?

■ Negative reinforcement is a different but equally

straightforward form of operant conditioning. Negative
reinforcement rewards a behavior by removing an
unpleasant stimulus, rather than adding a pleasant one.
EXAMPLES:

1. An employer offering an employee a day off is

an example of negative reinforcement. Rather than
giving a tangible reward, they reduce the presence
of something undesirable; that is, the amount of
time spent at work.
2. In a sense, young children condition their parents through
negative reinforcement. Screaming, tantrums and other “acting
out” behaviors are generally intended to draw a parent’s attention.
When the parent behaves as the child wants, the unpleasant
condition the screaming and crying stops. That’s negative
reinforcement.

3. Negative reinforcement is common in the justice system.

Prisons will sometimes ease regulations on a well-behaved
prisoner, and sentences are sometimes shortened for good
behavior. The latter in particular is classic negative reinforcement:
the removal of something undesirable (days in prison) in response
to a given behavior.
EXAMPLES OF
PUNISHMENT
Punishment

■ In psychology, punishment doesn’t necessarily

mean what it means in casual usage. Psychology
defines punishment as something done after a
given deliberate action that lowers the chance of
that action taking place in the future. Whereas
reinforcement is meant to encourage a certain
behavior, punishment is meant to discourage a
certain behavior.
1. An employee who misses work may suffer a cut in
wages. The loss of income (an undesired consequence)
constitutes the punishment for missing work (an
undesired behavior).
2. A sharp “No!” addressed to a pet engaging in
unacceptable behavior is a classic example of
punishment. The shout punishes the pet, conditioning it
to avoid doing wrong behavior in the future.
■ 3. Punishments are commonly used in lab experiments.
Most often, a lab animal is punished for a given
behavior with a mild electric shock.
EXAMPLES OF
EXTINCTION
EXTINCTION

■ Psychology defines extinction as the loss of

conditioning over time when the conditioning
stimuli are no longer present. Over time, an
animal (or person) will become less conditioned
unless the stimuli that conditioned them in the
first place is reapplied.
1. An employee punished once for missing work, then
never again, may become more likely to miss work later
on because they no longer expect to be punished for
absence.
■ 2. Animals often test the limits of their conditioning.
For instance, a cat punished with a spray bottle every
time it climbs on a counter may come near the counter
or jump on the counter when it believes no one is
around. If no punishment occurs, the cat is likely to
keep jumping on the counter because the conditioning
against it is extinct.
 SKINNER AND
CONDITIONING
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
was a psychologist and
researcher credited with
establishing the principles of
operant conditioning. B.F.
Skinner began with
Thorndike’s law of effect,
which states that behaviors that
cause satisfactory results will
be repeated. Skinner considered
satisfaction to be insufficiently
specific to measure and set out
to design a means of measuring Burrhus Frederic Skinner
learned behaviors.
THE OPERANT CONDITIONING
CHAMBER
The operant conditioning chamber,
popularly known as a Skinner box,
was his solution. He kept his test
subjects, primarily pigeons and rats,
in circumstances that allowed him
to closely observe their behavior.
He would isolate the animal and every
time the animal performed a defined behavior,
like pushing a lever, it’d be rewarded with food.
When the animal began to reliably push the lever,
he’d know it had been conditioned.
Skinner’s work took that first principle and applied it to
human behavior, representing the school of psychology
called behaviorism. Behaviorism defined. Much of
psychology for the second half of the 20 th century but is
currently being combined with other psychological
perspectives.
 OPERANT
CONDITIONING
AND YOU
Operant Conditioning and You
It can be uncomfortable to talk about human
behavior in the clinical language of psychology.
That said, operant conditioning describes a simple
phenomenon that happens in every part of life.
It’s just one of the mechanisms by which people learn.
It’s vital to understand how that mechanism works to
make sure it works best for you.
 THEORETICAL
MODEL OF
SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONIS
M
Other sociologists study
government and power
by relying on the
framework of symbolic
interactionism, which is
grounded in the works of
Max Weber and George
H. Mead.

Max Weber and George H. Mead

■ Symbolic interactionism, as it pertains to
government, focuses its attention. On figures,
emblems, or individuals that represent power and
authority. Many diverse entities in larger society
can be considered symbolic: trees, doves,
wedding rings. Images that represent the power
and authority of the United States include the
White House, the eagle, and the American flag.
The Seal of the President of the United States,
along with the office in general, incites respect
and reverence in many Americans.
■ Symbolic interactionists are not interested
in large structures such as the government.
As micro-sociologists, they are more
interested in the face-to-face aspects of
politics. In reality, much of politics consists
of face-to-face backroom meetings and
lobbyist efforts. What the public often sees
is the front porch of politics that is sanitized
by the media through gatekeeping.
■ Symbolic interactionists are most interested in
the interaction between these small groups who
make decisions, or in the case of some recent
congressional committees, demonstrate the
inability to make any decisions at all. The heart
ofpolitics is the result of interaction between
individuals and small groups overperiods of
time. These meetings produce new meanings and
perspectives that individuals use to make sure
there are future interactions.
To sum it up!!

Marxism and Symbolic Interactionism

Theory is…….
WE HOPE YOU’LL
GET SOME
KNOWLEDGE
ABOUT MARXISM
THANK YOU!!!