Social Theories and the Thanksgiving Holiday

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Social Theories and the Thanksgiving Holiday
During the Thanksgiving Holiday, it was very important for many people to go home and have Thanksgiving dinner with their families. Most of them were keen to observe Thanksgiving rituals like eating turkey, being involved in meal preparation, sharing with friends and family what they are grateful for, and conducting their holiday shopping on Black Friday.
Symbolic interactionism describes the way that people form and maintain society using repeated, face-to-face, meaningful interactions, and dramaturgical analysis holds that people’s lives are like theatrical performances regarding how they show themselves to others and try to ensure that others see them positively (Carter and Fuller 1). Constructivism asserts that development among human beings is founded on social situations, and people construct knowledge depending on their interactions (Alder-Nissen 30).
Symbolic interactionism is the most useful among the three theories to understand the Thanksgiving Holiday because it emphasizes the repetition of behaviour. Thanksgiving traditions are a good example of how people value familiarity. Social interactionism states that social interactions are important in forming identity and an understanding of human behaviour based on their communities and the actions that people engage in together (Alder-Nissen 28). At Thanksgiving, individuals involve friends and family in being grateful for the relationships they maintain and for life-based on the belief that gratitude is vital in creating valuable experiences.

Additionally, the social interactionist theory holds that people act toward issues depending on the meaning they have for them, the importance of things comes from the interactions individuals have with each other, and meanings are tackled and modified through interpretive processes that people use when they deal with certain situations (Carter and Fuller 3). This is typical of the Thanksgiving Holiday which Americans value very much depending on how seriously their families take a holiday and participate in its traditions.

Works Cited
Adler-Nissen, Rebecca. “The Social Self in International Relations: Identity, Power and the Symbolic Interactionist Roots of Constructivism.” International Organization 2.46 (1992): 391-425.
Carter, Michael J., and Celene Fuller. “Symbolic interactionism.” Sociopedia.isa 1 (2015): 1-17.