Social Anxiety and Interaction Rituals

• In Event: 209 - Theory Section Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Phenomenology and Symbolic Interactionism

Abstract

A theoretical contribution to Randall Collins’s Interaction Ritual Chain (IRC) theory is presented. The foundational premise of Interaction Ritual Chain theory, that all humans are motivated by an unconscious desire to feel “positive emotional energy”, contributes a logical narrative of how individual social interactions operate and how and individuals approach some social interactions and avoid others. There are two specific areas of IRC theory which deserve further treatment: 1) An understanding of the phenomenological experience that is central to every interaction ritual, and 2) IRC theory’s conception of the macro. Phenomenological treatment could illuminate the inner struggles an individual experiences when trying to create engagement and mutual focus of attention with another human being. I argue that in every social interaction, individuals consciously strive to be “fully present” because they believe it is a necessary prerequisite for inter-human engagement. An historical analysis of national healthcare reforms since the early 1990s (known as ‘Managed Care’) and their impact on the daily work lives of American primary care doctors reveals the degree to which seemingly isolated individual interactions are sensitive to socio-political events.

Author

• Joseph Paul Cleary, Louisiana State University