Social psychology according to Gordon Allport is the " attempt to understand and
explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual
imagined or implied presence of others".(Allport as cited in Hewitt 2000;3) Sociologists
are concerned with social psychology in how organized social life is possible, how it
works and how it evolves over time. Whereas psychologists are focused on how
individuals learn and what they learn, sociologists are concerned with socialization and
how groups and organizations adapt to the environment as well as how environments
adapt to groups and organizations. In a sense, how we create society and how society
creates us. The sociological aspect of social psychology focuses on what transpires
between people rather then within people. Symbolic interaction focuses on how meaning
emerges from interaction. We gain meaning by how we act and the purpose of that
action. In order to act or react in regard to an action, we have to first interpret that action.
So without our interpretation of an action, an action has no meaning. Social acts depend
on interaction and interpretation.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the United States by flying two planes into
the World Trade Center in New York and another plane into the Pentagon in Washington,
D.C. . Inhumane action disrupted our world as we knew it. This action not only took
thousands of innocent lives, but also affected our everyday daily routine. All air travel
ceased, thousands were left stranded, the city shut down as even the stock market closed.
The United States was left in shock and disbelief. The world which we knew as safe was
suddenly not as it appeared.
Why did the terrorists choose the buildings which they did? They chose buildings that
represent certain things to our society. T...