4. Social Action Theory

Question 1

What does the SAT focus on?

Answer 1

Focuses on individuals and how they interact with each other

Question 1

What type of approach is the social action theory?

Answer 1

A micro approach

Question 2

What is our behaviour the result of according to the SAT?

Answer 2

The result of the way that we interpret our norms and values

Question 3

Key features of the SAT (4)

Answer 3

Society and institutions are socially constructed
People have free will to form their own identity and behaviour
Research on small groups
People’s behaviour is driven by their beliefs as well as the meanings and emotions given to a situation

Question 4

Who developed the SAT?

Answer 4

Weber

Question 5

What combination is essential to understanding human behaviour according to Weber’s SAT? What’s good about each element of the combo?

Answer 5

Combination of structural and action approaches essential to deeper understanding of human behaviour
Structural approach allows you to understand how social structures can determine someone’s position in society
Action approach allows you to identify the subjective meaning an individual gives to a situation and how this affects behaviour

Question 6

What do researchers need in order to understand human behaviour according to Weber’s SAT?

Answer 6

Verstehen (concept developed by Weber)

Question 7

Who developed the 4 types of action and what are they? (ATVI)

Answer 7

Weber
1. Affectual - behaviour that expresses/is motivated by emotion
2. Traditional - behaviour performed as a routine
3. Value-rational - individual has a goal and sets out to achieve it regardless of the difficulty
4. Instrumentally rational - individual assess most rational mean of achieving a given goal

Question 8

2 writers of symbolic interactionism

Answer 8

Mead and Blumer

Question 9

What does Mead focus on in symbolic interactionism?

Answer 9

Focuses on how we create the social world through our interactions
Focuses on the language and symbols that help us give meaning to our life experience

Question 10

3 parts of Mead’s symbolic interactionism

Answer 10

Symbols
Role taking
The “looking-glass self” (Cooley)

Question 11

Symbols (Mead - symbolic interactionism)

Answer 11

We attach symbols to make sense of everything and this influences our behavioural responses

Question 12

Role taking (Mead - symbolic interactionism)

Answer 12

We mentally take the role of another person/group to understand the world from their PoV. Allows us to understand how we may be viewed

Question 13

The “looking-glass self” by Cooley (Mead symbolic interactionism)

Answer 13

We view ourselves based on what we imagine others to think of us
We eventually become what we believe others to see us as

Question 14

Who identified 3 basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism?

Answer 14

Blumer

Question 15

Blumer’s 3 basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism

Answer 15

Humans act towards things based on the meanings things have for them
The meaning of things derive from social interactions
Interpretation modifies the meaning people give to things

Question 16

What did Goffman develop?

Answer 16

The dramaturlogical theory

Question 17

Goffman’s criticism of the labelling theory

Answer 17

Sees individuals as the passive victim of those who label them
Goffman believes we have more freedom to choose how we construct our self image to manipulate other people’s impression of us

Question 18

What does Goffman’s dramaturlogical theory compare life to?

Answer 18

Compares life to a play where people play different roles and are forced to act in a particular way

Question 19

Impression management (Goffman)

Answer 19

We try to create a particular image of ourselves in the mind of our audience by attempting to control how they perceive us

Question 20

Who developed phenomenology?

Answer 20

Schutz

Question 21

Why do phenomenologists deny objective reality?

Answer 21

Because they believe that things have no meaning in themselves, and that it’s through experience that we attach meaning to things

Question 22

What are typifications and why do we create them according to Schutz’s phenomenology?

Answer 22

Typifications - the way we organise our experiences and knowledge of things into mental categories
They allow humans to have shared meanings and understand each other

Question 23

What do typificiations make possible according to Schutz’s phenomenology?

Answer 23

They make social order possible as they allow us to have common knowledge

Question 24

What did Garfinkel develop?

Answer 24

Ethnomethodology

Question 25

What is ethnomethodology interested in?

Answer 25

Interested in how people communicate with each other and construct their social world

Question 26

What an illusion according to Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology?

Answer 26

Social order is an illusion - our minds unconsciously make life appear to be ordered

Question 27

Two concepts of ethnomethodology and what they are

Answer 27

Indexicality - no such thing as a meaning for anything
Reflexivity - process where we use common knowledge to construct and attach a sense of meaning to the actions/behaviour occurring

Question 28

Positive evaluation of social action theories: what does it show about Marxism and functionalism?

Answer 28

Shows that functionalist and Marxist theories are too deterministic as it focuses on free will

Question 29

Positive evaluation of social action theories: provides insight into…

Answer 29

Provides insight into how the construction of meaning has consequences for the individual

Question 30

Negative evaluation of social action theories: how do structuralists criticise Weber’s approach?

Answer 30

Believe he overestimate that capacity of individuals to change social structures

Question 31

Negative evaluation of social action theories: what does it tend to deal with and what does it ignore as a result?

Answer 31

Tends to deal with small-scale interactions, ignoring the most crucial issues in society like power, poverty and inequality

Question 32

Negative evaluation of social action theories: what does it under-estimate?

Answer 32

Underestimates the extent to which human behaviour is shaped by wider institutions