7. Social Action Theories Flashcards
What are action theories?
Oppose structuralist theories
Bottom up approach, focusing on actions of individuals.
Believe individuals have free will & choice.
We have agency, the ability to act as free agents who create and shape our society through choices meanings & interactions.
What are the four action theories
Weber’s Social Action Theory
Symbolic Interactionism
Phenomenology
Ethnomethodology
Which theory combines structure and action?
Gidden’s Structuration Theory
Action vs structure?
Action theories come from interactions creating society with free will.
Structure theories come from society creating our behaviour with predestiny.
What two things help shape Weber’s social action theory
The level of cause: Structural factors which shape behaviour
The level of meaning: Subjective meanings that we attach to our actions.
How does Weber’s action theory connect to capitalist religion?
The problem is to abort religion
No anxiety or grief
Celebrate today not invest in tomorrow
Life should not be measured in ideas
How can the world be changed with Weber’s social action theory
age of resolution lived in
traditional, charismatic and pure autocratic authority
ideas are more important than resources
thoughts are what matters
How is capitalism created according to Weber
by ideas and the meanings we attach to things.
What are Weber’s four types of action
Traditional Action
Affective Action
Value-rational Action
Instrumentally-rational Action
What is Traditional Action
An action carried out due to custom or habit
No conscious thought or choice
Done because it’s always done.
Gifts for someone birthday
What is Affective Action
Influenced by emotional state
Important in religious or political movements with leaders who attract a following based on emotional appeal.
Crying due to being violent or grief
What is Value-rational Action
Towards a goal that the actor regards desirable for their own sake.
No way of calculating whether the means of achieving the goal are effective.
A believer worshipping their God
What is Instrumentally-rational Action?
Highly rational form of action where people calculate outcome of behaviour related to a goal.
Goal may not be desirable, but the most efficient way to achieve it is.
A capitalist calculating profit maximisation
What is Symbolic Interactionism
Interactions are based on the meanings we give to situations.
Meanings are conveyed through symbols, especially body language or language.
What did G.H Mead say to do with Symbolic Interactionism
World is based on symbols not instincts.
How do stimuli relate to Symbolic Interactionism
We don’t respond to stimulus according to pre program data.
We respond based on experience and interpretation.
Then we choose an appropriate response.
How must we learn social cues and interactions
By put yourself in someone’s shoes
Imitative play from the generalised other
Shared symbols of society that all know
Act accord to the requirements of others
How did Herbert Blumer help Social Interactionism
He organised Meads ideas after he died
What 3 ideas did Blumer decide on?
- Actions based on meanings we give to situations, events and people
- Meanings come from interaction process, not fixed from start of interaction but negotiable and changeable.
- Meanings we attach are as a result of the interpretive procedures we use, like taking the role of someone else.
How does Social interactionism contrast to structural theories
Shows how we create society from our actions and behaviours, compared to our actions being shaped by society.
What are the three sections of the Labelling theory
Definition of the situation
Career
The looking glass self
What is Definition of the situation
If people define a situation as real, it’ll have real consequences
If we believe it’s true, it changes how we act
What is Career
career as same as stages in life
Applied to groups
Mental Illness
Master status which trumps all
What is the looking glass self
Self-concept - who are we?
Take the role of someone else
Self mirrored in way people respond to us
Even if initial definition is false, self concept develops.
Has real consequences
How does Labelling theory support Social Interactionism
By giving different ideas different definitions, we develop self concept to fit stereo-types and conform to societies view of us.
What is Goffman’s Dramaturgical model?
We actively construct ourself by manipulating other peoples impression of us
All actors, using props, giving backstage and front stage to different people
What is impression management of Goffman’s Dramaturgical model
Stay organised, look calm, focused, on route, on target
No judged by anyone, as if no cares
Be real. no one cares. Frontstage/backstage
What are roles of Goffman’s Dramaturgical model
Parents and family
society and work
Role distance = real vs fake
Play something
close friends and comfort
Present your self to the best advantage
How does Goffman’s Dramaturgical model link to Social interactionism
We choose how to present ourselves depending on the context of the situation we have surrounded ourself in, giving us the right to choose how we respond to it.
What is crucial to note about Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology?
They are good for evaluating, but not for a whole point/ paragraph
What is Phenomenology
Used to describe things as they appear to our senses
we can never say what the world is really like in itself, we only know what our sense tell us about it.
What is Husserl’s Philosophy about Phenomenology
We can only make sense of the world by imposing meaning and order onto it.
Done by constructing mental categories to classify information from our senses.
Only get knowledge about world through mentally giving meaning to experience.
What is Schutz Phenomenological Sociology
Categories we use are shared with all society.
What is Typifications
name for shared categories
How does Schutz’s Phenomenology change
meanings change according to context, information is not given though
meanings can be unclear and unstable, typification’s stabilise the meaning
makes everyone on the same page
What if we didn’t have Typification’s
social order would be impossible
stock of typification is called recipe knowledge, we follow it without thinking and get the results to function.
What is common sense knowledge
not about the world, it is the world.
the world can only exist if we have the same meanings
What is the Natural Attitude
believing the social world is a solid natural thing
What is Ethnomethodology?
process of creating meanings by which we make sense of the world and the rules and methods used to create the meanings
What did Harry Garfinkel do
how social order is maintained
how people construct the common sense knowledge and rules & processes we use to produce the meanings in the first place
How is social order created
members of society creating and applying common sense knowledge to their everyday lives
What is Indexicality
Nothing has a fixed meaning, everything depends on context
What is Reflexicality
the use of common sense knowledge to interpret everyday situations to construct a sense of meaning and order
What are breaching experiments
Garfinkle got his students to act as visitors in their own homes.
What is the purpose of breaching experiments
disrupt peoples sense of order and challenge their reflexivity by undermining assumptions about situations
What did Garfinkle’s breaching experiments conclude
show that the orderliness of everyday situations is not fixed but an accomplishment of those who took part.
Social order is participant produced.
What did Carib find about the breaching experiments
breaching was trivial, spend alot of time uncovering taken for granted rules.
denies the existance of wider society suggesting that norms and values are not fiction but social fact
What is Giddens action theory?
emphasises the role of individual agency in shaping society
acknowledges social structures influence & constrain those actions
What is Duality of Structure
Structure and agency are intertwined
structures shape human action - human actions reproduce these structures over time. individuals actions contribute to ongoing creation of social structures
individual power to alter the structures
human action central
What is Structure as Enabling and Constraining
structures enable actions by providing context and resources
language is a structure enabling communication
importance of human agency
structures set limits but we choose how to reach the limit set
What is Reflexivity?
humans constantly monitor and readjust behaviour in response to context
emphasis on humans being conscious agents who make and influence decisions in the social structures
What is Time and Space
all actions are in specific time and space
bound by these dimensions, but we act in ways that transcend them- when instituions develop across time.
focus on context of when actions occur, temporal and spatial choice is made
What is Reproduction of Social Systems
reproduced through social actions
social norms and rules, act against them changes the structure
human action is crucial to maintain or transform the system
Why is Gidden’s theory an action theory?
emphasises the role of individual agencies in shaping and modifying social structures
focus on individuals making choices, reflect behaviour, change environment, human action is at the core of the theory
