Action Theories Flashcards
According to Max Weber, an explanation must have two things. What are they?
Level of cause (objective structural factors) and a level of meaning (the subjective meanings that individuals attach to their actions)
Who saw structural and action approaches as necessary to describe social behaviour?
Max Weber
Weber classifies actions into 4 types. What are they?
Instrumentally rational action, value-rational action, traditional action and affectual action
Give two criticisms of Max Weber
Alfred Schutz argued that it is too individualistic and cannot explain the shared nature of meaning. Weber advocated the use of verstehen but we cannot always put ourselves in another persons shoes
Who was a famous symbolic interactionist that believed in the idea of symbols versus instincts and taking the role of the other?
G.H Mead
Mead drew a comparison between humans and animals. What did he say?
Unlike animals, our behaviour is not fixed
According to Mead, how do we respond to a stimulus?
By giving meanings to the things that have meaning to us
According to Mead, how do we interpret other people’s meanings?
Taking the role of the other
Herbert Blumer identified 3 key principles. What are they?
Our actions are based on meanings, These arise from interaction, The meanings we give to situations are the result of our interpretive procedures
Why does Blumer argue that our behaviour is partly predictable?
Because we internalise the expectations of others
In labelling theory, what did W.I Thomas believe about the definition of the situation?
He argued that if people define a situational real, then it will have real consequences and if we believe something to be true then it will affect how we act
Who came up with the concept of the looking glass self?
Charles Cooley
What can we develop from the looking glass self?
Our self concept
In interactions, what occurs as we are defined by others?
A self-fulfilling prophecy
What are labelling theories views on careers?
Labelling theorists believe that we can move through stages through different labels given to us
What theorist is associated with the dramaturgical model?
Goffman
According to Goffman, how do we construct ourselves?
By manipulating other people’s impressions of us
What does the dramaturgical model assume?
We are all actors, acting out scripts, using props and resting backstage
What does Goffman believe that there is a role distance between?
Our real self and our roles
What is involved in impression management?
We seek to present a particular image of ourselves to our audiences
What is a strength of symbolic interactionism?
It avoids the determinism of structural theories as people can create society through their own choices and meanings
What are some of the limitations of symbolic interactionism?
It ignores wider social structures to explain labels, It cannot explain consistent patterns in behaviour and Weber showed that not all action can be meaningful
What is phenomonology?
The study of subjective experience
What do phenomonologists argue?
As a human being, our only reality consists of meanings
What is Husserl’s philosophy regarding phenomonology?
The world can only make sense because we impose meanings and order on it by constructing mental categories
According to Husserl, where can we only obtain knowledge from?
Through our mental acts of categorising and giving meaning to our experiences
What are the 2 terms coined by Schutz?
Typifications and the natural attitude
What are typifications?
Shared categories that enable us to organise experiences which creates shared assumptions about the way things are
Without shared typifications, what would be made impossible?
Social order
What is the natural attitude?
Society appears to us as a real thing
What example does Schutz use to demonstrate the natural attitude?
He uses the example of a book where when we post it, we assume that individuals will perform operations to send this book
What is ethnomethodology interested in?
The methods or rules that we use to produce meanings
What does garfinkel believe about social order?
He argues that social order is created from the bottom up, in contrast with functionalists, and it is seen as an accomplishment as it is constructed in everyday life using common sense knowledge
What is indexicality?
Meanings being potentially unclear
What is a strength of ethnomethodology?
It draws attention to how we actively construct order and meaning, rather than being puppets
What are some of the limitations of ethnomethodology?
Craib argued that much of its research was trivial and it ignores how wider structures of power and inequality affect the meanings that individuals construct
What theorist is associated with structuration theory?
Giddens
What is structuration theory?
Through our actions, we produce and reproduce structures over time and space, while these structures are what make our actions possible in the first place
What 2 elements does structure have?
Rules and resources
How does Schutz criticise Webers view of action?
He argues that it is too individualistic and cannot explain the shared nature of meanings
How can Giddens be criticised?
Archer argues that he underestimates the capacity of structures to resist change
