Action theory Flashcards
What is Weber’s view on the study of society
He believes that both structural and action approaches are necessary for a full understanding of society
What two levels does Weber propose?
Level of cause - objective structural factors shaping people’s behaviour
level of meaning - subjective meanings individuals attach to actions
Give examples of Weber’s levels using his study on calvanism
Level of cause - protestant reformation introduced calvanism changing people’s worldview.
Level of meaning - work took on a religious meaning for calvanists
Weber classified action into 4 categories (typology)
- instrumental rational action - actor calculates the most efficient means of achieving a given goal
- value rational action - action towards a goal that actor regards as desirable for their own sake
- traditional action - customary, routine, habitual action
- affectual action - action that expresses emotion
AO3 of Weber
Schutz - weber’s view of action is too individualistic and cannot explain the shared nature of meaning
His typology is difficult to apply
What is the focus of symbolic interactionism?
it focuses on our ability to create the social world through our action and interaction.
sees interaction as based on meaning we give to situations.
Mead
Symbolic Interactionism
by attaching symbols to the world we create a world of meanings
interpretive phase - comes between stimulus and our response to it.
to interpret other people’s meanings, we take on the role of the other - significant other or generalised other.
Blumer
Symbolic interactionism
can be used as AO3 for Mead
our actions are based on meanings we give to situations, events people etc
These meanings arise from the interaction process
the meanings we give to situations are the result of the interpretive procedures we use
Definition of the situation
part of the labelling process
Thomas - if people define a situation as real, then it will have real consequences
The looking glass self
Part of the labelling process
Cooley - others act as a looking glass to us - we see ourselves mirrored in the way they respond to us.
Career
Part of the labelling process
Becker and Lemert - hierarchy of statuses
for example, in relation to mental illness, we can see the individual as having a career running from pre-patient with certain symptoms, through labelling by a psychiatrist, to hospital in patient, to discharge
therefore, the patient my find it difficult to reintegrate into society, so their master status would be mental patient.
what has labelling theory been accused of
determinism - seeing our actions and identities as shaped by the way others label them
Dramaturgical model
theorised by Goffman
described interaction using drama as a framework
actors, scripts, props
used for impression management - front stage where we act out roles and backstage where we are ourselves
rejects the functionalist view that roles are tightly scripted by arguing that there is role distance.
Evaluation of symbolic interactionism
largely avoids determinism of structural theories
Reynolds - sent a questionnaire to 124 interactionists and only chose 2 power and conflict as crucial concepts to describe society
Goffman’s dramaturgical analogy is useful but it has limitations.
Ethnomethodologists argue interactionism is correct in focusing on actors’ meanings but it fails to explain how actors create meanings.
How do phenomenologists see phenomenons?
they are used to describe things as they appear to our senses
the world only makes sense because we impose meanings and by constructing mental categories that we use to classify and file information coming from the world.
