Action Theory Flashcards
What is Weber’s social action theory
sociological work focused less on structure
human behaviour is understood by:
level of cause - objective structural factors
level of meaning - individual meaning
What are the four types of meaning?
instrumental - most efficent way of achieving a goal but doesn’t have to be desirable or ethical
value - action towards a goal that is desirable but no way of knowing if it is effective
traditional - routine which is not rational as no thought process
affectual - expresses emotiom - important in religion and politics
What is verstehen
putting ourselves in the actors place to undertstand their meaning
What is symbolic interaticionism
focus on actions and interactions between people and the meaning we attach to these
What does Mead theorise
humans are different from other animals - we don’t act on instinct but use our interpretive pahse
we form meanings often constructed through symbols - also through verstehen
What does Blumer theorise
actions based on meanings we give to situation
meanings arise from interaction and are negoitable
meanings are a result of interpretation especially by verstehen
What is the looking glass self
Cooley (1922) - our self concept arises from how other see us
putting ourselves in other position
What is a career
Becker and Lement - how individuals in groups progress through statistics and its problems
What is Goffman dramutological theory
we construct our self by manipulating rather impression
we seek to present a particular image se we constantly study our audience to present a convincing issue
to present our image we use props and language
the backstage is where we can be ourselves
Whats is phenomenology?
Hussert - the world only makes sense because we impose meaning and order on it by constructing mental categories
no definite knowledge easily
What did Shcultz agrue about phenomenology
the categories we make to undertstand phenomena are shared with other people (typification)
it is the typifications that allow us to clarify meaning of this contextual phenomena
societies members have a shared ‘life world’ - stack of common knowledge that we use to make sense of experience
What is ethnomethodology
bottom up approach view of social order
members of society actively try to achiever order
What is Garfinkel’s main two concepts
indexicality - the notion that meanings of action always have the potential to be unclear as they are always dependent on context - this can threaen social action
reflexity - we use common sense in everyday interactions to make sense of unclear
What was Garfinkels main experiment
acting as lodgers in the family homes - parents became bewildered
concluded that by challenging common sense assumptions, it shows order is an accomplishment
What are the criticisms of social action theory
Schultz - Weber di not explain the shared nature of meaning
sometimes classifications overlap
versthen still does not allow us to fully understand peoples motives
