Social action Flashcards
Weber - different types of social action
Traditional action - carried out because of custom/habit
Affective action - influenced by emotional state
Rational value - orientated action - led by an overriding ideal/value
Rational goal - orientated action - people calculate likely result of behaviour in relation to a goal
A03 - lots of action difficult to categorise, some actions belong to more than one type
Schutz - to individualistic eg prayer big groups carry out - can’t all have same meanings.
Never truly understand individuals actions
First branch - Symbolic Interactionalism - Mead
Society built up by interactions which people place meanings on. People act in terms of symbols - words, objects, gesture - meanings change during interaction, create identity.
Looking glass self - Cooley
Image of yourself reflected in views of others, change our behaviour based on how people react - negotiated interaction
Labelling theory - Becker
Label based on first impression - internalise label. SFP - if labelling is especially damaging can become master status
Second branch - Ethnomethodology - Garfinkel
Description of the methods which people construct to their everyday social world
Carried out ‘breaching experiments’ examining people’s reactions to ‘breaching’ or disrupting social rules we take for granted, made people do the opposite of what was socially normal
Social norms are created by how people react to things we do
Social action theory
Mirco approach focuses on individual behaviour
Understanding interaction between people and groups
Emphasises free will and choice and how we create our society, we create society eg patriarchy
Society, social structures and institutions are socially constructed
