Social Action Theories - 1.1 Flashcards

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1
Q

What were the four ideal categories that Weber classified human actions into?

A
  1. Instrumentally rational action
  2. Value-rational action
  3. Traditional action
  4. Affective Action
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2
Q

What is Instrumentally Rational Action, with an example

A
  • Actions that are carried out to achieve a certain goal, you do something because it leads to a result.
  • E.g. studying for a degree to secure a good job.
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3
Q

What is Symbolic Interactionism

A

Where Individuals shape their identities based on the labels that other people attach to them.

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4
Q

What is Value Rational Action, with an example

A
  • Behaviors based on the values an individual holds

- E.g. returning a found wallet to the owner

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5
Q

What is Traditional Action, with an example

A
  • Actions that occur through custom or routine that happens because it always has done and therefore isn’t challenged.
  • E.g. eating Sunday Lunch with family, or celebrating religious holidays.
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6
Q

What is Affective Action, with an example

A
  • Actions based on feelings and emotions that have no rational reasoning.
  • This is the most irrational social action.
  • E.g. Crying at a Funeral, Celebrating a goal
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7
Q

Which Sociologist came up with the Dramaturgical model

A

Erving Goffman

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8
Q

What is the Dramaturgical model?

A
  • This is the theory that suggests that our lives are like a theatrical performance, in which we are actors who are constantly changing characters by moving back and forth between being frontstage and backstage.
  • Our social self is an act, and therefore is a false representation of ourselves that is designed to cater to that particular social audience.
  • He refers to this as ‘impression management’.
  • Goffman argues that each individual has a public persona, a version of themselves that they want the world to see.
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9
Q

In reference to Goffman’s Dramaturgical Model, what is meant by ‘‘front-stage self’’ and how is it different to the idea of a ‘‘backstage self’’

A
  • Front stage: an institutionalized setting where an actor takes on an established role and attempt to meet with the stereotyped expectation from the audience (here the performer must be in character).
  • Backstage: when we “let down our guard” and be ourselves. E.g. how we act at home or when we are alone
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10
Q

What was George Mead’s belief on Interactionism

A
  • Mead believed that each individual interacts with others through the use of symbols.
  • For example words, facial expressions, hand gestures, etc.
  • The issue is that each symbol can have a variety of different meanings depending on who the individual is interacting with.
  • Mead argued that humans do not act based on instinct like animals; instead, they have to assess the social situation by placing themselves in the place of the other person.
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11
Q

Explain George Mead’s I and Me theory

A
  • Mead argued that social actors experience an ‘I and me’ moment, whereby they present their ‘me’ to the outside world rather than their true selves.
  • The ‘me’ is an altered version of yourself to fit your social surroundings.
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12
Q

Who came up with the ‘‘looking glass self’’ study?

A

Charles Cooley

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13
Q

Explain Cooley’s ‘‘looking glass self’’ theory

A
  • Charles Cooley’s study of the ‘looking-glass self’ believes that this is how individuals form their own view of themselves; essentially internalizing the labels that their social audience places upon them.
  • He calls this the ‘self-concept’.
  • By doing this, the individual starts to view themselves in a different way and therefore becomes the label that they have had imposed upon them.
  • In short. We see ourselves as we believe other people see us
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14
Q

Stages of the Looking-Glass Self

A
  1. We imagine how we appear to others.
  2. We imagine how others judge us.
  3. We accept or reject the presumed judgment of others through identity negotiation
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15
Q

Who believed that each individual interacts with others through the use of symbols?

A

George Mead

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16
Q

What do Interpretive Sociologists believe?

A
  • Believe that individuals shape society.
  • They examine how individuals make sense of the world they live in.
  • Most famous type is symbolic interactionism - where Individuals shape their identities based on the labels that other people attach to them.
17
Q

What do Structuralist Sociologists believe?

A
  • Believe society shapes individuals
  • Interested in how big structures rules, organization, values of our society affect the lives of groups such as religion. education and the family.
  • Examples are Marxism and Functionalism.
18
Q

Define Role Distancing

A

Where people try to show just because they do a certain role e.g. teacher they can still be normal people - have a sense of humour.