social action theories

Question 1

what are action theories?

Answer 1

also known as micro theories, these refer to theories that don’t focus on the structure of society or large-scale trends and patterns but instead small groups and individuals.

Question 2

symbolic interactionism (Mead and Weber)

Answer 2

sees society as product of human interactions and the meanings that individuals place on these interactions.

Question 3

Weber

Answer 3

saw both structural and action approaches as necessary for understanding human behavior, an adequate explanation involves the level of cause and the level of meaning (explaining the objective structural factors and understanding meanings individuals attach to actions).

Question 4

Weber and 4 types of behavior

Answer 4

instrumentally rational action - calculating most efficient means of achieving a given goal, whatever it is. value rational action - actions towards a goal of their desire and sake. traditional action - routine actions. affectual action - express emotion.

Question 5

criticisms of weber

Answer 5

schutz- Weber’s view of action is too individualistic and cannot explain shared nature of meanings. Weber uses verstehen, the idea of putting ourselves in actors place; as we cannot actually do this, we will never fully understand. the theory is difficult to apply on a large scale.

Question 6

the looking-glass self (Cooley)

Answer 6

the individuals own identity or sense of self is created by their interactions with other people, our idea of self comes from how we understand others see us. comes from Goffman’s dramaturgical approach and labelling theory. there is the definition of situation, looking-glass self then career.

Question 7

the generalized other

Answer 7

every person has a self concept based on 2 levels: I, the internal private self and the ME, the public/social self. we gain these through acting roles, we then gain the ability to predict the role behavior of larger social groups.

Question 8

symbolic interactionism (Blumer)

Answer 8

identified 3 principles of interactionism: our actions are based on the meanings we give to situations, people, these meanings arise from interactions and are to some extent negotiable and changeable and the meanings we give to situations are mainly the result of taking the role of the other.

Question 9

Blumer

Answer 9

argues although our action is partly predictable because we internalize the expectations of others, there is always some room for choice in how we perform our roles.

Question 10

‘dramaturgical approach’ (Goffman)

Answer 10

Goffman disagrees with labelling theory and says we construct our self. It uses analogies with drama to explain that peoples roles are not fixed and can be interpreted. we play a particular role in society, and are very conscious in doing so. we use props, stages and scripts to control how we appear to others. we have no true self.

Question 11

the presentation of self in everyday life (Goffman’s examples)

Answer 11

waiters in a restaurant playing the part of waiters of others who played the same role, this can also be seen within teachers.

Question 12

labelling theory (Becker)

Answer 12

when a label is applied to someone it can influence their self-concept and might become their master status. this was then developed into the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 13

education

Answer 13

labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy. school subcultures and anti-subcultures. differences.

Question 14

crime

Answer 14

identified the role of labelling in creating crime and deviance, identified master status

Question 15

phenomenology (Schutz)

Answer 15

we share typifications to classify the word with other members of society. this makes social order possible by giving a shared ‘life world’ of common sense knowledge which helps in every day interactions. Schutz calls this ‘recipe knowledge’: social world exists only when we share the same meanings.

Question 16

ethnomethodology (Garfinkel)

Answer 16

means the study of methods used by people. Garfinkel argues that members of society assume that the social world is ordered and makes sense, however this may not actually exist, instead it make be constructed to make the social world appear knowable, reasonable and understandable. this theory reveals that there are unspoken rules when people of common culture talk to each other (waving).

Question 17

ethnomethodology (language)

Answer 17

language is a vital importance in achieving reflexivity, it gives us a sense of reality existing ‘out there’, although in fact all we have done is to construct a few shared meanings.

Question 18

Garfinkel (breaching experiments)

Answer 18

he used these to disrupt peoples expectations of a situation. he used the example of children behaving like lodgers in their parents home and how the orderliness in everyday situations is not inevitable and is just how we use our common sense. we take this for granted, as we make assumptions to create social order.

Question 19

evaluation of social action theories 1

Answer 19

these ideas had a huge impact on discipline of sociology and the nature of sociological inquiry, having a diff view meant they took an interpretivist approach rather than a positivist one.

Question 20

evaluation of social action theories 2

Answer 20

some would argue interactionists simple observe interesting phenomena about human behavior and reach few useful conclusions; argument isnt strong or beneficial.

Question 21

evaluation of social action theories 3

Answer 21

methods used by these, where the conclusions are unable to be generalized to the wider population. Goffman for example can only conclude particular waiters he observed, not that it is a widespread phenomenon.

Question 22

structuration theory (Giddens)

Answer 22

a unified theory of structure and action, ‘duality of structure’. neither can exist without the other. through our actions we produce and reproduce structures over time and space, while these structures are what makes our actions possible in the first place.