Social Action Theories Flashcards
What are the different ways to refer to social action theory’s?
Interactionalism and symbolic interactionalism
Who are the 4 main thinkers in interactionism?
Blumer, Weber, Becker and Goffman.
What did Blumer come up with?
Symbolic Interactionalism
What did Blumer say are the 2 basic features of interactionalism?
- People act in terms of symbols which are often gestures, words and expressions to which individuals have attached meaning and they act in accordance to this, for example shock if someone swears in polite conversation. 2. As successful interactions occur when we can interpret what type of person we are dealing with, we have choices and are constantly changing roles depending on what type of person we are dealing with and what they might expect from you unlike what a structuralist may suggest. For example if you are speaking to a job interviewer.
What did Weber argue?
He came up with the idea of verstehen. He did not reject the idea that society may influence peoples behaviours but he also felt that people have freewill.
What did Becker come up with?
Labelling theory. It is not society but other individuals and groups which influence our behaviour.
What is a critism of Becker’s labeling theory?
He didn’t consider that labelling could also be seen as too deterministic, we can reject labels.
How can Cicourel be linked to Becker?
Through his typifications theory, it is society which gives peoples labels, not people themselves.
What was Goffmans study called?
The presentation of self
What is Goffmans presentation of self about?
He made the analogy between life and a play or drama, when we interact with each other we play a role and we seek to present ourselves in a particular way. We try to make others see us the way we want to. For example doctors wearing white coats. They are involved in impression managment. Therefore, when we study behaviour, we need to look at how people try to influence how others see them and treat them.
What did Garfinkel come up with?
Ethnomethodology
What is ethnomology?
Meanings are always unclear, Garfinkel calls this indexicality. Nothing has a fixed meaning and everything relies on context. We uses common sense knowledge in these every day situations to construct a sense of meaning and order, preventing indexicality from occurring. He used his breaching experiments to prove this. Humans strive for order by seeking patterns even though these are really just social constructs.
What were Garfinkels breaching experiments?
He did these to show a disrupt in a persons sense of social order. He asked students to act as lodgers in their own parents homes, and record how their parents reacted to the change in their taken for granted behaviour which they expected from their children.
What are two critisisms of ethnomethodology?
- Crab argues that ethnomethodology takes too much time uncovering taken for hranted truths that are no surprise to anyone. 2. EM rejects the idea of a wider society, seeing it meerly as science fiction.
What type of methodology is interactionist?
Interpretivist
