Social Action Theories Flashcards
What does Weber’s sociology argue?
He rejected the determinism and recognised that people had choice and could act to change situations.
How does the protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism link in with Weber’s sociology? (2)
They believe in pre-destination and people who were chosen were the elect.
But God didn’t say who was elected so people had salvation anxiety.
People then led an asetic lifestyle and reinvested in their own businesses which led to the development of capitalism.
What three types of social action theories are there?
Symbolic interactionism
Phenomenology
Ethnomethodology
What sociologists associate with symbolic interactionism? (4)
Mead
Blumer
Cooley
Goffman
What did Mead argue? (2)
Language is one of the most powerful and meaningful symbols that humans have created because it allows communication.
Symbols are uniquely a human creation where a word has no onherent meaning until people reach an agreement that it carries a special meaning.
What did Blumer argue?
Meaning are not fixed but context specific. This means that symbols may generate different interpretations to different people in the same setting.
What did Cooley argue?
People create definitions of themselves depending on who they are with. This is called the looking glass self and it’s where people are percieved differently by other people.
What did Goffman argue? (2)
He introduced the dramaturgical theory where we are all actors and the world is our stage.
Social life is a never-ending piece of drama and people play different roles to act in different ways.
What do Phenomenologists argue and who is it that argues this? (2)
Schutz.
They focus on the hidden meanings people have so what they think they know.
People have typifications wgich help organise their world of things and ideas.
This involves categorising phenomena into different types of people, situations, objects etc.
How do phenomenologists link with Cicourel? (2)
Police also have typifications and they may arrest someone who looks like they are ‘more likely’ to commit a crime.
Justice is negotiable.
What do ethnomethodologists argue and what sociologist argues this? (4)
Garfinkel.
Reflexivity - social order only exists because individuals create it using their own common sense assumptions in their daily lives.
He suggests that meanings whould be investigated as a kind of method that people develop to dealwith everyday experiences.
He designed a series of breaching experiments to disrupt the meaningful social order of daily activities so he caused lots of confusion.
These experiments generated lots of annoyance and confusion but by changing the rules of the game it shows that social order is not inevitable but it is a reflexive accomplishment and participant produced.
What are three strengths of social action theories?
Social action theories uncover meanings and find validity and verstehen.
Reality is socially constructed and subject to change
It moves away from the ideas of determinism.
