SOCIAL ACTION THEORIES

Question 1

What are Action Theories?

Answer 1

• micro level, bottom up approaches that focus on the action and interactions of individuals.
• they recognise free will and actions aren’t determined by society
• we create and shape society through our choices, meanings, and actions
• divided into four: social action theory, symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, and ethnomethodology

Question 2

What is Weber’s Social Action Theory?

Answer 2

• both structural and action approaches are necessary to understanding human behaviour
• an adequate sociological explanation involves the level of cause (objective structural factors) and the level of meaning (subjective meaning attached to actions).

Question 3

What are the 4 main types of motives for actions?

Answer 3

1. Instrumentally Rational: most efficient means of achieving a goal is calculated eg. capitalist paying low wages to maximise profit
2. Value-rational: action towards a goal that the actor regards as desirable for its own sake. there is now way of calculating if the means of achieving the goal is effective. eg. a believer worshipping god to get to heaven
3. Traditional: customary, habitual, or routine actions. it isn’t rational as no conscious thought goes into it
4. Affectual: action that expresses emotion. eg. crying because of grief

Question 4

Evaluation of Weber’s Social Action Theory

Answer 4

• valuable for affirming the importance of understanding subjective meanings of actions
• however Schutz argues it is too individualistic and fails to explain the shared nature of meanings. eg. raising a hand at an auction means something different than raising hand in class, but Weber doesn’t explain how everyone knows the difference
• Weber’s typology of action is difficult to apply eg. when more than one of them is present
• Weber’s advocacy of verstehen (empathy) cannot actually happen because we can never truly be sure about someone else’s motives

Question 5

What is Symbolic Interactionism?

Answer 5

• focuses on ability to create the social world through our actions and interactions, seeing these actions as based on the meanings we give to situations.
• we convey the meaning through symbols such as language

Question 6

What is Mead’s idea of Symbols Versus Instincts?

Answer 6

• our behaviour isn’t shaped by fixed and pre-programmed instincts
• we respond to the world by giving meanings to the things that are significant to us
• we create a world of meanings by attaching symbols to the world
• we use an interpretive phase to respond

Question 7

What is Mead’s idea of Taking the role of the Other?

Answer 7

• we interpret the meaning of others by taking the role of the other person
• this ability develops through social interaction
• through shared symbols such as language, we become conscious of the ways of acting that others require of us

Question 8

What is Blumer’s three key principles?

Answer 8

• our actions are based on the meanings we give to situations, events, people etc.
• these meanings arise from the interaction process. they are not fixed at the outset if the interaction but are negotiable
• the meanings are result of our interpretive process

Question 9

What is Labelling Theory?

Answer 9

• the definition of something affects how we act. when people are labelled, they live up to that label
• our self concept arises from out of our ability to take the role of the other, which allows us to see ourselves how others see us - others act as a looking glass. self-fulfilling prophecy occurs and we become what people see as us. the label becomes a part of our self concept

Question 10

What is Goffman’s Dramaturgical Method?

Answer 10

• we actively construct our self by manipulating others’ impressions of us
• we are all ‘actors’ acting out our ‘scripts’
• to present a particular image we control the impression through language, tone etc.

Question 11

Evaluation of Symbolic Interactionism?

Answer 11

• ignores wider social structures such as class inequality and it fails to explain the origin of labels
• cannot explain the consistent patterns we observe in people’s behaviour
• lacks an idea of structure
• not all action is meaningful
• fails to explain how actors create meanings

Question 12

What is Phenomenology?

Answer 12

• Husserl argues the world only makes sense because we impose meaning and order on it by constructing mental categories to classify information
• we can only obtain knowledge about the world through our mental acts of categorisation and giving meaning to our experiences

Question 13

What is Schutz’s Phenomenological Sociology?

Answer 13

• applies the idea to the social world and argues that we share the categories and concepts with other people.
• typifications: meaning of experiences depend on the social context. typifications enable us to agree on the same meanings of things. this makes it possible to communicate and cooperate to achieve goals.

Question 14

Evaluation of Phenomenology

Answer 14

• Berger and Luckmann argue that Schutz society is not an inter subjective reality

Question 15

What is Ethnomethodology?

Answer 15

• Garfinkel suggests social order is created from the bottom up by member of society actively constructing.
• interested in how we produce meanings

Question 16

What is Indexicality and Reflexivity?

Answer 16

• nothing has a fixed meaning and everything depends on the context is called indexicality
• it is a threat to social order as it makes communication and cooperation more difficult
• however we use reflexivity: commonsense knowledge to construct a sense of meaning and order

Question 17

Evaluation of Ethnomethodology

Answer 17

• Caib argues its findings are of little worth
• denies the existence of a wider society
• ignores the effect of wider structures of power and inequality on meanings