Social Action theories Flashcards
are social action theories macro or micro theories
- social action theories are micro theories
what is a micro theory
- looking and interpreting society through how individuals interact
- prefer qualitative methods, e.g. interviews
what is Weber’s theory about
- humans have free will
- understanding why people do things is essential
- we should try to gain an empathetic understanding of individuals (Verstehen)
- accepts that structures exist which have influence
- there is a level of cause + a level of meaning
define Weber’s term ‘Verstehen’
- Verstehen = an empathetic understanding of individuals
outline Weber’s idea of the level of cause + level of meaning
- the level of cause: the influence from structures
- the level of meaning: the individual’s meaning attached to their action
what is the name of Weber’s case study
- the Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism
outline Weber’s case study ‘Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism’
- Calvinists are a branch of Christians who lead an ascetic lifestyle (shunning luxury/ material goods)
- they’ve interpreted the bible as having to work for God - working very hard + for long hours, thus leading to accumulated wealth
- this gave them the idea that they were in gods favour - so continued living this way; saving money, reinvesting in their businesses, making more profit etc
- this led to the modern spirit of capitalism - generating money for the sake of generating more money
name Weber’s 4 types of action
- instrumentally rational
- value rational
- traditional
- affectual
explain Weber’s instrumentally rational action
- where the actor calculates a most efficient means of achieving a goal
- e.g. a capitalist would calculate that the most efficient way to maximize profits is low wages
explain Weber’s value rational action
- action towards a goal that is desirable for their own sake but is not certain
- e.g. a believer worshiping their God in order to enter heaven
explain Weber’s traditional action
- customary, routine or habitual action - no conscious choice or thought has gone into it
- e.g. saying ‘bless you’ to someone who has sneezed
explain Weber’s affectual action
- actions that express emotion
- e.g. sobbing out of grief
what is an internal AO3 evaluation of Weber’s social action theory
- true micro theorists believe social structures are a social construct and shouldn’t have a role in the analysis of individual behaviour
what is an AO3 evaluation of Weber’s social action theory
- Schutz: Weber’s view of action is too individualistic (doesn’t consider wider society) and fails to explain the shared nature meanings
outline Mead’s theory of Symbolic Interactionism
- micro theory - people make society
- Mead: our behaviour isn’t fixed, but are pre-programmed instincts
- the ‘self’ is constructed through interactions of which are constantly modified through learned signs + symbols
- we create meanings by attaching symbols to it
- sociologists need to understand the development of self (through interactions)
- ‘taking the role of the other’
outline Mead’s cycle of symbolic interactionism
(with no start or end)
- → society → symbols → establish meanings → develop their views → communicate with each other
who are the 2 theorists who add onto Meads theory
- Cooley
- Blumer
what does Blumer add onto Mead’s theory
social interaction has 3 key principles:
1) our actions are based on the meanings we give to situations/events/people
2) these meanings are based on interactions we have experienced and aren’t fixed
3) these meanings that an ind has created + recreated through a process of interpretation that happens whenever inds interact with each other
what are the 3 key interactionist concepts in the labelling theory
- the definition of the situation
- the looking glass self
- career
what does Thomas say about the definition of the situation
- Thomas: we assign labels to people then treat them according to the labels (definition of the situation)
- as a reulst we often take on a ‘master status’
- e.g. if people define a situation as real, it will then have real consequences
- e.g. if a teacher labels a student as ‘troublesome’, the teacher will act differently towards the pupil
what does Cooley add onto Mead’s theory
- Cooley: the looking glass self: the idea that our image is reflected back to us + inds act accordingly - we become what others see us as
- our self comes from the ability of taking the role of the other
- socialisation is actively constructed by our interactions with others (‘symbolic interaction’)
- through the looking glass self, the label becomes part of the individuals self concept, by taking on its role
outline the career in the labelling theory
- Thomas: a career is the stages of labelling through which an individual progresses their occupation
- labelling theorists such as Becker and Lemert apply the concept to groups
- e.g. for mental illness, an individual progresses through a career from pre patient, mentally ill, undergoing treatment, discharged - each stage has its own status + problems
outline Goffman’s dramaturgical model
- describes how we actively construct our self by manipulating others impressions of us
- Goffman does this through analogies of drama as a framework for analysing social interaction
- we are all actors acting out scripts, using props, resting backstage, between performances that we present to our audiences
outline Goffman’s concept of impression management
- 2 dramaturgical concepts are: the presentation of self and impression management
- we control the impression of our performance to present a particular image of ourselves
- we do this by constantly monitoring our audience + their reactions
outline the techniques for impression management
- language, tone, facial expressions, props, settings
outline the different settings and interactions in the dramaturgical analogy
- in theatre, there is a front stage, where we act out our roles and a back stage, where we can step out of our roles
- e.g. the classroom is the front stage where a individual puts on a performance for the teacher
how does Goffman view roles compared to Functionalists
- whilst functionalists view roles as tightly scripted/ formed by society, Goffman rejects this view and argues there is a role distance (gap) between our real selves + our roles
- they are only loosely scripted by society
outline 3 evaluations of symbolic interactionism
- symbolic interactionism ignores wider social structures such as class inequality
- unlike functionalism, it cant explain the consistent patterns we observe in peoples behaviour (Funcs argue patterns are the result of norms dictating behaviour)
- not all actions are meaningful and conscious - Weber outlines traditional action (action performed routinely and so has little meaning)
(phenomenology) what is Husserl’s phenomenology
- we can only make sense of the world by categorising/ filing information so we can make sense + giving meaning to experiences/ the world
- e.g. a four legged furniture for eating off of is categorised as a table
(phenomenology) outline Schutz’s typifications
- Schutz develops Husserl’s theory + adds that categories are shared + are called typifications
- typifications enable us to organise our experiences into a world of shared meaning + define society
- meaning isnt given by the action but by its context - experiences vary depending on its social context
- typifications stabilise and clarify meaning - without it social order wouldn’t be possible
- these ‘common sense’ knowledge about the world is the world we create - as we change our typifications, the world changes too
outline Schutz’s ‘recipe knowledge’
- members of society have a shared life world - shared typifications/ knowledge that are used to make sense of our experiences
what do Berger and Luckmann say
- whilst Schutz is right to focus on common sense knowledge - they reject his view that society is an inter-subjective reality
- although reality is socially constructed, once constructed it becomes an external reality that reacts back on us
what type of theorist is Garkfinel
- ethnomethodologist
how does Parsons argue that social order is created
- through a shared value system into which we are socialised
how does Garfinkel argue that social order is created
- social order is created from the bottom up
- social order is an accomplishment - something people actively construct in their daily lives
outline Garkinel’s ‘indexicality’
- nothing has a fixed meaning - its dependent on the context + every meaning is potentially unclear, we use reflexivity (common sense knowledge) to help us understand society
- indexicality is a threat to social order as if meaning is unclear, communication + social relationships can break down
outline Garfinkel’s ‘reflexivity’
- reflexivity enables us to behave as if meanings are fixed
- it refers to how we use common sense in everyday life to construct meaning/ to avoid indexicality
- language is vital to achieve reflexivity as our descriptions create reality
outline Garfinkel’s experiments to disrupt social order
- Garfinkel + his students conducted a series of ‘breaching experiments’
- e.g. acting as a lodger with your family (being polite - at a distance)
- this disrupted peoples sense of order - e.g. the parents became anxious, embarrassed
outline Garfinkel’s view of suicide
- in reflection of the methods used to achieve reflexivity;
- in suicide; coroners identify cause of death form the possible known facts about deaths from suicide - e.g. mental health, employment status
- they use this info to conclude if the death was a suicide
outline 3 AO3 evaluations of ethnomethodology
- Craib: its findings are trivial (vague) as EMs focus on uncovering unknown rules that are no surprise to anyone. e.g. during a phone call - typically only one person speaks at a time
- EMs ignore how structures of power + inequality affect individual’s meanings
- Marx: ‘common sense knowledge’ is simply ruling class ideology imposed on society to maintain capitalism
outlines Giddens concept of a duality of structure
- structure + action (agency) are the same and co-dependent
Giddens: define structuration
- structuration = our actions produce + reproduce structures whilst these structures are what make our actions possible
Giddens: what is an example of structuration
- e.g. Language: the structure of grammar rules govern how we express meaning. grammar exists independently but controls our actions - if we want to communicate, we must follow the rules of grammar
Giddens: outline the reproduction of structures through agency
- structure has 2 elements: rules (norms that govern action) + resources (money, power)
- these 2 elements can be produced + reproduced through agency/ action - typically action reproduces existing structures
Giddens: what are the 2 reasons that action reproduce structures
1) society contains knowledge on how to live (rules). similarly we use resources (e.g. money) to live; thus our routine reproduces structures
2) also, due to our need for ‘ontological security’, we reproduce structures through action as it encourages action that maintains structures
Giddens: what is ontological security
- ontological security = a need to feel that our world is as it appears to be - especially stable
what are the 2 reasons why action/ agency can change structures
- we reflexively monitor our own action in which we can deliberately choose a new course of action. this is more common in modern society, as tradition has less influence over our actions
- secondly, our actions may have unintended consequences. e.g. in Weber’s study of Calvinists, their work ethic was intended to glorify God - but unintentionally created modern capitalism
outline 2 evaluations of Giddens
- actors can change structures simply by deciding to. Archer critiques this as G. underestimates the capacity of structures to resist change
- Craib also argues that G. fails to unite structure + action as he fails to apply his ideas to large scale structures
outline an example of Schutz’s recipe knowledge
- when someone visits a restaurant, they already “know” how to behave (e.g., wait to be seated, order from a menu, pay at the end)
- they don’t need to consciously analyse every step—it’s habitual knowledge
what research method is used by symbolic interactionists
- symbolic interactionists (Blumer, Mead, Cooley) require a diff type of research method in order to gain an understanding of why people interact the way they do - e.g. student-teacher interaction
- they have developed ‘interpretivist research methodology’ which are qualitative RMs that help gain an understanding about meanings given to social situations
outline West + Zimmerman’s idea of ‘doing gender’
- West + Zimmerman: masculinity + femininity are developed concepts from repeated, patterned interaction + socialisation
- gender, rather than being an internal state of being, is a result of interaction according to symbolic interactionists
what is a Marxist critique of phenomenology
- the concept of typifications is critiques by Marxists, who say that there aren’t agreed meanings, but a forced hegemony
