SOCIAL ACTION THEORY Flashcards
1
Q
Symbols versus Instincts (G.H.Mead)
A
- We give meanings to things that are significant to us by attaching symbols.
- When approached by something, we interpret its meaning and then choose how to respond.
2
Q
Taking the role of the other (G.H. Mead)
A
- We put ourselves in the other persons shoes to interpret others meanings.
- Begins with imitative play as a child.
3
Q
Hebert Blumers 3 Key Principles
A
- Our actions are based on meanings we give to situations, events and people.
- Meanings arise from the interactive process, negotiable and changeable.
- The meanings we give to situations are the result of the interpretive procedures we use.
4
Q
Definition of a situation: Labelling
A
- Thomas if we define something as real
- it will have real consequences because how we view something changes our actions.
5
Q
The looking glass self: Labelling
A
- Cooley we develop self concept by looking at how others respond to us and adapting to this.
6
Q
Career: Labelling
A
Becker : an individual with a mental illness runs from pre-patient, to being labelled by a psychiatrist, to hospital in-patient to being discharged. Problems may be reintegration into society..
7
Q
What is Goffman’s Dramaturgical Model?
A
- Impression Management: study, monitor NS adjust our performance towards others e.g. Language, tone of voice, gestures, etc.
- Allows us to pass for the kind of person we want our audience to believe.
- Roles: the gap between who we are and the roles we play.
8
Q
Evaluation of symbolic Interactionism
A
- Not all action is meaningful
- e.g. Webers traditional action
- Reynolds 85 interactionists answers a questionnaire.
- The most popular concepts were role, self and Interaction. Only two chose power and class which structural sociologists see as crucial.
- Ignores wider social structures and doesn’t explain the origins of the labels.
9
Q
What is Hursserls philosophy?
A
- The world only makes sense due to our classifications and categories we give to it coming from our senses.
- The world is essentially a product of our mind.
10
Q
Typifications - Schutz
A
- A typification is a shared category and they allow us to share meaning
- e.g. Raising your hand in class versus at an auction.
11
Q
What is recipe knowledge?
A
Knowing something means the same to ourselves and another.
12
Q
The Natural Attitude (Schutz)
A
- Society appears real with those involved sharing the same meanings in order to cooperate and achieve goals.
- Berger and Luckmann although the reality is social constructed, it eventually becomes external reacting back at us
- e.g. Structures such as the church which change laws that were once just our consciousness.
13
Q
Garfinkel (1967)
A
- Members in society construct social order.
14
Q
Experiments in Disrupting Social Order
A
- Aimed to disrupt people’s social order to demonstrate that it is participant produced.
- Some children acted as lodgers and their parents became bewildered, anxious, embarrassed or angry leading to the claim that their child was being nasty or ill.
15
Q
Suicide and Reflexivity
A
- From experience we have connected suicide with someone that is mentally ill
- Durkheim used official statistics which are essentially data of coroners using their commonsense knowledge about what kind of people commit suicide.
16
Q
Evaluation of Ethnomethodology
A
- Craib: information retrieved is no surprise to anyone.
- e.g. They found in one study that during a phone call, one person speaks at a time.
- Suggests everyone creates order and meaning through identifying patterns and producing explanations that are fictions. No reason why this doesn’t apply to theory itself.
- Ignores influence of wider structures of power and inequality on meanings that individuals construct.
17
Q
What is Giddens Structuration Action Theory?
A
- Action and structure exist in duality, and cannot exist without each other.
- For example; with using language, in order for it to be understood, we must obey it’s rules (structure).
- But if we didn’t use it, it wouldn’t exist (action).
18
Q
What two elements does structure have?
A
Resources and rules
19
Q
How are these elements used?
A
- Society contains knowledge about how to live our lives
- e.g. We must shop for food using resources in the form of money.
- We prefer a stable and predictable society which means less focus on change.
20
Q
Change of Structure through Agency
A
- We reflexively monitor our actions and their results which we are able to change an take a new course of action.
- Our actions may change the world with unintended consequences.
21
Q
Evaluation of Giddens
A
- Archer (1995) underestimated the capacity of structures to resist change e.g. Slaves wanting to abolish slavery but had a lack of power.
- Craib: isn’t a theory due to lack of explanation and more of a description. Also does not explain how this would apply to large scale structures.
