Theories - Symbolic Interactionism Flashcards
Mead
Human interaction is symbolic
our human behaviour is a response to the meanings we’ve attached to the world. We dont respond instictively to stimulu, we interpret meaning before choosing a response
Mead - taking the role of the other
we take the role of the other to interpret other people’s meanings, seeing ourselves & behaviour through other’s eyes to determine how to respond to stimuli & this develops interactions
-we need this ability to see ourselves how others see us to function in society.
Blumer (1900-87) developing mead’s ideas
symbolic interactionism is based on 3 premises
- our actions based off of meanings we give to situations, events, etc
- meanings are based on interactions and experiences
-meanings then modified through an interpretive process by the person dealing with the things they encounter
Labelling theory - Thomas’ defenition of the self
If a situation is defined as real then it’ll have real consequences - if we believe something is true then that belief will affect how we act, leading to consequences
Labelling theory - Cooley’s looking glass self
our idea of who we are depends on being able to take the role of the other & others are a ‘looking glass’.
We see ourselves mirrored in how people respond to us & when we become what others see us as, self fulfilling prophecy occurs
Labelling theory - Becker/Lemert career
the stages somebody goes through with different status’ and problems, applied to diff contexts like crime (someone labelled as a criminal then it becomes their master status)
Evaluations
-Avoids determinism like structural theories - people create society through their choices/meanings
-Ignores structural theories like class, race, may impact on how people creating meanings and the labels they attach
- Cooley - ignores prejudice & discrimination that may influence individuals perceptions of themselves through other people’s eyes
Social action theory - Weber (1844-1920)
Verstehen (empathy) is crucial in understanding human action and social change. We can make basic generalisation about the motivation for actions.
Certain groups or societies encourage some general types of motivation & so structure still shapes human action
Weber - the level of cause and meaning
to truly understand how people operate we must look at structural behaviour that shape people’s behaviour (cause) and the meanings individuals attach to actions (meaning)
Weber - four types of action
Instrumental rational - calculation of the most efficient means of achieving a goal no matter what the goal is
Value-rational - unsure if their action is the most efficient but the goal is too desirable
Traditional - Actions done due to them being a traditional way of doing it that they’ve always done
Affectual - Actions that express emotion e.g crying from grief or charisma to attract electoral voters
Evals of Weber
Schutz - Too individualistic & cant explain nature of shared meanings e.g someone raising their arm at an auction, means they want to make a bid but Weber doesnt recognise that everyone else there will give that action the same meaning
Ideas of action may be too difficult to apply and can apply to more than one action (christmas presents being exchanged)
Giddens’ structuration theory
Duality of structure - structure cannot exist without action as through actions we produce structure however structures make our actions possible in the first place and so they’re dependant on each other.
Eval of Giddens
-bridges the gap between structure and action theories
- however Archer argues he underestimates the power of structures to resist change through action e.g slaves wishing to abolish slavery but arent given the power to do
