theory and methods - social action/interpretivism

Question 1

What are the different branches of social action theory?

Answer 1

• symbolic interactionism = looking glass self, dramaturgical, labelling
• ethnomethodology/ phenomenology

Question 2

What is meant by verstehen?

Answer 2

you cannot just observe human behaviour, you must put yourself in their position

Question 3

What do social action theorists argue about social phenomenons?

Answer 3

they are socially constructed - only when someone defines something as real does it become real e.g. crime

Question 4

What is meant by free will?

Answer 4

• people choose what they want to do and form their own identities
• their behaviour is viewed as driven by beliefs, meanings, feelings and emotions

Question 5

How do social action theories analyse society?

Answer 5

• by addressing the subjective meanings that people give to objects, events, and behaviours

Question 6

What is a criticism of the social action approach?

Answer 6

• neglects the macro level of social interpretation and focuses too closely on people rather than structures

Question 7

Who founded symbolic interactionism?

Answer 7

Mead

Question 8

Who developed symbolic interactionism?

Answer 8

Blumer

Question 9

What are the three basic features of symbolic interactionism, according to Blumer?

Answer 9

1. people attach meanings to symbols and behave accordingly
2. meanings can change during the course of interaction
3. we have to work out who we re dealing with, how they think and what they want from us

Question 10

Who develops the concept of the looking glass self?

Answer 10

Cooley

Question 11

What is meant by the looking glass self?

Answer 11

• an image of ourselves is reflected back at us through others
• we modify/change our behaviour
• our identities are socially constructed

Question 12

Who founded the labelling theory?

Answer 12

Becker

Question 13

What is meant by labelling theory?

Answer 13

• people label others
• leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 14

Who applied the dramaturgical model?

Answer 14

Goffman

Question 15

What is meant by the dramaturgical model?

Answer 15

• we are constantly managing the impression we give to others
• we manipulate others’ impressions of us and we are manipulated by others to see what they want us to see

Question 16

Who is associated with ethnomethodology?

Answer 16

Garfinkel

Question 17

What is ethnomethodology?

Answer 17

• methods of interpretative procedure used by people to make sense of and construct order in their everyday world
• Garfinkel sought to expose people’s assumptions by using breaching experiments, testing people’s reactions to sudden changes in the interaction with others in familiar situations

Question 18

What is phenomenology?

Answer 18

• all thinking and reality happens in our minds - we can only describe things as they appear to our senses
• we can never really know what the world outside of our minds is really like
• ‘phenomena’ = things are held to have characteristics and are assigned to a category in our minds

Question 19

What did Husserl argue?

Answer 19

the world only makes senses when we put our own meaning to it

Question 20

What did Schultz argue?

Answer 20

• we share concepts with others (typifications) and when we have learned these shared meanings we are able to communicate with others