Action Theories Flashcards
(9 cards)
What are action theories
- focus on individual actions, meanings and choices rather than social structures
- they ask why do people do what they do and what meanings do they give their actions
Key features - micro approach, look at small scale everyday interactions
- emphasis free will, choice and individual meanings
Opposite structural theories like functionalism and Marxism
What does Weber say - social action theory
- to gain a full understanding of human behaviour, the sociological explanation involves two levels: the levels of cause and the level of meaning
Weber identified four types of action associated with human behaviour
- instrumentally rational action, the actor calculated the most efficient means of achieving a given goal
- value rational action, action towards a goal that is desirable for ones owns sake
- traditional action, customs, habitual action, which are often automatic
- affectual action, action which expresses emotion
Symbolic internationalism - labelling theory
The two concepts
- the definition of the situation, if we attach a label to something, it will affect the way we act and had real life consequences ( Thomas )
- the looking self glass, self concept comes from the ability to take the role of the other. This allows us to see ourselves as others see us. This leads to self fulfilling prophecy as we become as others see us
Symbolic internationalism - mead
- we create our world through actions and interactions, which are based on meanings we give to situations
- our behaviour is not fixed
- when something happens, we embark on a interpretive phase before responding to it, in order to select an appropriate response ( eg someone makes a hand gesture, you interpret if it’s out of anger or as a joke )
- we work out meanings by taking the role of other - to function in society, we must see ourselves as others do which helps us to share symbols and language to act as others require us to
Symbolic internationalism - blumer
There are three key principles to our actions
- our actions are based on meanings we give to situations and are not instinctive
- these meanings come from the interaction process, they are not fixed and are changeable to an extent
- the meanings we give to situations are dependent on the interpretive process we use, especially by taking the role of the other
Symbolic internationalism - goffman
Elements of goffmans dramaturgical model :
- actively constructing ourselves through manipulating others impressions of ourselves
- uses the analogy of drama to analyse social interaction, we are actors who use scripts and props with the aim of giving a convincing performance
- we seek to control the presentation of self - giving people a particular impression of us
- our roles are interchangeable, there are backstage roles where we can be ourselves, and front stage roles where we act out roles
Phenomenolgy - Schultz
- Typifications - categories and concepts shared with other members of society
- typifications allows us to stabilise meaning and make sure we agree in meanings of things, which make it possible to cooperate and communicate
- without typifications, social order would not be possible
Phenomenology - husserl
- we never have definite knowledge of what the world out side our mind is really like - only what our sense tells us is about it. The world only makes sense because we classify and clarify information into mental categories. We can only get knowledge through the process if categorising
Ethnomethodolgy - Garfinkel
- Social order is created from the bottom up, order and meaning are therefore an accomplishment, something members actively construct in every day life using common sense knowledge
- ethnomethodology is therefore different to internationalism because it does not focus on the effect of meanings , but instead how meanings were created in the first place
- garfinkel belives in indexicality - nothing has a fixed meaning, its depends on the social context
