Social Action Theory

Question 1

Max Weber

Answer 1

Structure and action are necessary and full sociology explanation of human behaviour involves 2 levels :
The levels of cause= the objective structural factors that shape people’s behaviour and the level of meaning = understanding the objective meanings that individuals attach to their actions
We must understand actors subjective meanings if we want to understand adequately

Question 2

Weber - four types of action

Answer 2

Instrumentally rational action= the actor calculates the most efficient means of achieving a goal
Value - rational action = involves action towards a goal that the actor regards as desirable for its own sake
Traditional action = involves customary, routine or habitual actions
Affectual action = action that expresses emotion, important in religious and political movements with charismatic leaders

Question 3

Evaluation of Weber

Answer 3

Schultz - argues that Weber’s view of action is too individualistic and cannot explain the shared nature of meanings

Question 4

Weber - verstehen

Answer 4

We put ourselves in the actors place to understand their motives and meanings

Question 5

Herbert Blumer

Answer 5

Identified 3 principles:

• actions are based on meanings we give to people and events
• these meanings arise out of interactions
• the meanings we give result from the interpretive procedures we use

Question 6

Labelling theory

Answer 6

Definition of the situation = giving a label to the scenario i.e if a teacher defines the situation as a consequence of poor behaviour they act in accordance to that
The looking glass self - Cooley - by internalising how others see us to form our self concept we become what others see us ( self fulfilling prophecy)
Career- Becker extended the concept from occupational roles to others, just as our career can give us our status so can ‘criminal’, ‘patient’ because our ‘master status’

Question 7

Erving Goffman

Answer 7

Describes how we actively construct our self by manipulation people’s impressions of us
We are all actors playing out scripts and using props in performances in an effort to convince our audiences
2 key concepts are ‘ the presentation of self’ and ‘impression management’ . As social actors we monitor the reaction of our audiences and adjust ourselves in light of this

Question 8

Evaluation of symbolic interactionism

Answer 8

Loose collection of descriptive concepts such as labelling and Gofman’s
Fails to explain the origin of labels - Reynolds sent a questionnaire to 124 interactions - 84 responded. Asked to identify essential concepts the most popular were role and interaction
It cannot explain the consistent patterns observed in behaviour - functionalists argue that these are the result of norms dictating behaviour + not all action is meaningful

Question 9

Ethnomethodology

Answer 9

Specialised interpretivists approach that aims to analyse how people construct and make sense of routine social activity by uncovering the common sense rules taht govern all social interactions