social action theory/interactionalism Flashcards
(9 cards)
social action theory - weber
argues we need to apply structural and action approaches to understand human behaviour - the structural events that cause the event and the meaning an individual gives to it e.g. calvinists gave meaning to their religion so they had a protestant work ethic and the natural resources which led to the development of capitalism
we should avoid overgeneralised theories as we are all individuals with free will, not passive puppets e.g. willis’ lads didn’t just submit to the capitalist ideology, instead they fought against it
social action theory AO3
functionalism argues we have shared behaviours due to the norms and values of society dictating our behaviour, this leads to a collective consensus e.g. religious rituals such as totemism binds people together
symbolic interactionism - mead
focuses on our ability to create the social world through actions and interactions, especially the meanings we give to these situations through symbols as opposed to being taught by large institutions such as education and the media
we have free will to respond to behaviour or signs using an interpretive phase - before we know how to respond to a stimuli we need to interpret its meaning to respond accordingly = dependent on context and how someone interprets that behaviour
we often take the role of the other to interpret meanings, which is developed through social interaction e.g. children may play parents or teachers which teaches them to be loving or kind
symbolic interactionism AO3
functionalism argues without the socialisation from the family, children wouldn’t learn the norms and values of society or important behaviours such as sharing and manners
the dramaturgical analogy - goffman
in society we all have and take on different roles, based on the expectations of others - this leads to us actively constructing ourselves by manipulating other people’s impressions of us
we constantly watch our performance and adjust accordingly, leading to two settings for our interactions - frontstage and backstage e.g. a teacher acting professional in school as their frontstage and change behaviours with friends and family as their backstage
in the case of social media, the frontstage includes only showing the good parts of their lives or using filters. the backstage includes not showing anything bad
the dramaturgical analogy AO3
radical feminism argues that not all women can perform backstage at home - oakley argues women are forced into a oppressive housewife role via the triple shift, meaning there is no place for them to be themselves since they’re constantly performing the frontstage as a mother and wife
labelling theory - becker
we define situations and people by labelling them, these labels can affect the way we act either in that situation or in general as they often lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
in education, working-class and ethnic minority students are often labelled negatively by their teachers - this leads to them fulfilling that label and underachieving in education
the police hold typifications/expectations of ethnic minority groups - this leads to black men being 7x more likely to be stopped and searched
labelling theory - cooley
focuses more on the looking glass self - this helps us develop our self-concept, by looking at how other people view us and taking on that role
these labels lead to a self fulfilling prophecy, whereby they become our master status or our main label
labelling theory AO3
marxism argues labelling theory doesn’t explain the origins of these labels e.g. the negative labels pushed onto the working-class stem from the bourgeoisies’ exploitation of them
