Social Action theories (advanced info)

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  • Created by: ssaidi23
  • Created on: 17-04-22 11:57
What are social action theories
Theories that focus upon the meaning and interpretations that individuals assign to actions
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What are 5 examples of social action theories
- Social action theory
- Symbolic interactionalism
- Labelling theory
- Phenomenology
- Ethnomethodology
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Who spoke about social action theory
Max Weber
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What are the 3 actions Weber suggests people act upon
1 - Affective action
2 - Traditional action
3 - Rational action
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What is affective action
Based upon emotional factors such as individuals state of mind
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What is traditional action
Routine or habitual actions that are done without thought or choice
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What is rational action
Individuals ability to assess the costs + benefits of an action and whether or not this benefitted them.
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What does micro approach mean
That the sociologist are looking at the individuals in society and how they shape the world around them
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Define verstehen
Means empathy. To understand social groups you have to be able to walk in their shoes.
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Explain what the two levels of sociological explanations are (cause and meaning)
cause - explaining the structural factors that shape peoples behaviour
meaning - understanding the subjective meanings that individuals attach to their actions
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What did Weber believe you needed in order to fully understand society
A combination of both structural and action approaches
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Evaluation of Weber
- His view of action is to individualistic and doesnt explain shared nature of meanings
- It is difficult to apply these ideas as meanings can be misinterpreted
- It is never truly possible to put yourself into another persons shoes meaning cant understa
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Who are the four key thinkers for symbolic interactionism
Mead, Blumer, Cooley, Goffman
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What did Mead say
Taking on the role of others means putting oneself in the place of the other person and seeing ourselves as they see us
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How do we take on the role of others
Through the process of social interaction
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Who spoke about the looking glass self and what is it
Cooley
It is the way that we develop our self-concept
Links to self-fulfilling prophecy where we become what others see us as
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Who spoke about the Dramaturgical model and what is it
Goffman
Combination of presentation of self, impression management and roles
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What is presentation of self
(front stage self and back stage)
Front stage self is the act we put on for other people, where we spend most of our lives

Back stage is private place where we can truly be ourselves and prepare to return to front stage
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What is impression management
The use of language, gestures, body language and props to help us pass for the type of person that we want the audience to see.
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What are the key principals of symbolic interactionism that Blumer talks about
- our actions are based on the meanings we give to situations
- these meanings are based on the interactions we have experienced
- the meanings we give to situations are the result of interpretive procedures we use such as taking on role of others
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Evaluation of symbolic interactionism
- Not all action is meaningful
- Fails to explain who the actors create the meanings
- Fails to explain origin of labels
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Who spoke about phenomenology
Schultz
The idea that society is made up of people
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Define typificiations
the shared categories that help us to organise the experiences and world around us.
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What do typificiations do
Help us stabilise and clarify meanings by ensuring that we are all speaking the same language and agree on the meanings of things
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What does life world mean
What is considered common sense knowledge. Includes common assumptions about the way things are and what certain situations mean
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Evaluation of phenomenology
Agree that it is right to focus on the common sense knowledge but disagree with the idea that reality is an inter-subjective reality.
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What sociologist speaks about ethnomethodology and what is he interested in
Garfinkel
In how people construct the common sense knowledge
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What does ethnomethodology studies
the process of creating the meanings by which we make sense of the world and the rules/methods used to create the meanings
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What is social order created from
the members of society creating and applying common sense knowledge to their everyday lives
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What does indexicality mean
Nothing has a fixed meaning; everything is dependent on context
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What does reflexicality mean
the use of common sense knowledge to interpret everyday situations
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What are breaching experiments
Where Garfinkel got his students to act as lodgers in their own home and alter their behaviour from the ordinary son/daughter.
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What is breaching experiments purpose
Experiments aim to disrupt peoples sense of order and challenge their reflexivity by undermining assumptions about a situation
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What did Garfinkel conclude?
By challenging the taken for granted assumptions, he was able to show that the orderliness of everyday situations is not fixed.
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Evaluation of ethnomethodology
Functionalists would argue that norms and values are not fiction but social fact
Marxists would argue that the "shred common sense knowledge" is in fact the ruling class ideology
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What are 5 examples of social action theories

Back

- Social action theory
- Symbolic interactionalism
- Labelling theory
- Phenomenology
- Ethnomethodology

Card 3

Front

Who spoke about social action theory

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What are the 3 actions Weber suggests people act upon

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is affective action

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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