1.1.3
Social Action Theories
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Action Theory
Max Weber classified human actions into four ideal categories.
Weber
- Weber argued that in order to gain a full understanding of human behaviour, sociologists should analyse the meanings behind the actions taken by the individual.
- He classified actions into four ideal categories.
- Instrumentally rational action
- Instrumentally rational action:
- How actors attempt to achieve a given goal in the most effective manner.
- Each individual aims to achieve success in different ways even if they have the same goal.
- E.g. studying for a degree to secure a good job.
- Value-rational action
- Value-rational action:
- How actors pursue a goal based on its desirability rather than its logical benefits.
- Because their desires are more important than the method of achieving the goal, the individual often does not mind how efficient the means are.
- E.g. going to university because your family want you to.
- Traditional action
- Traditional action:
- Actions that occur through custom or routine that happens because it always has done and therefore isn’t challenged.
- E.g. eating Sunday Lunch with family, or celebrating religious holidays.
- Affective action
- Affective action:
- Actions based on feelings and emotions that have no rational reasoning.
- This is the most irrational social action.
- E.g. crying at a funeral, cheering a success, or going to university because you love to learn.
Symbolic Interactionism
Individuals shape their identities based on the labels that other people attach to them.
George Mead
- Individuals shape their identities based on the labels that other people attach to them.
- Mead believed that each individual interacts with others through the use of symbols.
- For example words, facial expressions, hand gestures, etc.
Symbolic meanings
- The issue is that each symbol can have a variety of different meanings depending on who the individual is interacting with.
- Mead argued that humans do not act based on instinct like animals; instead, they have to assess the social situation by placing themselves in the place of the other person.
‘I and me’
- Mead argued that social actors experience an ‘I and me’ moment, whereby they present their ‘me’ to the outside world rather than their true selves.
- The ‘me’ is an altered version of yourself to fit your social surroundings.
Erving Goffman
- Goffman put forward the idea of the dramaturgical model.
- This is the theory that suggests that our lives are like a theatrical performance, in which we are the social actors who are constantly changing characters by moving back and forth between being upstage and backstage.
The dramaturgical model
- Our social self is an act, and therefore is a false representation of ourselves that is designed to appeal to that particular social audience.
- He refers to this as ‘impression management’.
- Goffman argues that each individual has a public persona, a version of themselves that they want the world to see.
The ‘looking-glass self’
- Charles Cooley’s study of the ‘looking-glass self’ believes that this is how individuals form their own view of themselves; essentially internalising the labels that their social audience places upon them.
- He calls this the ‘self-concept’.
- By doing this, the individual starts to view themselves in a different way and therefore becomes the label that they have had imposed upon them.
1Theory & Methods
1.1Sociological Theories
1.2Sociological Methods
2Education with Methods in Context
2.1Role & Function of the Education System
2.2Educational Achievement
2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools
3Option 1: Culture & Identity
3.1Conceptions of Culture
3.2Identity & Socialisation
3.3Social Identity
3.4Production, Consumption & Globalisation
4Option 1: Families & Households
4.1Families & Households
4.2Changing Patterns
4.3The Symmetrical Family
4.4Children & Childhood
5Option 1: Health
5.1Social Constructions
5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare
5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare
5.4Mental Health
6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare
6.1Poverty & Wealth
7Option 2: Beliefs in Society
7.1Ideology, Science & Religion
7.2Religious Movements
7.3Society & Religion
8Option 2: Global Development
8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality
8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations
8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
9Option 2: The Media
9.1Contemporary Media
9.2Media Representations
10Crime & Deviance
10.1Crime & Society
10.2Social Distribution of Crime
Jump to other topics
1Theory & Methods
1.1Sociological Theories
1.2Sociological Methods
2Education with Methods in Context
2.1Role & Function of the Education System
2.2Educational Achievement
2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools
3Option 1: Culture & Identity
3.1Conceptions of Culture
3.2Identity & Socialisation
3.3Social Identity
3.4Production, Consumption & Globalisation
4Option 1: Families & Households
4.1Families & Households
4.2Changing Patterns
4.3The Symmetrical Family
4.4Children & Childhood
5Option 1: Health
5.1Social Constructions
5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare
5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare
5.4Mental Health
6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare
6.1Poverty & Wealth
7Option 2: Beliefs in Society
7.1Ideology, Science & Religion
7.2Religious Movements
7.3Society & Religion
8Option 2: Global Development
8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality
8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations
8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
9Option 2: The Media
9.1Contemporary Media
9.2Media Representations
10Crime & Deviance
10.1Crime & Society
10.2Social Distribution of Crime
Practice questions on Social Action Theories
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- 1Types of social action (Weber):Fill in the list
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