Social Action Theories

if structural theories are macro, what are social action theories

micro

how do social action theories regard individuals

as having agency

what do social action theories focus on

individual behaviour, interactions, and meanings

what are the different social action theories

interpretivism, interactionism, ethnomethodology, the dramaturgical analogy, labelling

what methodology do social action theories tend to use

interpretivist methodology

what methodology is the opposite to the interpretivist methoodlogy

the positivist methodology

what does the interpretivist methodology prioritise

* qualitative data
* validity
* verstehen
* subjectivity

what does the positivist methodology prioritise

* quantitative data
* reliability
* objectivity
* forming social facts or generalisations about society

what structural theory is less likely to use the positivist methodology, and give an example of how it has used an interpretivist methodology

feminism, because it sees the positivist methodology of emotional distancing too malestream; Oakley created verstehen in her study ‘From Here to Maternity’, by becoming ‘collaborative friends’ with her participants

what is an example of when a social action theorist has not used the interpretivist methodology

Weber used the comparative method for his protestant ethics study, which is a positivist method

what can structural theories be criticised for

being too deterministic

what can social action theories be criticised for

ignoring structural influences on behaviour

what do social action theories understand from the fact we live in a diverse society

people’s behaviour is driven by their beliefs and everyone sees situations uniquely, meaning they interpret the same situation differently - meanings behind behaviour are unique and thus society should be studied on a micro basis

who is associated with symbolic interactionism

Blumer (1922)

who is associated with the looking glass self

Cooley (1922)

who is associated with the dramaturgical analogy

Goffman (1969)

who is associated with labelling theory, master status, and career

Becker (1963)

who is associated with ethnomethodology and the people’s experiment

Garfinkel (1967 & 1984)

what two ideas come under symbolic interactionism

labelling theory and the dramaturgical analogy

what is symbolic interactionism

an approach that sees society as shaped by interactions between people that take place on the basis of shared meanings held by individuals; according to Blumer symbolic interactionism has three features

what are the three features of symbolic interactionism (Blumer)

* people act in terms of symbols - the meanings we attach to objects, words, expressions, or gestures
* these meanings develop out of interactions between individuals and can change during the course of an interaction
* meanings arise from people trying to understand how they are seen by others, as we are always internalising how others see us (this is similar to labelling)

what is an example of an application of symbolic interactionism

the cross is often just a piece of jewellery, but through interaction and people trying to express their identity it has become a symbol of religious identity

how would symbolic interactionism see religion

as socially constructed

what are the three key concepts that underpin labelling theory

* the definition of the situation
* the looking glass self
* the career

what is the definition of the situation

a definition of something is its label and can affect how we act, which has consequences for those involved; in society only some people have the power to define situations

how is the labelling theory somewhat similar to structural theories

it recognises that in society, only some people have the power to define situations, and this can be seen as those in power in oppressive situations (men or the ruling class)

what is the looking glass self

the idea that we see ourselves mirrored in the ways others respond to us and as such our labels become part of our self-concept and a self-fulfilling prophecy is created

what is an example of research that counters the looking glass self

Fuller’s study on black girls in education as self-negating prophecies

what is the career

how you act out your self-concept

Jock Young on the career

Young applied this concept to marijuana smoking hippies and found that once this action had been labelled by the police as deviant, hippies became stigmatised and thus further isolated from society, so began to smoke marijuana more and more

how can Jock’s idea of the career be applied to education

labelling someone as a bad student will isolate them from education and so they will form an anti-school subculture, so labelling directly correlates to the lowering of grades

what functionalist idea could it be argued needs to happen in order for the career/ self-fulfilling prophecies not to happen

social integration

whose idea was social integration

Parsons

if mental illness is a label and only certain people can define situations, how can this be abused

black people are more likely to be labelled as mentally ill, which can result in them being sectioned wrongfully

how do labelling theorists see mental illness

as a social construct

what did Rosenhan study

the process of labelling someone as mentally ill in his study ‘Sane in Insane Places’, by sending his students to a psychiatric hospital, feigning hallucinations to see if they would be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders

what happened after Rosenhan’s study ‘Sane in Insane Places’

a second psychiatric hospital challenged Rosenhan to send them his students and they would be able to detect them; of the 193 sent, only 41 were identified

what is the dramaturgical analogy

the idea that we do not have set roles, and society is performative - we play different roles at different times and these involve props, costumes, and scripts

what can the dramaturgical analogy be a criticism of

the organic analogy

using the example of a teacher, what would the props, costume, and script be according to the dramaturgical analogy

* props: pens, books, marking, laptop
* costume: formal dress code
* elaborated language code

how can the dramaturgical analogy be related to labelling

the dramaturgical analogy’s commentary on scripts suggests that people are expected to code switch, but when they can’t, as according to Bernsteins’s language codes, they are labelled negatively as they cannot perform their role

what two stages does Goffman identify

front stage and backstage

what is front stage

where the performance of a role in society is taking place (eg. the workplace)

what is backstage

where an individual can step out of their role in society and be themselves (eg. around their family or friends)

what is a criticism of the idea of backstage

there are ideas to suggest that we are always subconsciously peforming

how can front and backstage be applied to social media

somebody’s social media is not a true reflection of their whole lives; they only post the good bits and it becomes a performance of happiness

what is the sole belief of ethnomethodology

social order is a myth/ social construct; it only appears because members of society hold these shared assumptions in order for society to remain stable

what functionalist idea can ethnomethodology act as a criticism of

GAIL (Parsons)

how did Garfinkel investigate ethnomethodology

through a disruptive experiment, in which he asked his students to pretend to be lodgers in their own home, in order to challenge the ‘social order’ that people take for granted in their own lives

what idea is very similar to ethnomethodology

phenomenology

what is the main focus of pehnomenology

asking ‘what is reality’ - within our minds we construct our own social reality, and this is one that we believe others hold too

what do phenomenologists use as an example to challenge notions of ‘reality’

mental illness, in particular schizophrenia - if someone was to suggest that they heard voices, society would most likely deem them as unnatural and ill (both of which are labels), and then being sectioned would further separate them from normality and prove them as ‘other’ or ‘different’

however, they may just be experiencing reality differently

how can the phenomenologist idea of mental illness be applied to aspects of CAGE

African and Caribbean people are statistically more likely to be sectioned, but their culture may just not align with that of the modern Western world’s perception of normality