Social Action Theory

Micro theory that looks at small scale interactions between people.

People are social actors who have agency (free will) - they make their own decisions and are not pushed along by forces beyond their control.

There is no single, overarching structure of society.

Mead:

Symbolic interactionism - society is a product of human interactions and the meanings individuals place on those interactions.

  • People attach meanings to symbols and act according to their subjective interpretations of them.

  • Symbols can have multiple meanings e.g. folding arms can be rude or could mean being cold.

e.g. of meanings changing: View of food is sustenance until it gives you food poisoning, and then you may view it as something with risk involved instead. This view is based on interactions you have had with the food.

This is how labelling involves itself in Social Action theory, as it is based on your interactions with people and how it affects you.

Cooley:

Looking glass self - knowing how to respond to symbols in the world means being able to see yourself through the eyes of others (can link to understanding social cues)

  • The individuals own identity is created by their interactions with others

Goffman:

Dramaturgical approach - we are all actors on a stage and the audience is made up of other social actors.

  • Social interaction involves impression management - strategies people use to influence how others perceive them

    • Frontstage behaviour vs backstage behaviour

Labelling Theory:

Becker - person is labelled and fulfills the label

  • Master status - view that people have of you and it influences the way you do things.

Lemert - societal reaction

  • Primary deviance - deviant act that hasn’t been labelled

  • Secondary deviance - act that has been labelled

Secondary deviance is the result of societal reaction to primary deviance - person is labelled and fulfills it or acts out.

Young - The Drug Takers:

  • Observation that found once hippies were labelled negatively (criminals etc), they became marginalised from the rest of society, forming an illegal subculture taking marijuana.

Cicourel - typifications - phenomenological approach

  • 4 year non-PO and PO study finding that courts and police stereotyped

    • e.g McPherson Report finding institutional racism in the case on Stephen Lawrence

    • Lavinia Woodward - stabbed boyfriend and only given 10 month jail sentence as she was a student at Oxford.

Braithwaite - reintegrative and disintegrative shaming

  • Reintegrative - label just act

  • Disintegrative - label act and actor

    • Middle class often not disintegrative shamed e.g. Bullingdon Club

Out of all 137 Circles of Support and Accountability in England and Wales, only 4 sex offenders had been recalled to prison and 3 had been charged with additional offences. This is because the actor was not labelled and they were not totally marginalised from society.

Cohen - folk devils

  • Mods and Rockers study including observations, interviews, and content analysis of media reports finding that there was not much deviance before the media created a moral panic.

Weber - founder of interactionism

  • Spirit of capitalism/Calvinism

  • Rapport, Verstehen

  • Rationalisation/disenchantment

  • Theodicy of disprivilege/good fortune

Definitions

Typifications- Stereotypical views held by the CJS regarding criminality of specific groups. 

Verstehen- gaining insight by understanding what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes. 

Master status- as a result of public labelling, everything that a person has done is then interpreted through their deviant label. 

Symbolic interactionism- focuses on the meanings people use to interpret, define, and make sense of the world. 

Impression management- we put on an act when we're out there in the social world. 

Disenchantment- removal of the spiritual intervention in everyday life. 

Ascetic lifestyle- This refers to abstinence, self-discipline, and self denial. 

Deviance amplification- when the actions of the rule enforces or media in response to deviance bring about an increase in this deviance. 

Front stage behaviour- Social actors try to manipulate the impression other people have of us. 

Moral panic- The view that refers to outrage stirred up by the media about a certain group or issue. 

Social construct- ideas, beliefs, and laws that are products of the society in which we live in and not an objective reality. 

Looking Glass Self- suggests that the individual's own identity or sense of self is created by their interactions with other people. 

Rationalisation- a process in which scientific explanations have replaced religious ones.  

Backstage behaviour- valid behaviour that is not manipulated to give a false impression. 

Rapport- to form a relationship with a participant and increase validity of data. 

Protestant work ethic- the belief that idleness is a sin and God favours those who work hard. 

Self refuting prophecy- a criticism to social action theory, the idea that individuals can reject their labels. 

Deviant Career- Once a person has been labelled as deviant by society, they resort to more deviant behaviour due to being rejected by mainstream society. 

Self fulfilling prophecy- a prediction or label given to you that makes itself become true.