Social Action

• Social Action theories take a micro approach meaning they examine individual interactions between people
• Weber suggested people act based on four different types of motivation: Instrumental, Value, Affectional and Traditional
• Instrumental actions are the most efficient way to achieve a goal
• Value actions are actions performed because it is considered important
• Traditional actions are performed because they have always been performed
• Affectual actions are actions based in emotion and mentality
• Sociologists should implement verstehen, which means empathy. We must put ourselves in other people's shoes
• Weber does not explain how we have shared meanings of actions
• It is difficult to use Weber's categories as multiple may apply to an action
• Symbolic Interactionism is a type of social action theory that says we constantly interpret symbols
• Becker's labelling theory says we are all labelled and these define who we are and how we act
• Cooley's looking glass self - we perceive ourselves based on how we think other people perceive ourselves
• Thomas - the definition of something is its label
• Labels may be positive or negative, and we can internalise them, creating a self fulfilling prophecy
• The origin of labels is unclear and unexplained
• Goffman's dramaturgical theory - we are all actors putting on performances
• Front stage self - where we spend most of our lives, putting on acts for other people
• Back stage - in private, we can be our true selves and prepare for our next performance
• We can choose how we want to appear by altering our language, movement, tone, appearance and more - and these may be different for different people or contexts
• There is a gap between our roles and who we really are, called role distance
• Society's definitions of roles are vague so we can choose how to perform them
• In this theory everyone would be an actor and audience at the same time, and most things would be unrehearsed
• Giddens' structuration theory says structure and action are both crucial parts to understanding society
• Our actions produce and reproduce structures, and structures allow actions to take place
• Language needs both structure and action. We need to adhere to the structure (rules) of language to communicate successfully, but language is also shaped over time by our actions and evolves, with words changing meaning or being invented or forgotten
• We want ontological security - our world to remain the same and make sense. Thus we act in logical ways that reinforce the structures
• Structuration fails to explain large scale structures
• Structuration ignores that structures may resist change - actions alone may not be enough and acting against the status quo may be met with punishment