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Fun with Social Action: Exploring Weber, Goffman, and Friends!

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Khadijah Baz

11/12/2022

Sociology

social action theories summary

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Fun with Social Action: Exploring Weber, Goffman, and Friends!

Understanding Weber's social action theory and subsequent sociological perspectives reveal how individuals create meaning through social interactions and shape society through their actions.

Key points:

  • Weber's methodological individualism emphasizes individual actions and interpretations
  • Symbolic interactionism and role-taking empathy highlight how meaning emerges through social interaction
  • Goffman's dramaturgical model and impression management compare social life to theatrical performance
  • Phenomenology and ethnomethodology explore how people construct and maintain social reality
  • Structuration theory bridges the gap between structure and agency in social analysis
...

11/12/2022

236

Weber -level of cause •Structural factors that shape behaviour ·level of meaning - meanings that individuais attach to their s actions wheg

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Page 2: Phenomenology and Advanced Social Theory

Phenomenology explores how individuals make sense of their social world through mental categorization and shared meanings.

Definition: Typification refers to how people classify and understand typical traits in others and events to make sense of their social world.

Ethnomethodology examines how people actively construct their social reality:

Highlight: Indexicality suggests that meaning is context-dependent and potentially unclear without proper understanding of the situation.

Structuration theory by Giddens bridges structure and agency:

Vocabulary: Duality of structure indicates the interdependent relationship between social structures and human action.

Example: Religious beliefs individualactionsindividual actions can evolve into formal institutions like churches structuresstructures, demonstrating how personal meanings can create lasting social institutions.

Critical perspectives note that:

  • Common sense knowledge plays a crucial role in social interaction
  • Power and inequality influence how individuals construct meaning
  • Social structures can both enable and constrain human action

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Subjects

Sociology

Social Institutions

Religion

Influence on Society

 

Sociology

•

236

•

11 Dec 2022

•

2 pages

Fun with Social Action: Exploring Weber, Goffman, and Friends!

user profile picture

Khadijah Baz

@khadijah_baz

Understanding Weber's social action theory and subsequent sociological perspectives reveal how individuals create meaning through social interactions and shape society through their actions.

Key points:

  • Weber's methodological individualism emphasizes individual actions and interpretations
  • Symbolic interactionism and role-taking empathyhighlight how... Show more

Weber -level of cause •Structural factors that shape behaviour ·level of meaning - meanings that individuais attach to their s actions wheg

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Page 2: Phenomenology and Advanced Social Theory

Phenomenology explores how individuals make sense of their social world through mental categorization and shared meanings.

Definition: Typification refers to how people classify and understand typical traits in others and events to make sense of their social world.

Ethnomethodology examines how people actively construct their social reality:

Highlight: Indexicality suggests that meaning is context-dependent and potentially unclear without proper understanding of the situation.

Structuration theory by Giddens bridges structure and agency:

Vocabulary: Duality of structure indicates the interdependent relationship between social structures and human action.

Example: Religious beliefs individualactionsindividual actions can evolve into formal institutions like churches structuresstructures, demonstrating how personal meanings can create lasting social institutions.

Critical perspectives note that:

  • Common sense knowledge plays a crucial role in social interaction
  • Power and inequality influence how individuals construct meaning
  • Social structures can both enable and constrain human action
Weber -level of cause •Structural factors that shape behaviour ·level of meaning - meanings that individuais attach to their s actions wheg

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Page 1: Social Action Theories and Symbolic Interaction

Weber's social action theory examines both structural factors and individual meanings in social behavior. His approach emphasizes understanding verstehenverstehen how people interpret and act upon their social world.

Definition: Methodological individualism suggests that social phenomena can be explained through individual actions and decisions.

Weber identified four types of social action:

  • Instrumental rational action
  • Value rational action
  • Traditional action
  • Affective action

Example: The Protestant work ethic demonstrates how religious beliefs CalvinismCalvinism influenced economic behavior and helped shape modern capitalism.

Symbolic interactionism emphasizes how society emerges through symbolic communication and meaning-making.

Vocabulary: Role-taking refers to the ability to imagine and understand others' perspectives, leading to empathy and social coordination.

Goffman's dramaturgical model presents social life as a theatrical performance:

Highlight: Impression management involves carefully controlling how we present ourselves to others, including managing our language, tone, and expressions.

Quote: "The self is constructed by manipulating other people's impressions of them."

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Stefan S

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This app is really great. There are so many study notes and help [...]. My problem subject is French, for example, and the app has so many options for help. Thanks to this app, I have improved my French. I would recommend it to anyone.

Samantha Klich

Android user

Wow, I am really amazed. I just tried the app because I've seen it advertised many times and was absolutely stunned. This app is THE HELP you want for school and above all, it offers so many things, such as workouts and fact sheets, which have been VERY helpful to me personally.

Anna

iOS user

Best app on earth! no words because it’s too good

Thomas R

iOS user

Just amazing. Let's me revise 10x better, this app is a quick 10/10. I highly recommend it to anyone. I can watch and search for notes. I can save them in the subject folder. I can revise it any time when I come back. If you haven't tried this app, you're really missing out.

Basil

Android user

This app has made me feel so much more confident in my exam prep, not only through boosting my own self confidence through the features that allow you to connect with others and feel less alone, but also through the way the app itself is centred around making you feel better. It is easy to navigate, fun to use, and helpful to anyone struggling in absolutely any way.

David K

iOS user

The app's just great! All I have to do is enter the topic in the search bar and I get the response real fast. I don't have to watch 10 YouTube videos to understand something, so I'm saving my time. Highly recommended!

Sudenaz Ocak

Android user

In school I was really bad at maths but thanks to the app, I am doing better now. I am so grateful that you made the app.

Greenlight Bonnie

Android user

very reliable app to help and grow your ideas of Maths, English and other related topics in your works. please use this app if your struggling in areas, this app is key for that. wish I'd of done a review before. and it's also free so don't worry about that.

Rohan U

Android user

I know a lot of apps use fake accounts to boost their reviews but this app deserves it all. Originally I was getting 4 in my English exams and this time I got a grade 7. I didn’t even know about this app three days until the exam and it has helped A LOT. Please actually trust me and use it as I’m sure you too will see developments.

Xander S

iOS user

THE QUIZES AND FLASHCARDS ARE SO USEFUL AND I LOVE THE SCHOOLGPT. IT ALSO IS LITREALLY LIKE CHATGPT BUT SMARTER!! HELPED ME WITH MY MASCARA PROBLEMS TOO!! AS WELL AS MY REAL SUBJECTS ! DUHHH 😍😁😲🤑💗✨🎀😮

Elisha

iOS user

This apps acc the goat. I find revision so boring but this app makes it so easy to organize it all and then you can ask the freeeee ai to test yourself so good and you can easily upload your own stuff. highly recommend as someone taking mocks now

Paul T

iOS user