Max Weber developed the theory of social action to analyze human behavior. Social action involves conscious decision making and is influenced by past experiences. There are four types of social action according to Weber: traditional action based on customs, affective action based on emotions, value rational action based on beliefs, and instrumental rational action aimed at achieving goals. Weber's theory focuses on understanding individual motivations and meanings to explain social change. A criticism is that it still emphasizes social influences over individual freedom.

1. In the Name of Allah Almighty, Most
Gracious, The Merciful.

2. Theory of Social Action
Presenting To:
Sir Shehzad Khaver Mushtaq
Presenter:
M. Sami ur Rehman
Roll# 19
BS Sociology 3rd
Department of Sociology
University of Sargodha

3. Contents
 Intro to Max Weber.
 Difference between Behavior and Action.
 Def. of Social Action.
 Characteristics of Social Action.
 Elements of Social Action.
 Types of Social Action.

4. Max Weber
 Maximilian Carl Emil “Max”
Weber.
 Born April 21, 1864 in Erfurt,
Province of Saxony, in the Kingdom
of Prussia (now Germany).
 Died on June 14, 1920.
 Mother was strong Calvinist.
 Father was German bourgeoisie
politician.
 In 1882, he enrolled at the
University of Heidelberg.
 He did PhD at the University of
Berlin in 1889.

5. Introduction
 He worked in the field of economics, sociology, history, law, politics and
philosophy at the University of Berlin, Vienna and University of Munich.
 Founding figure of the field of Sociology.
 Major Publications are
 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904)
 The City (1912)
 The Sociology of Religion (1922)
 General Economic History (1923)
 The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (1925)
Last three books was compiled after his death.

6. Behavior & Action
 Behavior:
“Behavior is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself,
especially towards others.”
Behavior occurs with little but mostly no thought. It closely tied with
psychological term behaviorism, scientific and objective approach to
investigate observable behavior.
 Action:
“Action is the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve
an aim.”
It is the conscious process to do something. We take an action with
full planning.

7. Social Action
 Definition:
“Social action means taking steps to change
the things that are wrong in our society and introducing
new ideas and processes for doing things better in the
future.”
 Max Weber conceived of sociology as a comprehensive science of social
action.
 Max Weber began with the idea of social action to make of sociology a
scientific enquiry.
 Thus the idea of action is central to Max Weber’s sociology.

8. Characteristics of Social
Action
The significant characteristics of Weber’s ideas are following.
 Social action may be influenced by an action of past, present or future.
 Social action presupposes the existence of other individual and some
action by him.
 Necessity of subjective meaning.
 It is oriented in its course.

9. Elements of Social Action
Talcott Pason’s five elements of Social action.
The Actor: It is that individual who performs an act. The actor can be one or
more persons.
The Goal: It is the aim or objective for which the action was done. Without
goal, an action is futile and baseless.
Social Situation: The actor performs his role in presence of some situation.
While this situation is a continuously occurring group event spread in space
and time and this situation instigates the actor to action. To control the
situation he does an act. Therefore, a situation is an agent of social action.
There are two types of situation; Controllable and Uncontrollable situation.

10. Contin…
Normative Orientation: It is performed on some social pattern, custom. All
these forms are called norms of society. The pattern on which it is done is
called norm.
Energy: Social action require energy for its performance. Physical energy and
training are essential for an act.

11. Types of Social Action
There are four types of social action.
1) Traditional Social Actions.
2) Affective Social Actions.
3) Value Rational Social Actions.
4) Instrumental Rational Actions.

12. 1) Traditional Social Actions
 Actions controlled by the traditions.
 Logical orientation is not counted.
 It occurs when the ends and means of social action are fixed by custom
and tradition.
 The established patterns of behavior in terms of customs, rituals,
conventions and beliefs are adopted.
 These patterns are taken for granted and no question of how, why and
what is asked.
 In such actions, cultural values play important roles because they are
diverted towards such values.

13. 2) Affective Social Actions
 Action determined by one’s specific affections and emotional state, you do
not think about the consequences.
 Here the feelings of the people are considered.
 Such action is neither rational nor traditional.
 Such action is unplanned.
 It is done according to the feelings of an effect upon the actor.

14. 3) Value Rational Social
Actions
 Action that is determined by a conscious belief in the inherent
value of a type of behavior.
 It occurs when individuals use effective means to achieve goals
that are set by their values.
 Such action is done for the pursuit of a value of highest dignity.
 Real truth can be named as absolute value. Truth, faith,
sacrifice and beliefs are its examples in religion.
 Service of humanity is general value.

15. 4) Instrumental Social Action
 Action that is carried out to achieve a certain goal, you do
something because it leads to a result.
 It means that for the achievement of an individual objective,
the logic of cause and effect is applied.
 Without cause an aim cannot be attained.
 The logic that every event has its cause is the main idea.
 Such actions have ends and objective for the Individual.

16. Example
To illustrate these different types of action consider someone “going
to school” in terms of these four ideal types: Traditionally, one may attend
college because his/her grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles have as
well. They wish to continue the family tradition and continue with college
as well. When relating to affective, one may go to school just because they
enjoy learning. They love going to college whether or not it will make them
broke. With value rational, one may attend college because it’s a part of
his/her religion that everyone must receive the proper education.
Therefore, this person attends college for that reason only. Finally, to
relating instrumental social action, one may go to college because he/she
may want an amazing job in the future and in order to get that job, he/she
needs a college degree.

17. Evaluations of Max Weber’s Social
Action Theory
 Positive – He recognized that we need to understand
individual meanings to understand how societies change.
 Negative – Still too much focus on society shaping the
individual – symbolic interactions argues that individuals have
more freedom to shape their identities.