Interactionist approaches focus on understanding human behavior through the analysis of social interactions and subjective meanings. There are three key aspects: 1. Max Weber recognized the importance of both structural factors that shape behavior and the subjective meanings individuals assign to their actions. 2. Erving Goffman used the concept of dramaturgy to explain how people present different images of themselves in different social settings through language, body language, and other cues. 3. Phenomenology aims to understand the meaning and essence of social phenomena rather than causal explanations. It focuses on how people categorize and make sense of the external world.

1. Essay: Assess the usefulness of interactionist approaches to the study of society (33 marks)
I’ve done the first two for you! Your job is to cut out and paste the “key ideas” and their relevant “interpretation”,
“Application” and “Evaluation” onto this chart. You can use this chart to help you write the essay!
Key Idea Interpret it (Explain what it Application (this could be a Evaluation (what is good or
means) contemporary eg or a Study) bad about this idea)
Max Weber saw both structural He was interested in explaining
and action approaches as the structural factors that shape
necessary to fully understand people’s behaviour, but also the
human behaviour. subjective meanings that
individuals attach to their actions.

2. Key Idea Interpret it (Explain what it Application (this could be a Evaluation (what is good or
means) contemporary eg or a Study) bad about this idea)

3. There are an infinite number of In his study The Protestant Ethic and Two of these include Affectual action As social actors we may use
subjective meanings that actors may the Spirit of Capitalism, the Protestant which expresses emotion and language, tone of voice as well as
give to their actions, so Weber tried to Reformation was the structural cause Instrumentally rational action is where props and settings to control the
classify actions into four Ideal Types. of a new belief system – Calvinism. the actor calculates the most efficient impression we give to our audience.
On a subjective, personal level, this means of achieving a goal. The roles we play are loosely scripted
caused work to take on a religious by society and can be negotiated by
meaning for Calvinists. actors in their interactions.
Goffman uses the dramaturgical This typology of action is difficult to Husserl argues that in order to It is valuable to look at the influence of
analogy to describe how we present apply. For example the Trobriand understand social life, structural factors as well as
different images of ourselves in Islanders exchange of gifts (kula) phenomenologists should study the understand actors’ subjective
meanings, however Weber focused
different settings of interactions. could be seen as traditional action as way humans place the external world
too much on the individualistic nature
well as rational action. into categories. In doing so it would of the Calvinists actions and did not
be possible to understand the explain the shared nature of
meaning of a phenomenon. meanings.
Phenomenology differs from Social This is illustrated in Jock Young’s Atkinsons work on suicide shows how However in stressing the freedom of
action approaches. It is not study of the marijuana users in Notting he tried to understand the nature of social action, Interactionism tends to
concerned with the causal explanation Hill. The hippies drug taking which the phenomenon of suicide by downplay the constraints of action.
of human behaviour. They try instead started as a minor activity became a investigating how coroners For example ignoring wider social
to understand the meaning of central concern because of the way distinguished it from other types of factors that might influence the scripts
phenomena or things. the police viewed them. Therefore death. or norms that one could apply to the
their roles became re-negotiated. roles we play.
However there is no way of checking For example a Capitalist may
the validity of the verdicts of coroners calculate that the most efficient way
& how they reach their decisions. The of maximising profit is to pay low
work of phenomenologists can wages. This action is about the most
therefore be seen as theoretically efficient way of reaching that goal.
worthless.