Sociological Perspectives: Interpretivism and Structuration

Learning Objectives To explain the main features of interpretivism To explain the differences between interpretivism and structuralist theories

Interpretivism/Social Action Theories Interpretivist theories focus on the interactions between people. Interpretivist theories include the following features: 1)Society and social institutions are created by individuals. 2)An emphasis is placed on the individual and everyday behaviour rather than the overall structure of society. This is referred to as a micro approach. 3)People’s behaviour is driven by the meanings they give to situations. 4)The main purpose of sociology is to study and understand the meanings individuals give to their behaviour.

Interpretivism Individually, note down how the attitudes and interpretations of other people affect your view of yourself. Give examples.

Interactionism This is a social action perspective particularly concerned with understanding : 1)Human behaviour in face to face situations 2)How individuals come to be defined or classified in particular ways This is known as Labelling.

Interactionism Read through Cameron’s study on shoplifting on your handout and answer the following questions: 1)How does Cameron’s study show how people’s definitions of individuals influences behaviour? 2)How would structural theorists try and explain crime?

Cameron: Shoplifting in Chicago In pairs, note down some ideas for the following questions: 1)Apart from being young and black, what other characteristics do you think store detectives might see as typical of shoplifters? 2)How could you apply Cameron’s ideas to explain then fact that the working class are more likely to be convicted of crimes than the middle class?

Cameron: Shoplifting in Chicago Structuralist sociologists see crime as caused by society. Interactionist sociologists see crime as the outcome of labels people apply to others in their interactions with them. Cameron’s study shows how people’s beliefs about others influence how they act towards them. In this case, the ideas of the store detectives about the ‘typical shoplifter’ affected which groups they chose to pursue. This resulted in more black individuals being arrested and therefore classed as criminals, than whites.

Urinal Game

Structuration Read through the section on structuration in your handout. For the following social institutions, note down how they may constrain our behaviour but how we have room to make choices about our behaviour at the same time: 1)Workplace 2)Family

Sociological Perspectives Without using your notes write a summary for the following theories about their view on society etc: Remember to include key terms. 1)Functionalism 2)Marxism 3)Feminism 4)Postmodernism 5)Interpretivism

Application In pairs, apply Feminism, Functionalism and Marxism to socialisation. What would these theories say is the purpose of socialisation and social control? What are we being taught by the agents of socialisation? Is it positive or negative? Why?

Vocab List Add key phrases from the sociological perspectives to your vocab list