Classical social theory
Micro Social theory
Milgram
Interested in how power works
Do people react different to different situations
Familiar strangers- how do we construct and maintain a sense of normality
Means/ends disjuncture
I/We perspectives
‘I’ perspective natural
Role of social sciences is to move from I to we perspective
Everyone plays a role (roles are learned/what makes things work)
Role set- aggregate of roles you play in life
Power is unequally distributed
Social factors that affect role set- class, ethnicity, gender, religion, generation, embodiment
(health)
Reflexive understandings- see things in the round (objective, away from I and we
perspectives)
George Hebert Mead
Referred to as father of symbolic interactions (world of symbols you infer)
All of us are divisions of ‘I’/’Me’ (conflict/role conflict/tension)
‘I’ (person you are)
‘Me’ (self-presentation)
Role conflict- private/public (suppression of real self, projection of a face public would
appreciate)
Freud- individual
ID- instinctual drives (sexual, aggressive)
Ego- regulation of ID, your conscious self (unconscious feelings)
Super-ego- moral values, control both ego and ID
Symbolic interactionism (Becker, Goffman)
Goffman (read books Stigma and Asylums) takes on Mead’s interactions
- Dramaturgical- acting all the time, deceiving ourselves to be accepted and approval
Authenticity is always questionable
- Life with others produces anxiety
All social spaces have front (view you present) and back (view you supress) regions
Status stripping- uniforms, become anonymous within a crowd e.g. prisons,
disempowerment
Becker (outsiders)- some circles accept deviant acts unlike society e.g. use of drugs (labelling
such as jazz musicians)
- Deviant behaviour is not the act, it’s the labelling
Micro Social theory
Milgram
Interested in how power works
Do people react different to different situations
Familiar strangers- how do we construct and maintain a sense of normality
Means/ends disjuncture
I/We perspectives
‘I’ perspective natural
Role of social sciences is to move from I to we perspective
Everyone plays a role (roles are learned/what makes things work)
Role set- aggregate of roles you play in life
Power is unequally distributed
Social factors that affect role set- class, ethnicity, gender, religion, generation, embodiment
(health)
Reflexive understandings- see things in the round (objective, away from I and we
perspectives)
George Hebert Mead
Referred to as father of symbolic interactions (world of symbols you infer)
All of us are divisions of ‘I’/’Me’ (conflict/role conflict/tension)
‘I’ (person you are)
‘Me’ (self-presentation)
Role conflict- private/public (suppression of real self, projection of a face public would
appreciate)
Freud- individual
ID- instinctual drives (sexual, aggressive)
Ego- regulation of ID, your conscious self (unconscious feelings)
Super-ego- moral values, control both ego and ID
Symbolic interactionism (Becker, Goffman)
Goffman (read books Stigma and Asylums) takes on Mead’s interactions
- Dramaturgical- acting all the time, deceiving ourselves to be accepted and approval
Authenticity is always questionable
- Life with others produces anxiety
All social spaces have front (view you present) and back (view you supress) regions
Status stripping- uniforms, become anonymous within a crowd e.g. prisons,
disempowerment
Becker (outsiders)- some circles accept deviant acts unlike society e.g. use of drugs (labelling
such as jazz musicians)
- Deviant behaviour is not the act, it’s the labelling
