Behavior vs. action

From Geography

Behavior

"Behavior is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior )

Action

"In sociology, social action refers to an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or 'agents')." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_actions ) But Max Weber explains immediately the difference between 'action' and 'social action': an Action is 'social' if the acting individual takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course.(Secher 1962)

Difference between behavior and action

Behaviour is a purely mechanical bodily movement, it is without intentions and has no special meaning to the individual. For instance it is an automatic reaction to a specific impuls. Action on the other hand involves awareness of the individual, who purposefully acts in a certain way because of the motives and feelings he or she experiences

Links

• Max Weber

• Alfred Schütz

• Social action

• Action

• Action theory

References

• Campbell, T. (1981) Seven Theories of Human Society. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Chapter 8: Max Weber: An Action Theory. Chapter 9: Alfred Schütz: A phenomenological Approach.

Contributors

• Page created by Iris van der Wal - 14:40, October 24th 2012