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 )
Also Max Weber sees 'behavior' as a purely mechanical bodily movement: it is without intentions and has no special meaning to the individual. It is an automatic reaction to a specific impuls.
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)
Max Weber finds 'action' an interesting and important concept within Sociology. He was a one of the main thinkers of action theory and explains the word 'action' as such: Action is an activity which involves awareness of the individual, who purposefully acts in a certain way because of the motives and feelings he or she experiences.
Also Benno Werlen pays much attention to the word 'action'. Werlen says that especially Behavioral Geography should have this fundamental concept 'action' as starting point instead of the word 'space'.
Difference between behavior and action
So according to Max Weber, 'action' has a subjective meaning for the person(s) involved. And when actions have no meaning, goals or needs at all, these are described as 'behavior'.
Links
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
