Methodological Individualism in Sociology

Abstract

‘Methodological individualism’ refers to the explanatory and predictive strategies which give primacy to individual action in relation to social phenomena. Such strategies rely on a distinction between the choice problems of individual actors, on the one hand, and social institutions, regularities and norms on the other hand. It is thus possible to use general and stylized models of individual choice in order to account for aggregate social phenomena, as exemplified by the work of Weber, Pareto, and others. While the constitution of sociology as an autonomous discipline has involved the gradual recognition of a separate layer of social facts, methodological individualism is not alien to the sociological tradition. Models of individual action figure prominently in classical sociological theories, and methodological individualism does indeed presuppose the existence of social facts as an explanandum for social science. Methodological individualism usually involves an effort to exhibit the typical, relevant ‘reasons’ of actors, which make their observed behavior understandable. On this account, the emergence and stability of social regularities, norms and institutions should be explained in terms of underlying individual reasons. This creates an opportunity for the application of classical rational-choice models and elaborate theories of individual cognition.