© copyright cengage learning. all rights reserved. chapter 5 social structure and interaction in...

© Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 5Social Structure and Interaction in Everyday Life


Chapter Outline

• Social Structure: The Macrolevel Perspective• Components of Social Structure• Societies, Technology, and Sociocultural Change• Sociological Perspectives on Stability and

Change in Society• Social Interaction: The Microlevel Perspective• Changing Social Structure and Interaction in the

Future


• Social interaction in the process by which people act toward or respond to other people and is the foundation for all relationships and groups in society.

• Social structure is the complex framework of societal institutions and the social practices that make up a society and that organize and establish limits on people’s behavior.


Social Structure: The Macrolevel Perspective• Social structure provides the framework within which we

interact with others. • Social structure gives us the ability to interpret the social

situations we encounter.• Social structure helps people make sense out of their

environment even when they find themselves on the streets.

• Social structure creates boundaries that define which persons or groups will be the “insiders” and which will be the “outsiders.”


Social Structure FrameworkFigure 5.1


Components of Social Structure

• The social structure of a society includes its social positions, the relationships among those positions, and the kinds of resources attached to each of the positions.o Statuso Roleo Groupso Social Institutions


• A status is a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.

• A status set comprises all the statuses that a person occupies at a given time.


Discussion

• What is your status set?


• An ascribed status is a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control.o Ex: male, child, Hispanic

• An achieved status is a social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.o Ex: college graduate, drug user, wife


• A master status is the most important status that a person occupies.

• Status symbols are material signs that inform others of a person’s specific status.


Discussion

• What are some status symbols of a college student?


• A role is a set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status.

• Role expectation is a group’s or society’s definition of the way that a specific role ought to be played.

• Role performance is how a person actually plays the role.


• Role conflict occurs when incompatible role demands and placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.

• Role strain occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies.

• Role exit occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity.


Role Expectation, Performance, Conflict, and StrainFigure 5.3


• A social group consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share and common identity and a feeling of interdependence.

o A primary group is a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.

o A secondary group is a larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more-impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.


Discussion

• What are examples of primary and secondary groups to which you belong?


• A formal organization is a highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.


• A social institutions is a set of organized beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will attempt to meet its basic social needs.


• Essential tasks of social institutions1. replace members

2. teach new members

3. producing, distributing, and consuming goods

4. preserving order

5. providing and maintaining a sense of purpose


Societies, Technology, and Sociocultural Change• Hunting and gathering societies• Horticultural and pastoral societies• Agrarian societies• Industrial societies• Postindustrial societies


Technoeconomic Bases of SocietyTable 5.1


Sociological Perspectives on Stability and Change in Society• Division of labor refers to how the various tasks

of a society are divided up and performed.

o Mechanical solidarity refers to the social cohesion of preindustrial societies, in which there is minimal division of labor and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds.

o Organic solidarity refers to the social cohesion found in industrial societies, in which people preform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence.


• Gemeinschaft is a traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

• Gesellschaft is a large, urban society in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus on values.


Social Interaction: The Microlevel Perspective• The social construction of reality is the

process by which our perceptions of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience.

• A self-fulfilling prophecy is a false belief or prediction that produced behavior that makes the original false belief come true.


• Ethnomethodology is the study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.


• Dramaturgical analysis is the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation.

o Social script is a playbook that the actors use to guide their verbal replies and overall performance to achieve the desired goals of the conversation or fulfill the role they are playing.

o Impression management refers to people’s efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.

o Face-saving behavior refers to the strategies we use to rescue our performance when we experience a potential or actual loss of face.


• Nonverbal communication is the transfer of information between persons without the use of words.o Facial expressiono Eye contacto Touchingo Personal space – the immediate area surrounding a

person that the person claims as private.


Changing Social Structure and Interaction in the Future

• Global social structures• Technological advancements


Quick Quiz


1. A socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties is:a. social transferability

b. impression management

c. a status

d. role strain

Answer: cA socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties is a status.


2. A(n) _____ is a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.

a. secondary groupb. primary groupc. reference groupd. outgroup

Answer: bA primary group is a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.


3. Being a college professor is a(n):a. achieved status

b. tertiary status

c. ascribed status

d. none of the choices

Answer: aBeing a college professor is an achieved status.


4. Women who engage in behavior that is typically thought of as masculine often experience:a. role exit

b. role strain

c. role conflict

d. role ambiguity

Answer: cWomen who engage in behavior that is typically thought of as masculine often experience role conflict.


5. _____ is a traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship.a. Mechanical solidarity

b. Organic solidarity

c. Gemeinschaft

d. Gesellschaft

Answers: cGemeinschaft is a traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship.

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