Chapter 4, Social Structure And Interaction In Everyday Life

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Chapter 4, Social Structure And Interaction In
Everyday Life

• Social Structure The Macrolevel Perspective
• Components of Social Structure
• Societies Changes in Social Structure
• Social Interaction The Microlevel Perspective
• Changing Social Structure and Interaction in the
  Future

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Social Structure

• Patterns of social relationships in a society
  make up its social structure.
• Social structure shapes the overall patterns in
  which social interaction occurs.
• Provides an ordered framework for society and for
  interactions with others.
• maps and scripts

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Components of Social Structure

• Status
• socially defined position with responsibilities
• Roles
• behavioral expectations of a status
• Groups
• 2 or more people with a common identity and
  feelings of interdependence
• Social Institutions
• set of ideologies, beliefs and behaviors that
  deal with major social interests

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Status

• ascribed - given at birth or given involuntarily
• achieved- taken on over the life course by choice
• master - your top priority status
• status symbol - acoutrements of status

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Roles

• role expectation
• group or societys definition of responsibilities
• role performance
• how you play the role
• role ambiguity
• expectations unclear
• role conflict
• occurs when two statuses are incompatible
• role strain
• incompatible demands are put upon a status

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Groups

• PrimaryFamily, close friends, school or
  work-related peer groups
• inner circle
• SecondarySchools, churches, corporations
• outer circle

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Five Basic Social Institutions

• Family
• Religion
• Education
• Economy
• Government or politics

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Perspectives on Social Institutions

• Functionalist theory - social institutions
  perform essential tasks.
• Conflict theory - social institutions are
  organized to meet basic social needs but do not
  work for the good of everyone in society.

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Functionalists Five Tasks of Social Institutions

• Replacing members.
• Teaching new members.
• Producing, distributing, and consuming goods and
  services.
• Preserving order.
• Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose.

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Durkheim's Typology of Social Solidarity

• Social solidarity is based on social structure
  which is based on a society's division of labor.
• Mechanical Solidarity - people are united by
  traditions and shared values.
• Organic Solidarity - people are united by mutual
  dependence on one another.

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microsociology symbolic interaction

• an examination of everyday interactions in small
  groups
• to study behavior
• individual interpretaitons of situations
• social interaction has shared meanings through
  which we communicate
• social construction of reality
• our perception of reality is shaped by personal
  meanings we attach to it
• self-fulfilling prophecy- a false belief that
  produces behavior that makes that false belief
  come true

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Ethnomethodolgy and Garfinkel

• ethnomethodology
• study of common sense knowledge
• harold garfinkel
• intersubjectively constructed social meanings
• accounts for greater variation in groups
• did breaching experiments
• broke everyday shared meanings contexts by
• answering in detail to how are you?
• staring at the only other person in the elevator
• what else could one do...?

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Goffmans Dramaturgical Analysis

• Daily interactions are similar to dramatic
  productions.
• front stage and backstage behaviors
• Members of our audience judge our performance
  and are aware that we may reveal our true
  character.
• Most of us attempt to control the impressions we
  give to others.
• impression management
• establishing front stage behaviors to project
  the image of a role

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Nonverbal Communication

• Facial expressions
• Head movements
• Eye contact
• Body positions
• Touching
• Personal space

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Functions of Nonverbal Communication

• Supplements verbal communication.
• Regulates social interaction - body posture and
  eye contact signals whether we wish to talk with
  someone.
• Establishes the relationship among people in
  terms of their power over one another.

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Sociology of emotions

• Arlie Hochschild
• feeling rules
• emotional labor
• deference and calm