Intro to Sociology: Ch. 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction

What is macrosociology

the focus on broad features of society (social class and how groups are related to one another)

What is microsociology?

the focus on social interaction, what people do when they come together (family, friends, spouse, gf/bf, where you spend your time, language,

What is social structure

framework of society that surrounds us, consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another

Social structure guides our behaviors, including the way we ____ and ____ in society

think and act 

We learn _____ and ____ because of our location in the social structure

behavior and attitudes 

Social structure gives directions and sets _____ on our behaviors

limits (switch people with street/corner people and watch your behavior and attitude change

Culture

refers to a group’s language, beliefs, values, behaviors, and even gestures (determine what of people we become)

Social class

determined by a combination of someone’s income, education, and occupational prestige

Those of the same social class share what?

similar interest

Social class influences not only behaviors but also what?

our ideas and attitudes 

Social Status

position that someone occupies in a society or in a social group

Statuses set the limits of what?

the things we can and cannot do 

Ascribed

inherited, recieved involuntarily, and cannot be chosen, but given (race, ethnicity, sex, social class of parents etc)

Achieved-

earned, accomplish through some effort (student, friend, spouse, lawyer, nurse, doctor, police officier, divorce, former friend, dropout, etc)

Master status

a status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies (like ascribed being a women flipping burgers) (achieved: people acknolwedge your achievement: a rich woman flipping burgers)

Status set:

all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies —— full-time job (worker), married (spouse), buying a house (homeowner) having a child (parent)

Status inconsistency

ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others (40-year-old married to a 19-year-old sophomore college student)

Roles

behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status

You can occupy a status but play a what?

a role

The status is a student. What is the role?

Attending class, taking notes, doing homework, and taking tests/quiz

Group

people who interact with one another and who believe what they have in common is significant 

Social Institutions

organized, usual, and standard ways by which society meets its basic needs (family religion, education, economy, medicine, politics, law, science, military, and mass media)

Functionalist Perspective says that the function of social institution is to

replace members, socialize new members, produce and distribute goods and services, perserve order, and provide a sense of purpose

Conflict Perspective:

agree that social institutions were designed originally to meet basic survival needs, but do not work harmoniously for the common good

What is the four conflict perspective theories that social institutions says?

powerful groups control social intuitions, small groups garner the lion’s share of wealth, social institutions affect gender relations, and main purpose is to preserve social order 

Changes in social structure occurs as cultural change because of what?

values, new technologies, innovation ideas, and globalization

Emilie Durkheim emphasized the role of social integration. Social cohesion is maintained in what two ways?

mechanical and organic solidarity 

Mechanical solidarity

term for unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks (farmers, police officers, nurses, firefighters, teachers, servers, etc)

Social integration

society united by by shared values and other social bonds

Organic solidarity

interdependence that results from division of labor; as part of the same unit, we all depend on others to fulfill their jobs (teacher needs students and vice versa)

Gemeinschaft

societal shift from intimate communities that have a sense of togetherness, and everyone knows each other (personal ties, kinship connections, and lifelong friendships)

Gesellschaft

society dominated by impersonal relationship, individual accomplishments, and self-interest (time spent with strangers and short-term acquaintances)

Symbolic interaction

examines face-to-face interactions and the symbols they use

Stereotypes in Everyday life

assumptions of what people are like, true or false

Ideas about these characteristics (race, sex, ethnicity, age, heigh, body, shape, clothing) guides our behaviors and what?

how we act towards them and even towards us

Personal space

the physical space that surrounds us and that we claim as our own

We protect our “personal bubble” and that differs from

culture to culture, society to society

Intimate distance (18 in from body)

comforting, protecting, hugging, intimate touching, and lovemaking

Personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet)

friends, acquaintances, and oridnary conversations

Social distance (4-12 feet)

Job interviews

Public distance (12+ feet)

public speakers, concert

Eye contact

used to protect personal space (invitation for intimacy

Smiling

facial gesture (culturally specific and different in parts of the world)

Body language 

the way people use their bodies to give message to others (interpretation and learning how to react to others)

Dramaturgy

pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage, also called the dramaturgical analysis 

Impression management:

people’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them (changing our outfit for a specific occasion, first day of school, first date)

Front stage: 

places where we perform the roles assigned to us (teacher lecturing in the front of the room)

Back stage:

place where we retreat from performances and let out hair down (close the bathroom or bedroom for privacy)

Role performance:

particular emphasis or interpretation that an individual gives a role, the person’s “style” (respect, coming home at an appropriate time, happily running errand, etc)

Role conflict

occur when the performance of one role is strained by the performance of another role they had—- conflict between roles (being a friend, student, daughter/son, worker, etc)

Role strain

conflicts that someone feels within a role

Sign-Vehicles

communicate information about ourselves

Social setting

where the action unfolds (office, bar, church, classrom, dorm,etc, which includes scenery (furnishings used to communicate messages; desk, blackboards, scoreboards, couches, etc)

Appearance

how one looks when they perform their role (hairstyles, clothing for an occasion)

_____ and _____ demonstrates an individual role they play

manner and attitude

Teamwork is then about multiple people playing their role to manage what?

the impression of others

Sometimes we use ______-_______ behavior if our performance does not go as expected

face-saving

People often become the roles they play as it becomes a part of their

self-concept

Ethnomethodology

the study of how people use background assumptions to make sense of life

Background assumptions

discovering the rules concerning our views of the world and how people ought to act

Breaching experiment

asking subjects to pretend that they did not understand the basic rules of social life to uncover other’s reactions and break background assumptions

Our behavior depends on what?

how we define reality

Social construction of reality

use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real

If people define situations as real,

they are real in their consequences

Our behaviors does not depend on the objective existence of something, but on our ______ _____ of our definition of reality

subjective interpretation