Social psy #3

Collective Effervescence

The emotional intensification that occurs when emotions are shared among a group, strengthening the overall emotional experience.

Interaction Rituals (IRs)

Social interactions that produce emotional experiences through three key ingredients: close assembly of bodies, focused mutual attention, and shared emotions.

Solidarity

A feeling of belonging together within a common identity, often enhanced by successful interaction rituals.

Membership Symbols

Emblems or objects that represent a group's identity and inspire feelings of common membership, including sacred objects.

Emotional Energy (EE)

A long-lasting feeling derived from participation in successful interaction rituals, providing individuals with confidence and motivation.

Rhythmic Entrainment

The process by which participants in an interaction ritual synchronize their emotional states and focus, enhancing collective emotional experiences.

First-order Emotions

Basic emotions such as anger, joy, or sadness that can be transformed into higher-order emotions like solidarity through successful interaction rituals.

Asymmetrical Interaction Rituals

Rituals where attention and emotional energy are unequally distributed among participants, often leading to hierarchies in emotional experience.

Stratified Rituals

Rituals that divide groups and establish power dynamics, often resulting in one group gaining emotional energy at the expense of another.

Social Definition of Interests

The process through which society formulates and focuses on particular interests, influenced by the emotional engagement within interaction rituals.

Social Institutions

Defined by the regularity in collective behavior, enduring over time.

Collective Behavior

Occurs when different individuals behave similarly in the same social context.

Cooperative Institution

An institution serving non-closely related kin that allows participants to reap surplus through agreements.

Invisible Hand

The concept that institutions emerge spontaneously from voluntary actions of self-interested individuals.

Solidarity

The collective agreement among individuals sharing common ends, which leads to the formation of institutions.

Free Rider Problem

The challenge of ensuring that individuals contribute to a collective good rather than taking advantage of others' contributions.

Formal Controls

Mechanisms established to ensure compliance with production and distribution rules in a cooperative institution.

Production Visibility

The extent to which individual effort can be measured by output in the context of joint goods.

Distribution Visibility

The clarity with which individuals can draw measurable shares of a joint good from a central source.

Ostracism

The ultimate sanction used to enforce compliance among group members by excluding rule-breakers.

Rational Choice Theory (RCT)

A theory that views actors as rational, purposive agents motivated by maximizing rewards or realizing interests, emphasizing the context of group dynamics.

Trust

A bet-like calculation involving the balance of potential loss and gain when placing trust in others.

Social capital

An intangible resource rooted in the structure of relations between actors that facilitates certain actions and helps achieve individual and collective goals.

Open networks

Social structures where individuals are connected to only a few members of the group.

Closed networks

Social structures where most individuals know one another either directly or indirectly.

Norms

Socially defined informal rights to control the actions of others, which develop from repeated exchanges.

Conjoint norm

A norm where targets and beneficiaries are the same individuals, resulting in shared control and benefits.

Disjoint norm

A norm rooted in a conflict of interest, where different individuals serve as beneficiaries and targets.

Prescriptive norms

Norms that encourage proper behavior and result in positive outcomes.

Proscriptive norms

Norms that discourage improper behavior and aim to prevent negative consequences.

Heroic sanctions

Sanctions provided by a single beneficiary, typically more costly.

Incremental sanctions

Sanctions supplied by multiple beneficiaries, spreading the costs across several individuals.

Free rider problem

The rational decision to not participate in group activity when individual benefit is not reduced by non-participation.

Types of capital

Resources including human capital (skills), physical capital (equipment), and financial capital (money).

Human capital

Skills and capabilities developed in individuals allowing them to act in new ways.

Physical capital

Tangible tools, machines, and equipment that facilitate production.

Public goods

Resources or services that benefit all individuals in a group, which raises questions about individual contributions to their provision.

Status

A position in a social system, or a position of value or worth in a community, communicated through cultural symbolisms.

Status Structures

Patterned inequalities of respect, deference, and influence that rank-order relationships among a group of people.

Expectation States Theory

A theory explaining how status differentials are constructed based on individuals' expectations of each other's capacities.

Status Value

Cultural symbols that denote worthiness within a social structure, establishing enduring hierarchies of status.

Exchange Theory

A theory positing that status is a reward given by one actor to another through deference and influence exchanges.

Functionalism

A perspective that views status hierarchies as necessary structures for groups to adapt and survive in their environment.

Symbolic Interactionism

A perspective that views status as socially constructed through interactions, with actors mutually defining one another's selves.

Conflict Theory

A perspective that suggests status hierarchies emerge from competition over scarce resources and are maintained through shared interests.

Cultural Status Beliefs

Widely shared cultural beliefs that ascribe higher esteem and competence to certain social groups over others.

Cumulative Advantage/Disadvantage Effect

The process through which small biased interactions accumulate over time, leading to significant material inequalities.

Status Beliefs

Cultural beliefs linking social categories to perceived competence, affecting evaluation and interaction.

Durability of Inequality

The phenomenon where inequality becomes sustained through engrained cultural beliefs and institutional structures.

Social Exchange

A central facet of social life involving interactions where benefits are obtained from social behavior.

Exchange Theory

A perspective that examines social behaviors based on the exchange of rewards, costs, and mutual dependencies.

Core Assumptions of Exchange Theory

Key principles including mutual dependence, contingent benefits, and behavior aimed at maximizing valued outcomes.

Actors in Social Exchange

Individuals or groups participating in exchanges who possess resources valued by others.

Resources

Possessions or behavioral capacities that hold value for social exchanges, which can be tangible (goods, services) or intangible (approval, status).

Direct Exchange

An exchange where each actor's outcomes depend directly on the other's behavior, such as buying a product.

Generalized Exchange

An exchange occurring among multiple actors where reciprocity is indirect, typically involving a network of relationships.

Productive Exchange

An exchange where actors collaborate to produce a joint benefit, such as in team projects or co-authoring.

Reciprocal Exchange

An informal exchange initiated by one actor's kind act for another without prior negotiation, relying on the expectation of future reciprocation.

Negotiated Exchange

A structured exchange where actors reach agreement on the terms of engagement through dialogue.

Power in Exchange Theory

The ability of one actor to influence another's behavior due to their dependence on the exchange of resources.

Extrinsic Rewards

Benefits that are separable from the relationship and derived from external factors, such as material wealth.

Intrinsic Rewards

Valued benefits that are gratifying in themselves, such as emotional satisfaction or social bonding.

Blau's Theories

Focuses on emergent properties in exchanges, including the dynamics of social relations and differentiation of power.

Hartsock's Critique

Challenges traditional exchange theories for failing to address domination and structural inequalities in social exchanges.

Material Basis of Subordination

Hartsock argues that women's domestic and caregiving labor is often undervalued, influencing power dynamics in societal exchanges.

Standpoint Epistemology

Analyzes how one's social position shapes perspectives on power and social structures, highlighting women's insights into domination.

Structural Relations in Exchange

Power and exchange are influenced not just by individual actions, but by deeper social structures and histories.

Imbalanced Power Relations

Situations where one party's dependency grants them control or influence over another in an exchange.