Introduction to Sociology SOC-101

Introduction to Sociology SOC-101 Unit 5 – Social Structure and Social Interaction

Levels of Sociological Analysis • Macrosociology • This is the analysis of social life that focuses on the broad features of society • This includes social class and how groups related to one another • Used by conflict theorists and functionalists • Goal is to examine the large-scale social forces that influence people • Microsociology • This is the analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction • What people do when they come together • Used by symbolic interactionists • Both analyses need to be used to get a full perspective of what is being studied

Macrosociological Perspective • In order to understand human behavior, we must examine the social structure • Social Structure • This is the framework that surrounds us • Consists of the relationships of people and groups to one another • It guides our behavior • People learn certain attitudes and behaviors because of their location in the social structure

Components of Social Structure • The components of social structure include: • Culture • Social Class • Social Status • Roles • Groups • Social Institutions

Components of Social Structure • Culture • This refers to a group’s language, beliefs, values, behaviors, gestures and material objects • This is the broadest framework that determines who we become • Social Class • A group of people who rank close to each other in income, education, and power • This influences not only our behaviors but attitudes and ideas

Components of Social Structure • Status • A recognized social position that an individual occupies • Different from “prestige,” where someone who holds a high position has high status • We hold multiple statuses at once • Each status adds to our social identity, defines our relationships to one another, and guides our behavior

Components of Social Structure • Status Set • All the statuses a person holds at a particular time • For example, at one time a person can be a sister, daughter, student, and friend • Status sets can change over the course of one’s life • We gain and lose many statuses over the course of our lifetimes

Components of Social Structure • Ascribed Status • This is a social position that a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life • Race, ethnicity, gender, daughter, teenager • Achieved Status • This is a social position that a person assumes voluntarily and reflects personal ability and choice • Honors student, spouse, parent, teacher

Components of Social Structure • Master Status • This is a position that carries exceptional importance for identity and often shapes a person’s entire life • Cuts across all other statuses you hold • For most people occupation is a master status because it says a lot about your social background, education, and income • Master status can be a negative if it is tied in with a disease, disability, or even gender in some societies

Components of Social Structure • Status Inconsistency • When a person’s statuses are mismatched or contradict one another • 10-year-old college student or 25-year-old with Alzheimer's • Status Symbol • Item used to identify a status • Wedding rings, uniforms, luxury car • Can also be negative like the “scarlet letter” in Hawthorne’s book

Components of Social Structure • Role • The behaviors, obligations and privileges expected of someone who holds a particular status • Individuals hold a status and perform a role • Roles lay out what is expected of people • Group • People who regularly interact with one another • They usually share similar values, norms, and expectations • To belong to a group we have to yield the right to make certain decisions about our behavior to others in the group

Social Institutions • Social Institution • The organized, usual, or stand ways by which society meets its basic needs • Examples include family, education, law, military, and mass media • In industrialized societies, the social institutions are more formal, while in tribal societies they are more informal

Society and Its Transformations • Society • A group of people who share a culture and a territory • In order to understand society, we need to examine its transformation over time • Hunting and Gathering Society • A group that depends on hunting and gathering for its survival • Consisted of small, nomadic groups that moved as they depleted an area’s vegetation or pursued migratory animals • Had an egalitarian society since no one owned anything and no one became wealthier than anybody else • There were no rulers as the group as a whole made decisions

Pastoral and Horticultural Societies • Pastoralism • This is the domestication of animals • Horticulture • This is the cultivation of plants using hand tools • First Social Revolution • With a dependable source of food, labor became specialized and with that people were able to accumulate material possessions • Creation of an elite, ruling class

Agricultural Societies • Agricultural Societies • Agriculture • Large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources • Growth of permanent settlements with populations growing into the millions • Members of this society become even more specialized and money is invented as a form of common exchange

Agricultural Societies • Second Social Revolution • Social inequality became a fundamental feature of social life • Most people worked as serfs or slaves • The elites were free to study philosophy, art, and literature • The elites also created armies to hold their power • Men began to gain pronounced power and privilege over women

Industrial Societies • Industrial Societies • Industry • The production of goods using advanced sources of energy (like steam) to drive large machinery • Before 1765, most had depended upon human or animal to provide power • With the development of the steam engine, production became much more efficient

Industrial Societies • Third Social Revolution • Industrialization brought even greater surplus and even greater social inequality • Those who first used the new technology created massive amounts of wealth • People moved off their farms into the cities to work in factories • Over time, the social equalities diminished as workers gained rights, slavery was abolished, and there was the creation of a more representative form of government

Postindustrial (Information) Societies • Postindustrial Society • It is based on information, services, and the latest technology rather than on raw materials and manufacturing • Basic component is information • Fourth Social Revolution • Based on the microchip, the information revolution is transforming society

Social Integration • Social Integration • This is the degree to which members of a society are united by shared values and other social bonds • With the way society has evolved and its many conflicting groups, how does society still hold itself together? • Sociologists have found that as societies change, so do people’s orientations to life

Mechanical/Organic Solidarity • Emile Durkheim (1893) • Believed that as society changes, the relationships amongst its members also change • Mechanical Solidarity • People have much in common through similar work, education, religion, and lifestyle • This was found in more traditional and small scale societies

Mechanical/Organic Solidarity • As societies get larger, labor becomes more specialized • People become more dependent on one another for the work they contribute to the whole • Organic Solidarity • The interdependence that results from the division of labor where people depend on others to fulfill their jobs • This is found in more modern and industrial societies

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft • Ferdinand Tönnies also analyzed the evolution of two types of human association in 1887 • Gemeinschaft (“Intimate Community”) • A type of society in which life is intimate, and where everyone in the community knows everyone else • Found in traditional and small scale societies • An example of this is Amish society

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft • Over time, society changed and the relationships among people became more impersonal • Gesellschaft (“Impersonal Association”) • A type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest • This is more modern day, industrial society

Microsociological Perspective • While macrosociologists look at the overall features of society, microsociologists looks that the interpersonal, face-to-face interactions • Stereotypes • Assumptions of what people are like, whether true or false • First impressions of a person can be shaped and affected by their sex, race, ethnicity, age and clothing • This can also affect how you act towards that person

Personal Space • Personal Space • This refers to the surrounding area over which a person makes some claim to privacy • The definition of personal space varies from culture to culture • In the U.S., most people prefer to stand several feet apart when talking • In the Middle East, they stand much closer • Edward Hall (1969) • An anthropologist who observed that North Americans use four different “distance zones” when it comes to personal space

Personal Space • Four levels of personal space • Intimate Distance – (> 18 inches from our bodies) • Reserved for comforting, protecting, hugging, intimate touching, and lovemaking. • Personal Distance – (18 inches to 4 feet) • Reserved for friends and acquaintances and ordinary conversations • Social Distance – (4 to 12 feet) • For impersonal or formal relationships • For example, we use this zone for such things as job interviews • Public Distance – (<12 feet) • Reserved for more formal relationships • For example, it is used to separate dignitaries and public speakers from the general public

Dramaturgy • Dramaturgy – Erving Goffman (1922-1982) • Analyzed social life in terms of drama or the stage • Socialization consists of learning how to perform on the stage of life • Performances • Everyday life includes things like dress (costume), objects carried along (props), and tone of voice and gestures (manner) • Impression Management • People’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them • Front Stage – This is where we give “our lines” to an audience • Back Stage – “Behind the scenes” where there is no audience • This is where we can relax and let “our hair down”

Dramaturgy • Roles play a vital aspect in dramaturgy • Role Performance • The ways in which someone performs a role within the limits that role provides • Being the “ideal” daughter, or the “good” worker • Role Conflict • The conflict someone feels between roles because the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectation of another role • Do you study, go to your friend’s party, or help your parents out with chores? • Role Strain • Conflicts that someone feels within a role • A friendly boss still needs to keep his distance to evaluate his workers properly

Dramaturgy • Team Work • The collaboration of two or more people to manage impressions jointly. • Face-Saving Behavior • Techniques used to salvage a performance going sour • Tact • Helping someone save face; when members of the “audience” help a performer recover from an embarrassment

Role Strain and Role Conflict

Ethnomethodology • Ethnomethodology – Harold Garfinkel (1967) • This is the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings using commonsense • Background Assumptions • These are deeply embedded common understandings of how the world operates and how people are supposed to act • In order to discover our background assumptions we must break the rules • This is the only way to see how people construct their reality • Examples include bargaining for items in a supermarket, the teacher playing the student for a class, talk to people an inch away from their face • By breaking the rules, people will become agitated, surprised, and possibly angry

Social Construction of Reality • Social Construction of Reality • The use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real • Thomas Theorem – William and Dorothy Thomas (1928) • “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” • We behave according to the way we perceive the world • It is not the reality of something that impresses itself on us, but society impresses the reality of something on us

“Saints” and “Roughnecks” • In 1978, William Chambliss published his study on the “Saints” and the “Roughnecks” • Examined two different delinquent groups in a town’s high school • The “Saints” were boys from “good” middle-class families and were expected to “go somewhere” • The “Roughnecks” were boys from lower-class families and perceived to have “no futures”

“Saints” and “Roughnecks” • The boys in both these groups skipped school, got drunk, did a lot of fighting, and committed numerous acts of vandalism • The Saints actually were more delinquent since they skipped school more often and committed more acts of vandalism • After high school, seven of the eight Saints graduated college and went on to well paying jobs • Three of them received advanced degrees • With the Roughnecks, only four finished high school • Two did well in sports, went to college on scholarships, and became high school coaches • Two who did not graduate wound up in prison for separate murders

“Saints” and “Roughnecks” • Using macrosociology, we can see: • How social class can either open or close doors for us • How people learn different goals in different groups • Using microsociology, we can see: • How the Saints used their reputation to their advantage and how it negatively affected the Roughnecks • How the Saints used the fact that they had cars and were able to use them to commit crimes in other communities (thus keeping their “good” reputation in their own community • How the Roughnecks, by not having cars, were focused in a small area and visible to their own community

Macro- and Micro-Sociology • We need to study both macro- and micro-sociology to get a complete understanding of social life as they both give us different aspects

Introduction to Sociology SOC-101