Social Structure and Social Interaction

1. Social Structure and Social Interaction

2. Starter • In your notes, write down 5 descriptions for yourself. Try to keep these to nouns and not adjectives. • Example: Ms. Manning is a teacher. NOT: Ms. Manning is knowledgeable about social studies. • We will come back to these descriptions a little later, so don’t lose them!

3. Social Structure • Society is a set of interrelated parts (which sociologists believe that?) • Social structure: interrelated statuses and roles that guide human interaction. • Sociologists describe a given social structure using two components:- Status - Role

4. Describing One’s Status • Status: socially defined position in a group or in a society. • Various types of statuses: • Ascribed status: a status assigned based on quality’s beyond someone’s control. Based on inherited traits or age (i.e. race, heritage, gender). • Achieved status: have control over and reached through effort; based on skills, ability or knowledge (i.e. basketball player, salutatorian). • Master status: the one status that tends to rank above the others and has the greatest role in determining one’s social identity.

5. Changes in Status • Can add to an individual’s achieved status. Other achieved statuses do not go away, though, so possibilities are endless. • An individual’s master status can change over time. What defines you now may not define you in 10-15 years. • For example, was Albert Einstein always known as a Nobel Price winner? What could be an example of his master status when he was 12?

6. Roles • Role: the behavior, rights and obligations expected of someone occupying a given status. • Ralph Linton: “You occupy a status, but you play a role.” • Reciprocal roles: corresponding roles that define the patterns of interaction between related statuses (i.e. husband and wife). • Role expectations: socially determined behaviors expected of a person performing a role. • Role performance: actual role behavior; may not match with the expectation.

7. Roles (cont’d) • With a single status, there can be many roles to perform. The many roles attached to a single status are known as a role set. • Sometimes these role sets are contradictory to the many statuses we occupy. The difficulty associated with trying to fulfill many role sets is known as role conflict. • Role strain: happens when an individual has difficulty meeting the expectations of a single status.

8. Social Institutions • When statuses and roles are organized to meet the basic needs for society it becomes known as a social institution. • Examples of social institutions include: family, friends, education, religion, the economy, etc.

10. Social Interactions • Interactions take many forms. These forms are: • Exchange • Competition • Conflict • Cooperation • Accomodation

11. Methods of Interaction • Exchange: interactions based on return for actions. • All have reciprocity: idea that there is a given take in all relationships. • Exchange Theory: people are motivated by self-interest; this self-interest determines interactions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahDxg3hc5pM&feature=related

12. Interaction (cont’d) • Competition: two or more people or groups oppose one another to achieve a goal. • Conflict: deliberate attempt to control via force, opposition or harm. • Cooperation: two or more people or groups work to achieve a goal that benefits more than one. • Accommodation: state of balance between conflict and cooperation. • Four forms: compromise, truce, mediation and arbitration.