Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups Chapter 5

Social Interaction and Reality • Reality shaped by perceptions, evaluations, and definitions • Varies across cultures • Ability to define social reality reflects group’s power • Social change involves redefining or reconstructing social reality

Social Interaction • The process by which people act and react in relation to others • Social construction of reality – the process by which people shape reality through social interaction • Thomas Theorem – Situations defined as real become real in their consequences

Status • Status – a social position • Status set – consists of all the statuses a person holds at a given time • Ascribed status – a social position given to a person by society • Achieved status – a social position that someone assumes voluntarily and that reflects ability and effort

Status • Master status – a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life.

Figure 5-1: Social Statuses

Roles • Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status • Role conflict - conflict among roles corresponding to two or more different statuses • Role strain – incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status

Understanding Social structure • Durkheim • Tonnies • Lenski

Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity • Division of Labor ([1893] 1933) • Mechanicalsolidarity: Collective consciousness that emphasizes group solidarity, implying all individuals perform the same tasks • Organicsolidarity: Collective consciousness resting on the need society’s members have for one another

Tönnies Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft • Gemeinschaft (guh-MINE-shoft): Small community in which people have similar backgrounds and life experiences • Gesellschaft (guh-ZELL-shoft): Large community in which people are strangers and feel little in common with other community residents

Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach • Human societies undergo process of change characterized by dominant pattern known as socioculturalevolution • Level of technology critical • Technology: “Cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of the environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 2006:361)

Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach • Preindustrial Societies • Hunting-and-gathering society: People rely on whatever foods and fibers are readily available • Horticultural societies: People plant seeds and crops • Agrarian societies: People are primarily engaged in production of food

Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach • Industrialsocieties: societies that depend on mechanization to produce its goods and services • People depend on mechanization to produce goods and services • People rely on inventions and energy sources • People change function of family as a self-sufficient unit

Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach • Postindustrial and Postmodern Societies • Postindustrialsociety: Economic system engaged primarily in processing and controlling information • Postmodernsociety: Technologically sophisticated society preoccupied with consumer goods and media images

Groups Group: any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact on a regular basis Primary group: small group with intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation Secondary group: formal, impersonal groups with little social intimacy or mutual understanding

Table 18-1: Comparisons of Primary and Secondary Groups

Groups In-groups and Out-Groups In-groups: any groups or categories to which people feel they belong Out-groups: any groups or categories to which people feel they do not belong Conflict between in-groups and out-groups can turn violent on a personal as well as political level

Groups Reference group: any group thatindividuals use as standard for evaluating their own behavior

Formal Organizations • Large, secondary groups that are organized to achieve goals efficiently

Types of formal Organizations • Utilitarian - primary motive is income • Normative – not for income but to pursue some worthwhile goal • Coercive- involuntary

Bureaucracy • a form of organization based on explicit rules, with a clear, impersonal, and hierarchical authority structure

Characteristics of Bureaucracy • Complex division of labor (specialization) • Hierarchy of authority • Explicit rules • Rewards on the basis of performance • Extensive written records

Corporation • A group that, through the legal process of incorporation, has been given the status of a separate and real social entity • Limited liability

Group Think • Intense social pressure within a group for individuals to conform to group norms and abandon individual and critical thinking • People will compromise judgment to avoid being difficult • Solomon Asch’s experiment

Types of Leadership • Instrumental Leadership – group leadership that emphasizes the completion of tasks • Expressive Leadership – group leadership that focuses on collective well-being

Organizational Culture • Classical theory (scientific management) workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards • Human relations approach – emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation within a bureaucracy

Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups