Social Structure and Social Interaction

1. Chapter Four Social Interaction in Everyday Life

2. Comparing Functionalist and Conflict Perspectives • Functional Requisites – Replacing Members – Socializing New Members – Producing and Distributing Goods and Services – Preserving Order – Providing a Sense of Purpose • Conflict Theorists – Small Group holds Majority of Wealth – Preserve the Status Quo

3. Social Interaction in Everyday Life • Symbolic Interaction • Dramaturgy: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life • Ethnomethodology: Uncovering Background Assumptions • Social Construction of Reality

4. Social Structure: A Guide to Everyday Living Social interaction – the process by which people act and react in relation to others.

5. Status • Status – a social position that an individual occupies. • Every status is part of our social identity. • It defines who and what we are in relation to others.

6. Status A status set – all of the statuses a person holds at a given time.

7. Status Ascribed status – a social position a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily.

8. Status Achieved status – a social position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects personal ability.

9. A Master Status • Some statuses matter more than others, often shaping a person’s entire life. • A master status – a status that has special importance for social identity.

10. Master statuses are those that overshadow our other statuses. Shown here is Stephen Hawking, who is severely disabled by Lou Gehrig’s disease. For some, his master status is that of a person with disabilities. Because Hawking is one of the greatest physicists who has ever lived, however, his outstanding achievements have given him another master status, that of a world- class physicist in the ranking of Einstein.

11. Role • Role – behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status. • Role performance varies according to personality. • Role set – a number of roles attached to a single status.

12. Status & Role • "Role" is what the doctor does (or, at least, is expected to do), while status is what the doctor is. In other words, "status" is the position an actor occupies, while "role" is the expected behavior attached to that position. • People occupy status. People perform roles.

13. Status Set and Role Set Figure 4-1

14. Role Conflict and Role Strain • Role conflict – conflict between roles corresponding to two or more statuses. • When we experience being pulled in several different directions.

15. Role Conflict and Role Strain Role strain – tension among roles connected to a single status. Performing various roles attached to one status feels like a “balancing act.”

18. Role Exit • Role exit – the process by which people disengage from important roles • “Exes” must rebuild relationships with people who knew them in their earlier life. “Ex-nun”

19. Role Exit No Coined Terms Coined Terms • Ex-doctor • Ex-convict • Ex-baseball player • Ex-president • Retiree • Divorcee • Widow • Alumnus

20. Roles and Values “Petty Neighbors” “The Role of the Neighborhood Association”

21. The Social Construction of Reality • Social construction of reality – the process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction. • Interaction is a complex negotiation. • “Reality” remains unclear in everyone’s minds

22. The Thomas Theorem The Thomas Theorem – situations that are defined as real as in their consequences. W.I. Thomas

23. The Thomas Theorem •A prisoner attacked people mumbling absent-mindedly to themselves. •To the deranged inmate, these lip movements were curses or insults. •No matter that they weren't; the results were the same. W.I. Thomas

24. Ethnomethodology • Harold Garfinkel states people create reality in everyday encounters. • Ethnomethodology – the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings. • Realities are influenced by culture. Harold Garfinkel

25. Reality Building: Class and Culture Our social background affects what we see. People build reality from the surrounding culture.

26. Dramaturgical Analysis: “The Presentation of Self” • Dramaturgical analysis – the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance (“actors on a stage”) Erving Goffman • Each performance involves the presentation of self, one’s efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others. • aka “impression management”

27. Performances • Impression management refers to the processes by which actors attempt to control how others perceive them. • Impression formation refers to the processes of inferring meaning about others from gestures, significant symbols, and other characteristics (Mead 1934).

28. Sign Vehicles • According to Goffman, we use various mechanisms, called Sign Vehicles, to present ourselves to others. The most commonly employed sign vehicles are the following: • Social setting • Appearance • Manner of interacting

29. Social Setting • The social setting is the physical place where interaction occurs. It could be a doctor’s examination room, a hallway, someone’s home, or a professor’s office. • How we arrange our spaces, and what we put in them, conveys a lot of information about us. • How we decorate our settings, or what Props we use, also gives clues to how we want people to think of us.

30. Appearance • Clothing: Indicates, wealth, self care. Props such as a wedding band, a doctor’s stethoscope, or a briefcase tell others even more about us. • Physical Stature: Height, weight…The tendency to assume that a physically attractive person also possesses other good qualities is called the Halo Effect. • Race: Anthropologically speaking, there are only three races: white, black, and Asian. Humans feel the need to assign every individual to one of the three races and then draw conclusions about their musical preferences, tastes in food, and home life based on that classification. • Stereotypes: A Stereotype is an assumption we make about a person or group that is usually based on incomplete or inaccurate information, often physical characteristics.

31. Manner of Interacting Consists of the attitudes we convey in an attempt to get others to form certain impressions about us. These consist of gestures, facial expressions, and body language. • Gestures: In our society, we often shake hands when we meet someone for the first time. The offer to shake hands signals that we want to meet the other individual, so when one person extends his or her right hand and the other person does not do likewise, the second person is insulting the first.

32. Manner of Interacting • Facial Expressions: Facial expressions also convey information. Humans can convey a surprising amount of information in a look or an expression: a smile, frown, grimace, raised eyebrows, and narrowed eyes all convey distinctly different messages. • Body Language: Body language consists of the ways in which we use our bodies consciously and unconsciously to communicate. Personal Space- 1–2 feet: Close friends, lovers, and family members 2 –4 feet: Acquaintances and coworkers 4–12 feet: Formal acquaintances, such as a potential employer

33. Nonverbal Communication • Nonverbal communication – using body movements, gestures, and facial expressions rather than speech. • This conveys information.

34. Nonverbal Communication Eye contact is used to invite and encourage interaction. Hand gestures may convey an insult. Gestures also supplement spoken words.

35. Nonverbal Communication Words, voice, and facial expressions are often ways to spot people telling lies. Paul Ekman

36. Gender and Performances • Women are socialized to be less assertive than men. • Women tend to be more sensitive to nonverbal communication.

37. Gender and Performances Men typically command more space than women. Women craft their personal performances more carefully than men.

38. Idealization, Embarrassment, and Tact • We construct performances to idealize our intentions (Erving Goffman). • We try to convince others we do not have selfish motives.

39. Idealization, Embarrassment, and Tact Embarrassment – discomfort resulting from a spoiled performance.

40. Idealization, Embarrassment, and Tact “Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.” Abraham Lincoln -a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense Tact – helping someone “save face.”

41. Interaction in Everyday Life: Emotions Humor Language

42. Interaction in Everyday Life: Emotions Emotions, more commonly called feelings, are an important dimension of everyday life. All human beings experience the same basic emotions and display them to others in the same basic ways.

43. Interaction in Everyday Life: Humor • Humor is a product of reality construction. • It stems from the contrast between two different realities.

44. Interaction in Everyday Life: Humor Humor provides a way to express an opinion without being serious. Humor often is a sign of real conflict.

45. Questions • What information did you gather about classmates as you formed impressions of them (e.g., physical appearance, social group membership, verbal or nonverbal expressions)? • How did you decide what information to share or not share? • What statuses did you take on, and what roles, characteristics, and attitudes are important for playing them appropriately? • In what ways was your presentation of self influenced by the impressions you formed of others? • To what extent was your successful performance dependent on the performance of others?