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Chapter 5 Social Structure

The document outlines key concepts related to social structure and interactions, including definitions of social institutions, statuses, roles, and types of societies. It discusses the impact of social structure on behavior, the dynamics of social groups, and various sociological theories such as ethnomethodology and dramaturgical analysis. Additionally, it highlights the differences between role conflict and role strain, as well as the sociology of emotions and the significance of social interactions.

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4 views

Chapter 5 Social Structure

The document outlines key concepts related to social structure and interactions, including definitions of social institutions, statuses, roles, and types of societies. It discusses the impact of social structure on behavior, the dynamics of social groups, and various sociological theories such as ethnomethodology and dramaturgical analysis. Additionally, it highlights the differences between role conflict and role strain, as well as the sociology of emotions and the significance of social interactions.

Uploaded by

jennisenpai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapters 5 – Social Structure, & Interactions - Study guide

You should be familiar with the following terms and concepts, and be able to apply
them to examples:

- Components of Social Structure


• Social structure: complex framework of societal institutions (economy, politics,
religion) and social practices (roles and rules) that organize and establish limits on
behavior
• Functional: creates order and predictability, we develop self-concept based on
society
• Conflict: ex. economic production is the most important structural aspect of
society
• Social marginality: being part insider and part outsider (ex. immigrants)
• Social institution: set of organized beliefs and rules that say how society attempts
to meet basic social needs (family, religion, education, economy)
o Functionalist views: 5 essential tasks
▪ Replacing members (who move away/die)
▪ Teaching new members
▪ Producing, distributing, consuming goods and services
▪ Preserving order
▪ Providing/maintaining sense of purpose
o Conflict views: social institutions are originally created to serve basic
social needs, but do not treat everyone equally (ex. families may create
more harm than good)

- The definitions of “statuses”


• Socially defined position in society characterized by expectations, rights, and
duties
• Status set: all statuses that a person has at a given time
• Status symbols: material signs of status

- Master Status
• Most important status that dominates individual’s other statuses

- How Social Structure helps the patterns of Social Interaction

- Ascribed and Achieved statuses


• Ascribed: conferred at birth and involuntarily later on in life
• Achieved: gained voluntarily by merit, choice, or effort (ex. occupation,
education, income)

- Roles
• Set of behavioral expectations associated with given status
• Role expectation: societal definition of the way a specific role ought to be played
• Role performance: how a person actually plays a role
• Role ambiguity: expectations of a role are unclear
• Role distancing: people continuously foster impression of a lack of commitment
or attachment to a particular role and merely go through the motions of a role
performance; happens when people think a role is beneath them
• Role exit: disengaging from social roles that have been central to one’s self-
identity (ex. divorcees, ex-convicts)
o Doubt → search for alternatives → turning point (final action) → creation
of new identity
- Groups
• Social group: 2+ people who interact frequently and share a common
identity/feeling of interdependence
• Primary group: small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-
face, emotion-based interactions
• Secondary group: larger, more specialized, more impersonal, goal-oriented
relationships
• Social solidarity: group’s ability to maintain itself in the face of obstacles
• Social network: series of social relationships that links an individual to others
• Formal organization: highly-structured to perform specific tasks (ex. college,
corporations, government)

- Ethnomethodology
• Study of commonsense knowledge that people use to understand situations in
which they find themselves
o Ethno: people; methodology: system of methods
• Interaction is based on assumptions of shared expectancies

- Dramaturgical Analysis
• Study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation
• Social script: playbook that actors use to guide their verbal replies and overall
performances
• Impression management: efforts to present self to others in ways that are most
favorable
• Face-saving behavior: strategies to rescue performance when we experience
potential or actual loss of face
• Front-stage: area where players perform specific roles before an audience
• Back-stage: area where performer is not required to play a role because it is out of
view of an audience

- The 5 different types of societies (hint: Agrarian, Horticulture, etc.)


• Hunting and gathering: simple technology for hunting animals and gathering
vegetation (made of natural materials)
o Basic social unit is the kinship/family, live in small groups instead of
private homes, largely egalitarian, relatively isolated
• Pastoral: based on technology that supports domestication of large animals to
provide food (mountainous and low-rainfall areas)
o Shift from collecting to producing food because of: depletion of supply in
large game animals, increase in size of human population to feed, dramatic
weather and environmental changes
o Gender inequality greater
• Horticultural: technology created to cultivate food, more fertile areas
o Family is basic unit in both H and P, H less nomadic than P
o Property rights emerge as they become less nomadic
• Agrarian: large-scale farming (animal-drawn or energy-powered plows)
o Highest social inequality in class and gender; landlords and peasants;
agrarian farming requires more strength
• Industrial: mechanized production
o Rate of social and technological change increases
o Occupation becomes key defining characteristic rather than kinship
o Family size diminishes and political institutions grow, status of women
declines further
• Postindustrial: technology becomes service and info based
o Knowledge becomes commodity
• Gemeinschaft: “commune” or “community”; social relationships are based on
personal bonds of friendship and kinship and intergenerational stability
o Strong sense of belonging, but limited privacy
• Gesellschaft: “association”; large urban society with social bonds based on
impersonal and specialized relationships with little long-term commitment to
group/consensus values
o Relationships based on achieved status and are rational and calculated,
self-interest

- How do roles interact with each other?

- Know the differences between role conflict and role strain,


• Role conflict: incompatible demands are placed on a person by two or more
current statuses
• Role strain: incompatible demands built into ONE status

- Deceptive performances

- The Sociology of Emotions


• Feeling rules: shape appropriate emotions for a given role/situation

- Social Interaction and Meaning


• Process by which people act towards or respond to other people
• We have expectations about others and they have expectations about us
• Social interactions have shared meanings across situations
• Civil inattention: showing awareness that another is present without making this
person the object of particular attention
• Interaction order: regulates form and processes of social interaction

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