EXAM 2 READING GUIDE NOTE for the exam you will need to know material we cover in class that is not included in this guide Symbols Selves and Social Reality BBC TV The Office Role Taking Role Making and the Coordination of Action 125 146 1 What are relationships What does fitting lines of action mean How can relationships be asymmetrical Relationships are associations that consist of shared expectations about identities values meanings goals and roles Fitting lines of action is a continual process of adjusting behavior according to others actions They can be asymmetrical by disproportionately imposing will on others by setting conditions making decisions and shaping form and course of relationship 2 What is Power and how do people exercise it know processes e g constraints and sub processes e g punishments Power is the capacity to get other people to think feel or act the way you want them to regardless of their desires People can exercise power through the importance of dependency one has what other needs lack of alternatives constraints punishments coercion withholding privileges inducements money status freedom persuasion symbolic mobilization create proper image appeal to commitment or loyalty signifying authority information control surveillance disclosing information gestures of dominance staring pointing invading space interrupting and altercasting casting others in roles to occupy 3 What is the definition of the situation Do people always share it Why or why not How is the definition of the situation reciprocally linked to social interaction and social roles The definition of the situation answers the question what is going on Agreements about what is going on in a given situation It shapes interactions can be ambiguous contain possible disagreement and it has a reciprocal relationship with roles It is through our observations and interaction with others that we come up with a definition of a certain situation 4 What is role performance Role embracement Role distance Role performance is displaying behavior that embodies the expectations of that role ex Student taking notes in the classroom student pretending to pay attention Role embracement is the act of openly accepting that role and its expectations ex Student actively participating in class Role distance is the act of actively avoiding a particular role ex Student pretending he doesn t care about school yet makes good grades 5 How are social roles linked to people s actions How are roles influenced by social hierarchies Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group With each social role you adopt your behavior changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role Symbols Selves and Social Reality BBC TV The Office Role Taking Role Making and the Coordination of Action 125 146 1 What is role taking How does it help us understand how others define the situation What shapes one s skill and accuracy in role taking How is role taking linked to social hierarchy or power more generally Role taking is the act of looking at ourselves and our actions from another person s standpoint It helps us guess how others define a situation by answering the question what is going on It also shapes interactions Three factors shape role taking our social experiences social types and the degree of familiarity we have with the other individual Therefore we can take on other roles more accurately when we are more similar to them in social statuses and backgrounds 2 What is role making How is role making related to taking the perspective of others others performances and role exits Role making is the process through which we improvise some features of our behavior in response to others behavior It often arises due to role conflicts and it occurs during role exists 3 What is the difference between motivations and motives A vocabulary of motive and accounts What are 2 types of accounts Motivations are alleged internal drives Motives are public explanations we give for our behavior Vocabulary of motive phrases rhetorics or discourses people use or draw from to provide legitimate explanations for their actions Accounts Post hoc explanations of inappropriate or questionable acts two types excuses admit behavior but deny responsibility and justifications accept responsibility but suggests that it should not be seen as improper 4 How are definition of situation and emotions linked What are feeling rules What is emotion work What are two types of emotion work Every definition of the situation includes emotional expectations and ideas that set the tone for interaction Feeling Rules are emotional expectations that display guidelines for interaction and consist of understandings about what kinds of emotions are acceptable or desirable who is entitled to feel and express them and what forms of expression and displays are permissible Emotion work is the process of evoking suppressing and otherwise managing our feelings The two types of emotion work are surface acting act the part and deep acting the efforts we engage to suppress or evoke certain feelings Schwalbe Michael Sandra Godwin Daphne Holden Douglas Schrock Shealy Thompson and Michele Wolkomir 2000 Generic Processes in the Reproduction of Inequality An Interactionist Analysis Social Forces 79 419 452 1 How did Schwalbe et al analyze the data In what way is the analysis generalizable Used qualitative studies dealing with inequality as data and asked of them of what more abstract category of phenomena is this an instance It is generalizable across different social settings 2 How does this paper make a contribution to the study of social inequality It uncovers the generic interactional processes through which inequality is reproduced 3 What are the four basic processes of inequality reproduction 1 Othering Defining other groups as inferior Oppressive othering Implicit othering by creating powerful virtual selves Defensive othering among subordinates 2 Subordinate Adaptation Accepting and or adapting to one s subordination Trading power for patronage Forming alternative subcultures Hustling or dropping out 3 Boundary Maintenance Maintaining boundaries between the dominant and subordinate groups Transmitting cultural capital Controlling Network Access The threat and use of violence 4 Emotion Management Controlling or conditioning one s emotions to facilitate inequality Regulating discourse Conditioning emotional subjectivity Scripting mass events 4 Be able to