Chapter 4 lecture notes social structure and social interaction Monday February 07 2011 12 17 PM Social structure framework of society Macrosiocioligical perspective Micro individual people Macro large groups Status expectations a recognized social position that an individual occupies every status duties rights and a social position that someone receives at birth or assumes involuntary later in Ascribed status life Achieved status Master status o Status symbols Status set a social position that someone assumes voluntarily a status that cuts across other statuses that an individual occupies Most important items used to identify a status all statuses a person holds at a given time Role behavior expected of someone who hold a particular status individuals hold a status and preform a role conflict between roles corresponding to two or more statuses tension between roles connected to a single status Figure 4 4 role strain and role conflict Role conflict Role strain o Social group a collection of people who regularly interact with one another on the basis of the organized usual or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs people who share a culture and territory shared expectations Social institution Society What holds a society together o o Basic institutions o Mechanical solidarity Organic solidarity 5 basic social institutions Family to care for dependents and rear children Economy to produce and distribute goods Government to provide community coordination and defense Education to train new generations Religion to supply answers about unknown and unknowable Micro face to fact interaction personal space eye contact Microsociolgical perspective o Dramaturgy The presentation of self in everyday life Social institutions by erving Goffman scenes manipulated by the actors to convey the desired impression to the audience impression management Front region stage Back region back stage o o Non verbal cues o o Dress Body language facial expressions eye contact posture managing identities to support and sustain self esteem o Cuing Identity work o Two strategies 1 Avoiding blame 1 Accounts Excuses a b account in which one admits the act in question is wrong or inappropriate but claims one couldn t help it Justifications accounts that explain the good reasons the violator had for choosing to break the rule Bragging generally considered inappropriate 2 Gaining credit 1 Embarrassment and tact o o o spoiled performances Tact Thomas theorem an act to help another person save face Situations that are defined as real become real in their consequences the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings Reality is created by people in their everyday encounters how we make sense of countless familiar situations Ethnomethodology o Harold Garfunkel Break the rules
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