Chapter 5 Social Groups Formal Organizations Social interaction and reality Social interaction ways people respond to one another Social structure the way society is organized into predictable relations Ability to define social reality reflects groups power within society Status socially defined positions within a large group or society Person can hold more than one status at same time Ascribed and Achieved Status Ascribed Status status one is born with Achieved status status one earns Master status status that dominates other statuses and determines a person s general position in society Role behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status Individual hold a status and perform a role Social Role Role conflict conflict between roles corresponding to two or more statuses Role strain tension between roles connected to a single strain Role exit process of disengagement from a role that is central to ones identity to establish a new role doubt search for alternatives action stage or departure creation of new identity Types of groups Group any number of people with similar norms values and expectations who interact on regular basis Primary group small group with intimate face to face association and cooperation Ex Family friends Secondary group formal large impersonal groups with little social intimacy or mutual understanding In groups and out groups In groups any group 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 Reference group any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating their own behavior Reference groups set and enforce standards of conflict and belief Often two or more reference groups influence us at the same time Coalitions temporary or permanent alliances geared toward a common goal Social Networks Social network series of social relationships that link a person directly to others and indirectly links him or her to still more people Networking involvement in social network valuable skills when job hunting Can center on any activity Formal organizations and Bureaucracies Formal organization group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency Characteristics of a Bureaucracy Bureaucracy component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency Ideal type bureaucracy weber construct or model for evaluating specific cases 1 Division of labor 2 Hierarchy of authority 3 Written rules and regulations 4 5 6 Records and files Impersonality Employment based on technical qualification Alienation conditions of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society Trained incapacity workers become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems The Peter Principle every employee within a bureaucracy tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence Goal displacement overzealous conformity to official regulations Basic Instituations 5 basic social instituations 1 Family to care for dependents and rear children 2 Economy to produce and distribute goods 3 Government to provide community coordination and defense 4 Education to train new generations 5 Religion to supply answers about unkown and unknowable Social structure in Global Perspective Modern societies are complex Durkheim s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity Tonnies Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft Mechanical Solidarity collective consciousness that emphasizes group solidarity implying all individuals perform the same tasks Organic Solidarity collective consciousness that hinges on the need of societys members have for one another Gemeinschaft small community Gesellschaft small society Conformity and obedience Conformity going along with peers who have no special right to direct behavior Obedience compliance with higher authorities in an hierarchical structure Milgram experiment Experimented instructed people to administer increasingly painful electric shock to a subject Teachers and learner Mild shock 15 volt Intense shock 350 volts Danger severe shock 450 volts Results 2 3 of participants fell into category of obedient subjects Jerry burgers 2006 replication of milgram study 70 full obedience 73 women 65 men What is deviance Deviance behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society involves violation of group norms which may or may not be formalized Why do people violate social norms Competing explanations of deviance 1 Biological Explanations Focus on genetic predispositions 1911 Cesare Lombroso Inborn criminal 1913 Charles Goring 3 000 convicts 3 000 law abiding citizens No difference in characteristics 1940 s William Sheldon The body type 1960 s genetic abnormality extra y chromosome 1985 Herrstein and Wilson Inborn factor predispose street crime Freud arrested development Berkowitz fragile self esteem Functionalist perspective Durkheim Legacy 2 Psychological Explanations focus on individual abnormality involving personality 3 Social explanations all behavior deviance as well as conformity is shaped by society Deviance has a number of social consequences some of which are functional and some of which are dysfunctional to society Functions of Deviance clarification of norms enhancement of solidarity diversion of discontent Dysfunctions of Deviance disruption of social order confusion of norms and values diversion of resources Merton s theory of deviance anomie Theory of deviance how people adapt in certain ways by conforming to or by deviating from cultural expectations Forms of deviant behavior conformist innovator ritualist someone who loses their sight of following the rules retreatist someone who does not care about being successful or wealthy rebel you are rejecting socially approving goals People with power protect their own interest and define deviance to suit their needs Benefit their privileges Differential justice differences in way social control is exercised over different groups Conflict theory Interactionist perspective Cultural transmission Theory Cultural transmission explains deviances as behavior that is learned in the same way As conformity through interaction with others Differential association social relationships oriented toward particular types of people such as criminals bad behavior is learned in primary group settings Social disorganization theory increases in crime and
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