7 Social Organization - Structure

Question 1

What is a status position?

Answer 1

The places people occupy in the larger system of interconnected positions

Question 2

Define status set

Answer 2

Status set refers to the complex of positions that a person occupies in her/his life in society

Question 3

Define Role.

Answer 3

The behavior associated with a status position

Question 4

Define role Set.

Answer 4

Role set refers to the cluster of behaviors emitted due to the occupancy of a given

Question 5

What is role conflict?

Answer 5

When we occupy different status positions whose role sets come into conflict

Question 6

What is role strain?

Answer 6

When the role set associated with a given status position is too demanding.

Question 7

What is social structure?

Answer 7

The persisting and bounded pattern of social relationships among the units in a social system. The connections between various parts of a system.

Question 8

Explain the relationship between culture and social structure.

Answer 8

Social structure organizes interaction. How interaction proceeds is determined by culture.

Question 9

How does social structure both enable and constrain human behavior?

Answer 9

Existing social structures provide us with paths that have already been created; we don’t have to create them ourselves. This enables us to access parts of society easily. However, this also constrains us because unlimited paths do not exist. We can only travel the structural pathways that exist.

Question 10

Define identity.

Answer 10

An internalized aspect of the self.

Question 11

How does social identity theory explain human behavior?

Answer 11

Behavior is driven by a desire to reaffirm our salient identities.

Question 12

What is a corporate unit?

Answer 12

Corporate units are social structures that reveal a “division of labor” where individuals play distinct roles.

Question 13

What are the 4 corporate units we discussed in class?

Answer 13

Encounters, groups, organizations, communities “

Question 14

What is a categoric unit?

Answer 14

Categoric units are social categories that carry (1) a cultural evaluation of social worth and (2) a set of normative expectations for how individuals in the category should play roles “

Question 15

What is a stratification system?

Answer 15

A “stratification system” exists when levels of one or more categoric units are defined by varying shares of valued resources.

Question 16

Explain how macro-level stratification systems can lead to micro-level discrimination according to status construction theory. (Hint: We can see success, but we can’t see skill.)

Answer 16

Through our experiences, we learn which levels of a categoric unit (e.g., men vs women) are more connected to cultural markers of success. If these experiences are reinforced enough, we automatically associate categoric units with success or a lack thereof. In turn, we are more likely to assume that one level of a categoric unit is more skilled/capable than other levels, even if that is not the case. Thus, we treat people discriminately on that basis.

Question 17

What is the halo effect?

Answer 17

People’s automatic tendency to assume that beautiful people possess many other socially desirable traits

Question 18

Name at least 3 ways in which attractive individuals benefit from their looks.

Answer 18

More attention; better evaluations of associated products; better pay; lighter criminal sentences

Question 19

What is an institution?

Answer 19

Institutions are societal structures that coordinate lower-level structures (groups, organizations, etc.) to resolve problems

Question 20

Explain how social structures impact interaction at the level of the encounter (Ex. How DMACC’s connections determine your potential interactions), but also how micro-level encounters can shape macro-level social structures (Ex. Rosa Parks).

Answer 20

Macro-level social structures determine who and what we can interact with. For example, students at DMACC can interact with many people from international communities due to the connections that DMACC has established. If DMACC didn’t have such connections, it wouldn’t be as likely to interact with someone from around the world. This is an example of how macro-level connections influence micro-level interaction; Micro-level encounters can also impact macro-level structures. A historical example of this is Rosa Parks. Her decision not to give up her seat on the bus was a small, isolated event. However, it was something that civil rights activists at the time utilized to bring attention to their cause and ultimately helped influence large structural changes in our society during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.