Ch. 4 Social Structure and Interaction

Question 1

analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationship of groups to one another; usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists

Answer 1

Macrosociology

Question 2

analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction; typically used by symbolic interactionists

Answer 2

Microsociology

Question 3

one person’s actions influencing someone else; usually refers to what people do when they are in one another’s presence, but also includes communications at a distance

Answer 3

Social interaction

Question 4

the framework of society that surrounds us; consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior

Answer 4

Social structure

Question 5

a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige

Answer 5

Social class

Question 6

the position that someone occupies in a social group

Answer 6

Status

Question 7

all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies

Answer 7

Status set

Question 8

a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life

Answer 8

Ascribed status

Question 9

positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity on the individual’s part

Answer 9

Achieved status

Question 10

indicators of a status; items that display prestige

Answer 10

Status symbols

Question 11

a status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies

Answer 11

Master status

Question 12

ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others

Answer 12

Status inconsistency

Question 13

the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status

Answer 13

Role

Question 14

people who interact with one another and who believe that what they have in common is significant

Answer 14

Group

Question 15

the organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs

Answer 15

Social institution

Question 16

the degree to which members of a group or a society are united by shared values and other social bonds

Answer 16

Social integration

Question 17

Durkheim’s term for the unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks

Answer 17

Mechanical solidarity

Question 18

the splitting of a group’s or society’s tasks into specialties

Answer 18

Division of labor

Question 19

Durkheim’s term for the interdependence that results from the division of labor; as part of the same unit, we all depend on others to fulfill their jobs

Answer 19

Organic solidarity

Question 20

a type of society in which life is intimate

Answer 20

Gemeinschaft

Question 21

a type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships

Answer 21

Gesellschaft

Question 22

Erving Goffman’s term for an approach in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama of the stage

Answer 22

Dramaturgy

Question 23

people’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them

Answer 23

Impression management

Question 24

places where people give performances

Answer 24

Front stages

Question 25

places where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan their future performances

Answer 25

Back stages

Question 26

the ways in which someone performs a role; showing a particular “style” or “personality”

Answer 26

Role performances

Question 27

conflict that someone feels BETWEEN roles because the expectations attached to one role are at odds with those attached to another role

Answer 27

Role conflict

Question 28

conflicts that someone feels WITHIN a role

Answer 28

Role strain

Question 29

Goffman’s term for how people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate information about the self

Answer 29

Sign-vehicle

Question 30

techniques used to salvage a performance (interaction) that is going sour

Answer 30

Face-saving behavior

Question 31

the study of how people use background assumptions to make sense out of life

Answer 31

Ethnomethodology

Question 32

a deeply embedded, common understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act

Answer 32

Background assumption

Question 33

if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences

Answer 33

Thomas theorem

Question 34

the use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real

Answer 34

Social construction of reality