Chapter 4 - From Social Interaction to Social Organizations Flashcards
Social Interaction
Involves communication among people acting and reacting to one another
It is our perceptions that determine how we act, and react
Social Status - 3 building block structures of all social interactions?
- SOCIAL STATUS
(A recognized social position)
-Being a brother, student. They always exist in relation to others.
ASCRIBED STATUS: (Given to us) Being born into Aboriginal identity
ACHIEVED STATUSES: (Prison inmate, pro football player, talk show host)
A STATUS SET is a collection of statuses held by a particular individual
Status hierarchy refers to how statuses can be ranked based on prestige and power
STATUS CONSISTENCY: If someone is consistently “high” or “Low” across all of their statuses, that is an example of
STATUS INCONSISTENCY:
What are the 3 building block structures of all social interactions?
Social Status
Role
Norm
Role - What are the 3 building block structures of all social interactions?
A set of expected behaviours (we occupy a status and play a role)
We OCCUPY a Status, and we PLAY/PERFORM as role. Ex. A mother is a status, but being a mother has many ROLES.
ROLE SET are the different role expectations that come with that status
Role Strain: occurs when two or more statuses held at the same time place contradictory role demands on a person
Role Conflict: Is when people have 2 or more statuses and the roles conflict. (Being a father, and a CEO. When its his sons bday, and he has a meeting, those conflict)
Norms - What are the 3 building block structures of all social interactions?
A generally accepted way of doing things
Behavioural expectations, we know what to expect. Stability, and predictability of our social interactions.
Theory and Social Interaction
Conflict theorists tend to argue that our interactions with one another lead to conflict over resources. Whether that money, approval etc.
Symbolic Interactionists: learned behaviour, we have learned to take on the role of others. This allows us to do nice things for other people.
DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH
means that we are always engaged in role play for certain audiences, and we do that to present a particular image of ourselves for certain people. We also do that to manage peoples impressions of us.
Front Stage: Public persona, (Waitress etc) (Job interview)
Back Stage: Our private selves, who we are really kind of, but you still act in particular ways.
Role Distancing: when a role is stressful, people engage in role distancing whereby they give the impression that the role is not their “true self”
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
Language has a social and cultural context. (Some things mean different things in different places or cultures)
- Non verbal cues can also help indicate what someone is talking about
Status Cues: They often degenerate into Stereotypes. We make assumptions about people and about who they are depending on status cues.
Networks, Groups, and Organizations
Three factors that shape our actions
1) Norms of solidarity demand conformity
- WW2 when soldiers killed innocent people.
- Also explains why police officers will look away when another police officer is performing an illegal act. The loyalty to the group is whats important.
2) Structures of authority tend to render people obedient
- The obedience study, STANLEY MILGRAM EXPERIMENT
- The pain experiment
3) Bureaucracies are highly effective structures of authority
- Was an effective machine thats why they were successful in exterminating so many people
- Beucracies tend to block people from the REALITY of the bureaucracy because everyone is given small roles.
Social Networks
- It is social networks that connect us together
- People are no more than 6 relationships from each other
Asch Experiment
-Conformity experiment (The line experiment) We can exert conformity on us
Networks, Groups, and Organizations
SOCIAL GROUPS: are people who actually identify with one another
- Baseball team, sorority, boy scouts group,
SOCIAL CATEGORIES: are people who share status. They don’t know that each other exist.
- People who watch a certain show will be part of a certain social category, they share a status.
- All the engineering students in Canada share a status
PRIMARY VS SECONDARY GROUPS
- Primary are individuals have close face-to-face interactions with one another (Students that share a house, long term associations, emotional connection)
- Secondary is not so close, but better for jobs. (Temporary associations)
WE ARE ALSO IN-GROUPS AND OUT-GROUPS
- In-groups are your groups
- Outgrips are groups that we feel we don’t belong (They or them) are considered out groups
A reference groups is comprised of people against whom an individual evaluates his or her situation or conduct
- If you want to be a pro football player, you may emulate their behaviour so you can become a player. You follow what they do, how they act, and how they train etc.
Groupthink and Bystander Apathy
Groupthink: refers to group pressure to conform despite individual misgivings (Even though something is bad, a group still follows)
BYSTANDER APATHY
When someone needs help, but people walk past because the responsibility is less when there is more people.
5 Key Characteristics of Bureaucracies
Bureaucracies (Describes as the most efficient type of secondary groups)
According to Weber, there are 5 KEY CHARACTERISTICS for Beurocracies
1) Clear division of labour
- People are assigned different tasks within he bureaucracies (Accounting, marketing, IT, research and development people, Different people doing different things)
2) Hierarchy of Authority
- People are arranged in the hierarchy based on experience. CEO up top, someone who cleans the toilets at the bottom, and everyone else in the middle.
3) Written rules and regulations
- These rules and regulations govern peoples behaviours. (At university, there are rules for differing exams etc)
4) Impersonality In Decision Making
- Someone working in EI wont make exceptions for other people when ever they come int he door. When people ADHERE to the rules and regulations, then this leads to impersonality in decision making
5) employment based on technical qualification
- While getting hired, they may have a degree thats required
