chapter 5 - social interaction Flashcards
organizations
collectivities characterized by structure that encourages patterns in individual action
ascribed status
a social position imposed on a person at birth related to a characteristic impossible or extremely difficult to change
achieved status
a social position that a person acquires through their efforts and choices
master status
a social position that a person considers central to their social identity
role-playing
conforming to existing performance expectations
role-making
the creative process by which individuals generate role expectations and performances
social interaction
the process by which role performers act in relation to others
instrumental communication
sending messages that are a means to an end
expressive communication
sending messages that are ends in themselves
mediated interaction
communication that uses technologies to send and receive messages
technological determinism
the idea that the adoption of technologies leads to inevitable and sometimes undesirable effects
emotion management
people obeying “feeling rules” and responding appropriately to the situations in which they find themselves
emotion labour
emotion management that many people do as part of their job and for which they are paid
power
the capacity to carry out one’s will despite resistance
domination
a mode of interaction in which nearly all power is concentrated in the hands of people of high status. fear is the dominant emotion in systems of interaction based on domination.
cooperation
a basis for social interaction in which power is more or less equally distributed between people of different status. the dominant emotion in cooperative interaction is trust.
competition
a mode of interaction in which power is unequally distributed but the degree of inequality is less than in systems of domination. envy is an important emotion in competitive interactions.
dramaturgical analysis
the view of social interaction as a sort of play in which people present themselves so that they appear in the best possible light
role distancing
giving the impression that we are just “going through motions” but actually lack serious commitment to a role
ethnomethodology
the study of how people make sense of what others do and say by adhering to pre-existing norms
breaching experiments
experiments that illustrate the importance of everyday, ritualistic interactions by disrupting interaction patterns
status cues
visual indicators of a person’s social position
stereotypes
rigid views of how members of various groups act, regardless of whether individual group members really behave that way
