Chapter 5 - Social Roles, Interaction and Organisation Flashcards
______ is a recognized social position that a person occupies that imposes responsibilities and expectations
status
what is status set
a collection of statuses that you have
eg. a teacher, brother, drummer, taxpayer, adult, etc..
what is acheived status
you entered it at some stage in your life but weren’t born into it
what is ascribed status
one you were born into
Eg. daughter, black
the degree to which a status is achieved or ascribed depends on how much _____ _______ exists
social mobility
In a society with little social mobility, where small ruling elites dominates, the statuses of president, judge, or rich business owners can be more ______ than ______
ascribed than achieved
the process of someone’s appearance not clearly putting them into a group can sometimes achieve a racial status that society judges to be more favorable is known as _______
Eg. middle eastern passing as white
passing
sexual orientation is primarily an _____ status while it is _______ for some
Sexual orientation is primarily an ascribed status while it is natural for some
______ ________ introduced master status in “Dilemmas and Contractions of Status” (1945)
Everett C. Hughes
what is master status
signifies the status that dominates all of an individual’s other statuses in most social contexts
Statuses can be ranked from high to low based on prestige and power which is referred to as the _____ ________
status hierarchy
what is status consistency vs status inconsistency
Status consistency: is the condition a person experiences when all their statuses fall in the same range as their social hierarchy
Status inconsistency: cases when a person holds social statuses that are ranked differently and do not align
Ex: a middle-aged white man born into wealth but works as a receptionist
he process by which groups are assigned into categories that set them at or beyond the margins of the dominant society is known as __________
marginalization
a set of behaviors and attitudes associated with a particular status is known as a ______
role
who developed the idea of the role set
Robert Merton
what is a role set
comprises all the roles that are attached to a particular status
Ex: as professors, we have the role of teacher to our students, but we are also colleagues to our peers, employees to our schools
_____ ______ develops when there is a conflict between roles within the role set of a particular status
role strain
eg. if a student complains to his instructor about a teacher in another class, the instructor is placed in a conflict between her role as educator, in which she has the student’s best interests at heart, and her role as a colleague, in which she must be loyal to the other professor
______ ________ occurs when a person is forced to reconcile incompatible expectations generated from two or more statuses they hold
role conflict
Ex: You are a mother and university student, it’s the night before an exam and you must study, however your daughter needs help with homework
_____ _____ is the process of disengaging from a role that has been central to one’s identity, and attempting to establish a new role
Role exit
In small group settings, statuses can be a valuable way to establish the ______ order, or who is __ _____
In small group settings, statuses can be a valuable way to establish the pecking order, or who is in charge
The study of small-group interaction started with German sociologist, Georg _____ (1858-1918)
He was among the first to narrow his focus to the ______ ___ __ ____ social interactions
George Simmel
He was among the first to narrow his focus to the daily one-on-one social interactions of individuals
a study done by Fredrick ______ (1892-1962) whose classic study of gangs in Chicago represents a study of group interaction rooted in fieldwork
Fredrick Thrasher (1892-1962) whose classic study of gangs in Chicago represents a study of group interaction rooted in fieldwork
William I. Thomas
Showed that the way people _______ their own lives was a sociological element well worth studying
“situations we define as real become real in their consequences”
interpret
In sociology, everyone has _______ statuses
multiple
A social status that you were born into or entered into involuntarily is
an ascribed status
Everett C. Hughes called a social status that dominates an individual’s other statuses
a master status
When a person holds social statuses that are ranked differently and do not align, they are experiencing
status inconsistency
A set of behaviours and attitudes associated with a particular status is
a role
A person who is forced to reconcile incompatible expectations generated from two or more of their statuses is experiencing
role conflict
The process of disengaging from a role that has been central to one’s identity is called
role exit
RObert F Bles developed a system of coding got social interaction in small groups called ______ _____ _______ (IPA)
Interaction process analysis (IPA)
William I. Thomas’s theorem called “the thomas theorem” holds that (hint its the quote)
“the situations we define as real become real in their consequences”
this influences symbolic interactionism including the definition of the situation
the thomas theorem influenced the term “definition of the situation”. Define it
the term refers to te notion that two or more people might define a given situation differently and in contradictory ways, abed on their own subjective experiences
therefore, understanding how an individual defines a situation is crucial to understanding the individuals actions and responses to it
Sociologists today are not involved in studying small-group interactions for what two reasons
The work was much the product of a structural-functionalist perspective, which has become a minority perspective today
Small-groups studies at the time when they were popular lacked a proper consideration of gender, “race,” ethnicity, etc.
Social organization is
he social and cultural principles around which people and things are structured, ordered, or categorized
a social organization based on the equality of members or on the princeple of hierarchy is _______
egalitarianism
a social organization based on clear, well-defined ranks or levels is
hierarchal
European societies moved from being states organized around religion (______), to ______ non religious states
and from ______ to _________
theocracies to secular
Monarchies to democracies
At the heart of organizing principles in Europe are the ways in which a culture produces knowledge about the world based on a particular ________
cosmology - an account of the origin and ruling principles of the universe, especially the role of humans in relationship to non-humans (living and non-living)
Organizational principles are based on our _______ of the _____ , which is informed by our cosmology
knowledge of the world
what is an organizational ritual
a form of social action in which a group’s values and identity are publicly demonstrated or enacted in a stylized manner, within the context of a specific occasion or event
Organizational rituals and symbolic acts are part of an _________ culture
an organizational culture
Which kind of female organizational structure is professional, bureaucratic, and inclusive, and makes few demands of its members?
Formal social movement organizations
why was there an increase of organization studies
An increase in organizational studies is due to Western capital invested by companies to find ways to increase profits by managing employee behavior and practices more efficiently
In her study of feminist organizations, Carol Mueller (1995) identified 3 models that typify the kind of organizational structure that has developed in contrast to traditional, male forms:
Formal social movement organizations
Small groups or collectives
Service provider organizations
what are formal social movement organizations
Are professional
Bureaucratic
Inclusive
Make a few demands of their members
Ex: organizations dedicated to basic women’s rights
what are small groups or collectives (organizations)
Organized informally
Require large commitments of time, loyalty, and material resources from its members
Ex: publishing companies dedicated to promoting women authors
what are service-provider organizations
Combine elements of both formal and small group organizations
Ex: organizations dedicated to specific women’s rights such as providing counselling services and protection to victims of domestic abuse
where did the term bureaucracy originate
eighteenth-century France from the work bureau (“writing desk”)
In other words, the place where officials work
who is known for his extensive work or bureaucracy and specifically for his examination of formal rationalization (rationality)
Max Weber
what is rationality (formal rationalization)
a term frequently used in business reports where it serves as a euphemism for firing workers and cutting hobs in an effort to reduce costs and become more efficient
The four basic elements of formal rationalization are
efficiency
quantification
predictability
and control
Scientific management was developed by
Frederick W. Taylor
substantive rationalisation involved the substance of ____ and _____ norms
Substantive rationalization: involves the substance of values and ethical norms
what is social facilitation
the positive and negative impacts of group membership on a individual
people perform differently when they are in a group vs when they are not
can be unconscious
a social phenomenon in which being in the presence of other can improve ones ability to perform a task
when surrounded by other people and being observed people have a tendency to do better on _____ tasks and worse on ______ tasks
better on simple tasks
worse on complex tasks
social loafing is
the presences of other people reducing individual effort
because there’s other people around that can pick up the slack
_______ is a form of social influence in which individuals change their behaviour in order to adhere to the group
conformity
following the will of the group
____ was interested in how group pressure would persuade an individual to give wrong answers simply because the group wanted it
He used the _____ test
Asch
(solomon Asch)
line test
what is groupthink
who came up with it?
the tendency to want to maintain agreement within a group
Irving Janis
what is a bureaucracy/ formal organization
a formal organization model consisting of an explicit chain of authority and and a set of procedures and protocols that guide the relationships and processes that exist within it
what are Maw Weber’s 5 characteristics of a bureaucracy?
division of labor (clear roles eg. boss)
hierarchy of authority
rules and regulations
Impersonality (expected to do job regardless of personal things)
qualifications (position based on abilities)
job descriptions for every position is common in _______
Bureaucracies
Max weber talked about _____
an analytical construct that clearly depicts all the main features of a social phenomenon but cannot be easily found in reality
ideal type
Eg. the traits of a bureaucracy are ideal types, and most bureaucracies will fit into them but not all perfectly
ie. they arent all the same
we occupy multiple _______
which require that we enact various _______ in out daily lives
we occupy multiple statuses
which require that we enact various roles in our daily lives
