Chapter 9: Social Interaction Flashcards
What are social statuses?
Ascribed status?
Achieved status?
Master status?
We create a hierarchical structure with inequalities of material goods, social opportunities, social acceptance, and skills.
Social statuses are perceived positions in societies that are used to classify individuals
Ascribed status: given involuntarily based on race, ethnicity, sex, family background, and so on
Achieved status: gain as a result of one’s efforts or choices
Master status: status by which one is most identified; is pervasive in that person’s life
What are roles?
What is role performance?
Status is associated with roles, or sets of beliefs, values, attitudes, and norms that define expectations for those who hold the status
Role performance is the carrying out of behaviors associated with the given role
Example: part of a doctor’s role is to translate medical information into language their patients can understand; however, some doctors are far better at this skill than others
Role performance can also change depending on the social situation in context of the interaction
What are role partners?
What are role sets?
Role performance can change depending on the social situation in context of the interaction
A doctors role can change, depending on whether they’re talking to a patient or a colleague
Behaviors and expectations thus change as a result of the role partner: the person with whom one is interacting
The various roles associated with the status are referred to as a role set
What is role conflict?
What is role strain?
What is role exit?
Give example
Role conflict is the difficulty and satisfying the requirements or expectations of multiple roles
Role strain is the difficulty in satisfying multiple requirements of the same role
Role exit is the dropping of one identity for another
A great example of role conflict is a single parent who also works a full-time job. Both of these roles carry a very large set of expectations, which are often at odds with each other.
What are groups?
A group, also known as a social group, consist of two or more people who share any number of similar characteristics as well as a sense of unity
Diet, two people; triad, three people; etc.
As a group increases it trades, intimacy for stability. Common characteristic shared by social group includes values interests, ethnicity, social background, family ties, and political representation.
What is an in group?
What is an out group?
Group conflict?
Peer group?
Family group?
Reference group?
An in group is a social group with which a person experiences a sense of belonging or identifies as a member
An outgroup refers to a social group with which an individual does not identify
Group conflict can be created by out groups sometimes competing or opposing in groups
Peer group is a group that consist of self selected equals associated by similar interests, ages or statuses
Family group is not self selected, but determined by birth adoption and marriage
A reference group or groups that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves. Example: to determine how strong a medical school applicant you are, you might compare yourself to the reference group of all medical school applicants
What are primary and secondary groups?
Groups can be categorized into primary and secondary groups
Primary groups: interactions between members of the group are direct with close bonds, providing warm, personal and intimate relationship relationships to members (circle of friends, a tightly knit, family, or members of a team)
Secondary groups: the interactions are impersonal, and Business like, with a few emotional bonds, and with the goal of accomplishing a specific purpose. Short term, forming and dissolving without any special significance to those involved (students working on a group project)
What is gemeinschaft (community) and gesellshcaft (society)?
Ferdinand Tonnies
What is interaction process analysis (revised to the system for multiple level observation of groups SYMLOG)?
Believe that there are three fundamental dimensions of interaction
SYMLOG is based on the belief that there are fundamental dimensions of interaction:
Dominance versus submission
Friendliness versus unfriendliness
Instrumental controlled versus emotionally expressive
What is group conformity?
Group conformity states that individuals are compliant with the groups goals, even when the group goals may be in direct contrast to the individual goals
Individual individuals conform in an attempt to fit in and be accepted by the group
Individuals will often participate in behaviors they normally would not
Group holds power over its members, creating group pressure that can ultimately shape member’s behaviors
What is groupthink? How is it related to group conformity?
Groupthink is related to conformity and occurs with members focus on reaching a consensus at the cost of critical evaluation of relevant information
This can lead to groups, not exploring all sides of an issue and may limit the group options or views
Group members may self censor by not expressing their beliefs
What is a network?
What is network redundancy?
What are immediate networks?
What are distant networks?
The term is used to describe the observable pattern of social relationship, relationships among individuals or groups
Network redundancy is overlap in connections with the same individual of a group
Immediate networks or dense with strong ties
Distant networks are looser and contain weaker ties
The combination of immediate and distant networks provide the most benefit to individuals, which is augmented if the networks work complementary to provide different resources
What are organizations?
In sociology, organizations are complex secondary groups that are set up to achieve specific goals and are characterized by having a structure and a culture
Schools, companies, music groups, sports teams, fraternities, political organizations, community action committees, and so on
What is the modern formal organization?
The modern formal organization developed during the industrial revolution as a way to maximize efficiency
The formal aspect arrives from the explicit goals that guide the members and their activities
Have enforcement procedures that seek to control the activities of their members
Characterized by the hierarchical allotment of formal roles or duties to members
Formal organizations can be quite large
What is characteristic institution? What is bureaucracy?
The basic organization of society is found in its characteristic institution
In prehistoric times, the characteristic institution was primarily, clan, etc.
In modern times bureaucracy is the characteristic institution
A bureaucracy is a irrational system of political organization, administration, discipline, and control
Bureaucracy is slow to change less efficient than other organizations
Criticize bureaucracy using the iron law of oligarchy
The iron law of oligarchy states that Democratic or bureaucratic system is naturally shifted to being ruled by an elite group
Due to, including the necessity of a core body of individuals to carry out the day-to-day activities of the organization, increase in need for specialization, and leadership characteristics of certain members of the group
Even a group established with the Democratic principles and complete egalitarianism, ultimately centralize, placing power in the hands of a few key leaders
What is egalitarianism?
Egalitarianism is a belief in human equality, particularly regarding social, political, and economic affairs. It advocates for the removal of inequalities among individuals and emphasizes the equal treatment and value of all people, regardless of differences like gender, religion, wealth, or social status
What is McDonaldization?
McDonaldization is commonly used to refer to a shift and focus to deficiency, predictability, calculus, and control in suicidal practices
Named after the fast food joint
Corporations may mine “big data” to make business decisions, using controlled, standardized, methods, allowing the business to focus on the calculable outcomes of a choice, such as profit in loss analysis and market share
Concept check 9.1
Describe Erving Goffman dramaturgical perspective.
What is self presentation?
Erving Goffman dramaturgical perspective states that every interaction we have with other people is at theatrical performance in which we consciously unconsciously use the scene, our costume, and the role that we perform to influence the way other think or feel
Whenever we try to influence others per perception, with respect to a person, object, or event, we are engaging in impression management
Self presentation is a form of impression management and is the process of displaying ourselves to society, both visually and through our actions, often to make sure people see us in the best possible light
What are three of the primary models that describe individual emotion?
James Lange: suggests that emotions are caused by our interpretation of bodily reactions to events. In other words, physical changes in the body happen before the associated emotion is experienced. For example, a racing heart leads to the realization of fear. Here’s a breakdown of the theory
Cannon Bard: suggests that emotions and physiological arousal occur simultaneously, not sequentially. This means when a person experiences a stimulus, they feel the emotion and experience bodily changes (like a racing heart) at the same time, rather than the physiological changes causing the emotion
Schacter Singer: also known as the two-factor theory, suggests that emotions are caused by both physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal of a situation
What is the social construction model of emotion?
The social construction model of emotions assumes that there is no biological basis for emotions
States that emotions are based on experiences in the situational context alone
Also states that certain emotions can only exist within social encounters and that emotions are expressed differently and let’s play different roles across cultures
In this model, one must be familiar with social norms for a certain emotion to perform the corresponding emotional behaviors in a given social situation
What are display rules? (Emotions and culture)
Cultural expectations of emotions are often referred to as display rules
Example: Inuit society, anger is rarely expressed; individuals who demonstrate anger are considered social pariah
Display rules go in which emotions could be expressed into what degree
What is a cultural syndrome?
Cultural syndrome is shared set of belief, attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors among members of the same culture that are organized around a central theme
Example: happiness is generally considered a positive emotion across cultures
However, in countries with more individualistic, cultural syndromes, like the United States, happiness is viewed as infinite, attainable, and internally experienced
Contrasting, countries with a more collective is cultural syndrome, such as Japan, happiness is a very rational emotion and generally applied to collective experiences more than two individual successes or experiences
This difference is illustrated in the contrast between the phrase is “I am happy” and” I am sharing happiness with others”
