Interactions, Groups, and Organizations Flashcards
- Symbolic Interactionist Views of Interaction
Def: How peoples past experiences effect how they interact and communicate with others.
Ex: Someone who was abused by their parents as a child will most likely be quiet when interacting with people of authority.
- Rational Choice Views of Interaction
Def: People will interact with others if it benefits them and if it outweighs the cost of interaction.
Ex: Farmers market: Buyers- new things
Sellers- money
- Functionalist Views of Interaction
Def: The idea that each section of society interacts and influences other parts.
Ex: Teachers teach students and then the students become teachers and the cycle repeat.
- Conflict Views of Interaction
Def: Allows a group to change and develop due to the conflict. “Prevents the group from become resistant to change.”
Ex: Two roommates are arguing over cleanliness but come to an agreement to be less picky and more clean respectfully.
- Social Construction of Reality
Def: The process of using powers of discussion to shape ones perspective.
Ex: A animal shelter phrasing their animal descriptions to make them sound like the “perfect pet.”
5a. Thomas Theorem
Def: The things we define as real cause real consequences.
Ex: Asking if someone smells something weird when nothing is different and having the respond that they smell it too after a while.
5b. Ethnomethodology
Def: The study of how common rules begin
Ex: Immediately going to the drinks and going through the dining hall backwards to see the reactions.
- Dramaturgical Analysis
Def: We are always “acting” to idealize our roles. We are trying to convince everyone that we are perfect.
Ex: “The perfect student” : always on time, asks and answers the questions, is engaged in the material…
6a. Presentation of Self
Def: The way one acts and displays themself to society. “The way they want to be seen”
Ex: I want to be seen as kind and successful so I work hard and make sure to help anyone I can.
6b. Front Stage/Back Stage
Def: Front stage is when are actively completing the tasks of our roles. “Seen by the audience.” Back stage is when we are preparing to play the roles. “Out of character”
Ex: Front stage: Following the script, choreography and fixing mistakes on the fly as the character
Back Stage: Learning lines and choreography, going back and fixing mistakes with practice, practicing til its just right.
6c. Impression Management
Def: The attempt to influence another’s perspective of you.
Ex: Only allowing someone to see your successes but not your failures to ensure that see you as successful.
6d. Tact and Humor
Def: Sensitivity and laughter used as a reaction to when reality starts to break down.
Ex: Dark humor and empathy
- Ascribed Statuses
Def: A social position that is not chosen. Either born into or not-willingly assumed.
Ex: Being born into a middle class family gives you the ascribed status of a middle class person.
7a. Achieved Statuses
Def: A social status that is purposefully adopted to reflect a certain quality.
Ex: Someone who takes dance classes achieves the status of dancer.
- Master Status
Def: The superior status that shapes ones entire life
Ex: Male/female, CEO, parent…
- Statuses
Def: The jobs and rewards that someone receives based upon their standing in society.
Ex: I have the status of musician in my family so I always get asked to sing and play my instruments during the holidays.
- Roles
Def: The repetitive behavior that represents a certain status.
Ex: Someone who routinely cares for a child has the role of care-giver.
- Role Conflict
Def: When multiple of a single persons role conflict with each other.
Ex: The role of daughter and the role of student may conflict as both have huge responsibilities and there are only so many hours in a day.
11a. Role Strain
Def: The stress that happens one role requires too much from an individual
Ex: The role of student in SWE required almost 20 hours a week as a non-major and lead to me leaving the class.
- Anomie
Def: A time in which society is unstable due to the traditional values breaking down.
Ex: People resort to stealing because they cannot afford food and clothing.
- Group Leadership Styles
Def: Three different types
Authoritarian: Getting the task done, One leader.
Democratic: Makes sure everyone is included and happy
Laissez-faire: Essential the group functions by itself and has its own power.
Ex: Authoritarian groups: Dictatorship
Democratic: American government (supposedly)
Laissez-faire: Amish
- Group Think
Def: The thinking of a group tends to be more extreme than an individual. Can very easily spiral.
Ex: A group project that starts as just a simple diorama and turns into a paper, diorama and small play.
- Types of Formal Organizations
Def: Utilitarian: A group that people join in hopes of earning something in return.
Normative: “voluntary” groups that people join in hopes of giving something back to others.
Coercive: Groups that people join by accident or were forced into.
Ex: Utilitarian: A job
Normative: Volunteering
Coercive: School (primary)
- Characteristics of Bureaucracies
Def: Things that work together to make a bureaucracy function perfectly
Ex: Specialization, hierarchy of offices, rules and regulations, technical competence, impersonality, formal/written communications.
- Dysfunctions of Bureaucracies
Def: Things that go wrong and cause mistakes and a lack of perfection.
Ex: Alienation, ritualism, inertia, Iron law of oligarchy, Parkinson’s law, Peter Principle.
