Powerpoint #4 - Social Interaction Flashcards
What is social structure?
regular patterns of behavior/social interactions and persistent social relationships
What are the three theoretical perspectives?
- Symbolic Interactionism
- The Dramaturgical Perspective
- Social Exchange
What is social interaction?
the basis for social life, the process by which people affect on another through actions, interpretations of actions, and responses to actions
What is the normative structure?
expectations attached to a position
What is the occupational structure?
distribution among social positions
What is the stratification system?
distribution of social rewards
What is social status?
socially recognized position in a social system
-defined in many ways: occupation, education, age, etc
What is an ascribed status?
a status you are assigned without regard to actions, desires, or abilities (ex. age, race, “daughter/son”, etc)
What is an achieved status?
a social status that you have achieved through your actions (ex. college graduate, student, criminal, etc)
What is a status set?
set of all statuses occupied by someone at one time
What is a master status?
a position that is so important it dominates all other statuses in a status set for both the individual and the people around them (ex. President, athlete, disabled, etc)
What is a manifest status?
a status that defines/structures the role set for a particular situation
What is a latent status?
a status formally defined as irrelevant to a situation and which should have no bearing on interaction
How do social statuses provide continuity during change?
- social statuses continue once a particular individual is gone
- someone can change social statuses at any time
What is a social role?
a set of expectations for anyone occupying a particular social status (ex. preacher)
What is a role set?
a set of all roles associated with a particular social status (ex. a mother being expected to care for her child, no matter who she is as an individual)
What is role performance?
actions by an individual occupying a social status based on their role (ex. musician playing in a concert)
What is role making?
modifications/changes in roles as a result of individual actions by people occupying those roles (ex. police officer being more brutal makes people think other police will be brutal too)
What is role strain?
difficulties meeting the expectations of a single role
What is role conflict?
when different roles have incompatible expectations
What is role segregation?
avoid statuses invoking incompatible roles with the same role partner (ex. teachers avoiding romantic relationships with students)
What is role distancing?
a separation of one’s self from the role one must play, strategy to separate identity from action (ex. mother giving medicine to child when they won’t like it and she doesn’t want to give it, a doctor cracking jokes in OR to relieve tension)
How do roles make life manageable?
- predict behavior of others (ex. students predict teachers will give tests)
- provide expectations for how you should act (ex. not snoring in class)
- generalize behavior from one setting to another
How do roles limit behavior?
- can oversimplify behavior, encouraging routine responses instead of thoughtful initiative (ex. taking notes and not asking engaging questions)
- may encourage relating to people based on stereotypes (ex. relate to children as children and not recognizing their individual characteristics)
What is a stereotype?
generalization about certain set of people saying they have specific characteristics, not accounting for individuals
What is a self-fulfilling prophesy?
an assumption that, once having been made, leads to a predicted event happening
–> Snyder: female attractiveness leads to change in male action
What is Symbolic Interaction?
emphasizes meaning of actions and use of symbols
What is the social construction of reality?
process of how people define reality, influenced by interactions with others as well as experiences/assumptions
What is does defining the situation mean?
social process through which the statuses/roles appropriate to situation are identified
- can be defined as actions, props, and staging
- ex. notion that the lecture is starting when the teacher begins to talk
What is Negotiated Order?
determined by interactions when people propose/discuss/settle on a shared definition of a situation
What is the Dramaturgical Perspective?
social life viewed using metaphor of people as actors on a stage
*Erving Goffman
What is emotional labor?
work activity requiring the worker to display particular emotions in normal course of providing a service (ex. receptionist answering phone in happy/helpful manner
What is the Social Exchange Theory?
social interactions in terms of valued outcomes to the participants
-assumes people are motivated by self-interests
What is the norm of reciprocity?
if you give someone something you expect a return of equal value
–> Whyte: studying restaurant employees and favors by employers
What is the social construction of exchange?
- can’t do it continually or it will become accepted as norm, cheapens the value
- ex. more likely to help someone who drives you when it’s raining than someone who drives you everyday
What is socialization?
the process by which a person learns and comes to accept the established ways of a particular social group or society
What is role exit?
a process in which a person disengages from a role that is central to their identity and establishes a new alternative role
What is social stratification?
the structure of social inequality in a society (ex. distribution of wealth, status, power)
What is role structure?
the set of roles performed by members of a group, organization, or collectivity
“Zero-sum game”
describes social interactions in which one participant can win only if the other participants lose and whatever benefits the winner gets becomes losses for the others so there is not net positive net benefit of the interaction
