SOC Chapter 4: Social Structure and Social Interaction

Question 1

Define: Macrosociology

Answer 1

analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationship between groups to one another; 
usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists

Chapter 4, Page 102

Question 2

Define: Microsociology

Answer 2

analysis of social life that focuses on social interactions;
typically used by symbolic interactionists

Chapter 4, Page 102

Question 3

Define: Social Interaction

Answer 3

one person’s actions influencing someone else;
usually refers to what people do when they are in one another’s presence, but also includes communications at a distance

Chapter 4, Page 102

Question 4

Define: Social Structure

Answer 4

the framework of society that surrounds us;
consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another;
this framework give direction to and sets limits on our behavior

Chapter 4, Page 103

Question 5

Define: Social Class

Answer 5

according to Weber, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige;
according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor

Chapter 4, Page 105

Question 6

Define: Status

Answer 6

the position that someone occupies in a social group
(also called social status)

Chapter 4, Page 105

Question 7

Define: Status Set

Answer 7

all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies

Chapter 4, Page 105

Question 8

Define: Ascribed Status

Answer 8

a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life

Chapter 4, Page 105

Question 9

Define: Achieved Statuses

Answer 9

positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity on the individual’s part

Chapter 4, Page 106

Question 10

Define: Status Symbols

Answer 10

indicators of a status;
items that displays prestige

Chapter 4, Page 106

Question 11

Define: Master Status

Answer 11

a status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies

Chapter 4, Page 106

Question 12

Define: Status Inconsistency

Answer 12

ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others;
also called status discrepancy

Chapter 4, Page 106

Question 13

Define: Role

Answer 13

the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status

Chapter 4, Page 107

Question 14

Define: Group

Answer 14

people who interact with one another and who believe that what they have in common is significant;
also called a social group

Chapter 4, Page 107

Question 15

Define: Social Institution

Answer 15

the organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs

Chapter 4, Page 108

Question 16

Define: Social Integration

Answer 16

the degree to which members of a group or a society are united by shared values and other social bonds;
also known as social cohesion

Chapter 4, Page 110

Question 17

Define: Mechanical Solidarity

Answer 17

Durkheim’s term for the unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel a result of performing the same or similar tasks

Chapter 4, Page 110

Question 18

Define: Division of Labor

Answer 18

the splitting of a group’s or a society’s tasks into specialties

Chapter 4, Page 111

Question 19

Define: Organic Solidarity

Answer 19

Durkheim’s term for the interdependence that results from the division of labor;
as part of the same unit, we all depend on others to fulfill their jobs

Chapter 4, Page 111

Question 20

Define: Gemeinschaft

Answer 20

a type of society in which life is intimate;
a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness

Chapter 4, Page 111

Question 21

Define: Gesellschaft

Answer 21

a type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest

Chapter 4, Page 111

Question 22

Define: Stereotype

Answer 22

assumptions of what people are like, whether true of false

Chapter 4, Page 116

Question 23

Define: Body Language

Answer 23

the ways in which people use their bodies to give messages to others

Chapter 4, Page 118

Question 24

Define: Dramaturgy

Answer 24

an approach, pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage;
also called dramaturgical analysis

Chapter 4, Page 118

Question 25

Define: Impression Management

Answer 25

people’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 26

Define: Front Stages

Answer 26

places where people give performances

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 27

Define: Back Stages

Answer 27

places where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 28

Define: Role Performances

Answer 28

the ways in which someone performs a role;
showing a particular “style” or “personality”

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 29

Define: Role Conflict

Answer 29

conflict that someone feels between roles because the expectations attached to one role are at odds with those attached to another role

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 30

Define: Role Strain

Answer 30

conflicts that someone feels within a role

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 31

Define: Sign-Vehicle

Answer 31

the term used by Goffman to refer to how people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate

Chapter 4, Page 119

Question 32

Define: Teamwork

Answer 32

the collaboration of two or more people to manage impressions jointly

Chapter 4, Page 120

Question 33

Define: Face-Saving Behavior

Answer 33

techniques used to salvage a performance (interaction) that is going sour

Chapter 4, Page 122

Question 34

Define: Ethnomethodology

Answer 34

the study of how people use background assumptions to make sense out of life

Chapter 4, Page 123

Question 35

Define: Background Assumption

Answer 35

a deeply embedded, common understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act

Chapter 4, Page 123

Question 36

Define: Thomas Theorem

Answer 36

William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas’ classic formation of the definition of the situation:
“If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”

Chapter 4, Page 124

Question 37

Define: Social Construction of Reality

Answer 37

the use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real

Chapter 4, Page 124