Week 3: Social Structure, Socialization, and Social Interaction Flashcards
Life Chances
opportunities someone is exposed to (access to material goods, education living conditions etc.), directly relating to their social status (socioeconomic)
Agency
our ability to act as an individual despite the structural rules & resources that influence our behaviours
Resources
things we have or acquire (eg money, education, status) that are valuable or allow us to accomplish goals
Rules
(formal): laws, dress codes (informal): unspoken social greetings, clothes
Social Structure
- sets structural boundaries for people making decisions individually and as a collective.
- Often limits choices some can make, and enables some to have choices others don’t,
- always influences how we act in society
- includes social status, roles, groups, networks, & institutions
Statuses
position a person occupies in a society or social group (eg. teacher, gender, race, sexuality, mother, student etc)
- master status: status others are most likely to use to define someone (eg. professor)
- ascribed status: status you are born with or assigned involuntarily
- achieved status: status you gain or earn (eg. CEO, PhD)
Roles
sets of behaviours, obligations and privileges that go with a status
-roles are expectations that are socially constructed
Thomas Theorum
“if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” -perceptions shapes reality
Role conflict
when these roles contradict, and the sets of behaviours do not go with eachother
Role Strain
stress when one social role requires incompatible or excessive behaviours, expectations, obligations (eg. new parent)
Groups
people with shared values and expectations
- primary: personal, long-term relationships, meaningful (eg. family, friend group)
- secondary: impersonal, tends to be goal-oriented, may be temporary, interchangeable people, may have rules, structures, authority figures (eg. coworkers)
Networks
relationship web that connects an individual to others directly and even more indirectly; can bring opportunities, resources, info
-one’s norms, values, can be shaped by network
Institutions
central domains of social life that guide behaviour (formal and informal)
- education, marriage, family, religion, media, law, government
- can influence & constrain actions; both create and solve inequalities; tend to be governed by norms;
Socialization
life-long process through which an individual establishes an identity within society and learns the social rules, interactions etc
Agents of Socialization
individual groups, organizations, and institutions that influence your sense of self (eg. family, school, media, friend groups)
Resocialization
process of adopting new social norms and identities; can occur in a total institution (eg. prison)
Looking-Glass Self
Cooley -the way we perceive how others see us affects our sense of self
Generalized Other
-Mead : values and norms of the larger culture that influences your behaviour
Reference Group
group that one’s beliefs, values, behaviours are based on the characteristics of; one may or may not be a part of the group
Goffman:The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life
-all we can observe is role performance
Dramaturgy
- Goffman
- the idea that life is like a never-ending play where people are the actors, presenting to the rest of society. People play out their roles, often using social scripts, props & costumes
Impression management
- the performers try to control the impression they make of themselves on others, front-stage
- the “audience” (which could just be the person they are talking to) compares the intentional character they are trying to express against the unintentional (facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms, nervousness, clothing etc)
Face
- what the performer presents front-stage, the presentation of self in social settings,
- interactions play out depending how well performers “maintain face”
- Saving Face: if a performer fucks up, saving face would be to quickly hop back into character. Audience can handle some slip ups, but too many results in shame
Face work
Goffman says that any social encounter is just the performers all hoping to survive without disaster or mishap, if not it causes a scene (think ordering a coffee, office hours, etc)
Front Stage
where the performers play out their roles, puts on their “face”, conveys their claim to status (eg waitress serving customers)
Backstage
out of public eye, where “props are stored, costumes adjusted, roles rehearsed.-drops performance and is themselves (eg waitress retreats to kitchen to talk shit about customers)
Emotional Management
the act of changing how they feel or how they appear to feel to others
Emotional Labour
being in an occupation that expects one to manage their emotions (eg cop being serious)
Feeling rules:(Hochschild)
socially shared guidelines that direct how we want to try to or try not to feel according to given situations (eg. do I have the right to be angry? You shouldn’t feel so guilty. You should be sad/grieving at a funeral.)
