Download Social Structure and Social Interaction

Micro and Macro Sociological
Perspectives, Social Structure, and the
Social Construction of Reality
Macrosociology
 Focuses on broad features
of society
 Conflict theory,
functionalist viewpoints
part of the
macrosociological
perspective
 The goal is to examine the
large scale influences of
society
Microsociology
 Examines social
interaction
 Focus on face to face
interaction
 This approach is favored
by symbolic
interactionists
Macrosociological Significance of Social Structure
 Social structure - framework society has laid out
before you were born, surrounds us
 Consists of relationships- people and groups to each
other
 Gives directions to and sets limits on our behavior
 The differences of attitude and behavior are not
biological – but related to our location on the social
structure
Social Structure- Culture
 Languages, belief systems, values, behaviors,
gestures, material objects a group uses
 Broadest framework that determines what kind of
people we will become
 On the outside we look like a product of our culture,
on the inside we think and feel like most people
raised in our culture
Social Structure- Social Class
Social Class
 Based on income, education and occupational
prestige
 People who rank close to each other in these
categories make up a social class
 Influences our behavior, ideas and attitudes
Social Status
 All of us occupy
several positions at
one time
 Status Set all of the
positions we occupy,
changes as we change
 Types of statusascribed and
achieved.
Ascribed and Achieved Status
Ascribed Status
involuntary, some are
inherited at birth, some are
because of the life course
Achieved Status earned,
what you accomplish.
They can be positive or
negative
Social status sets limits on
what we can or cannot do
Ascribed and Achieved Status

 An ascribed status is one that is beyond an individual's control.
It is not earned, but rather something people are either born
with or had no control over. Examples of ascribed status
include sex and race. Children usually have more ascribed
statuses than adults since they do not usually have a choice in
most matters. A family's social status or socioeconomic status,
for instance, would be an achieved status for adults, but an
ascribed status for children. Homelessness might also be
another example. For adults, homelessness usually comes by
way of achieving, or rather not achieving, something. For
children, however, homelessness is not something they have
any control over. They become as such by default of their
parents' actions.
Ascribed and Achieved Status

 An achieved status is one that is acquired on the
basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen
and reflects a person's skills, abilities, and efforts.
Being a professional athlete, for example, is an
achieved status, as is being a lawyer, college
professor, or criminal.
Ascribed and Achieved Status

 The line between achieved status and ascribed status
is not always black and white. There are
many statuses that can be considered a mixture of
achievement and ascription. Take Paris Hilton, for
example, who has an achieved status of being an
actress. Many might argue that she would never
have achieved the status of actress if she had not
come from a wealthy family, an ascribed status of
hers.
Take a moment to reflect on your own statuses. What are all of
your statuses, and which are ascribed and which are achieved?
Ascribed Status
Achieved Status

Future Achieved Status
Master Status and Status Symbols
 Status Symbols material items we use as signs
to display our status.
 These symbols can be positive or negative
 announce our status and smooth our
interactions in everyday life
 Master status is one that cuts across all other
status you occupy- race, age, gender (ascribed)some are achieved- wealth, disfigurement,
handicap
 A contradiction in status is called status
inconsistency
 Status has built in norms that guide our
behavior- status inconsistency upsets these
expectations
Roles
 Roles behaviors, obligations and privileges
attached to status- sociologists see roles as
essential to social life
 Roles are set up at birth - gender,
socioeconomic status
 Occupy status, play a role
 Roles indicate what is appropriate and
expected
 As individuals play their roles they mesh
together and form society
Groups
 Members of a group share
similar values, norms and
expectations
 gives others the right to
make certain decisions about
our behavior
 member has to conform to
the expectations and play
their role within the
structure of the group
Social Structure
Social Structure –
underlying patterns of
relationships in a group
It is not static
Changes in response to
technology and evolving
values
Social structures are
affected by economy, racial
and ethnic relationships,
social needs, and priorities
What holds society together?
Social integration - degree to which
members are united by shared social bonds
and shared values
Durkheim called this organization
mechanical solidarity, a shared
consciousness that people feel as a result of
performing the same or similar tasks
 There is little diversity in attitudes, beliefs the
unity of the society depends on similar
thinking
What holds society together?
As societies grow larger the division of labor
becomes more specialized.
This division makes people depend on each other
– their work contributes to the whole
This interdependent relationship is called organic
solidarity
This change caused societies to tolerate many
differences among people to manage as a whole
What holds society together?
Ferdinand Tonnies called these
changes in different societies
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Gemeinschaft society where
life is intimate, the community
shares a sense of togetherness
Gesellschaft society is
dominated by impersonal
relationships, individual
relationships and self interest
Assignment
 The Amish: “Gemienschaft Community in a Gesellschaft
World” describes the way of life for the Amish. The
rising cost of lands has kept many young Amish families
from buying their own land, so many Amish men do
other jobs. Many Amish women have opened their own
businesses, manufacturing and selling items to tourists.
Why does non-farm work challenge the Amish way of
life?
Social Institutions
Organized, standardized ways that a
society develops to meet its needs
Social institutions- family,
government, education, military,
politics, law, science, medicine, mass
mediaSocial Institutions
Industrialized societies- more formal
Pre-industrial society- more informal
Mass Media as a Social Institution
 Influences our attitudes toward social institutions
 How we view people
 Shapes our self-concept
 Mass media relatively new – the invention of the
printing press changed views on religion and politics
Two Perspectives
 Functionalist perspective- mass media represents the
varied interests of the many groups that make up the
nation
 Conflict perspective- represent the perspectives of the elite
The question –who controls the media?
Comparing Functionalist and Conflict Perspectives in
Social Institutions
 Functionalist
 No society can exist without social institutions, perform
vital functions for society (functional requisites)
What are the basic needs of social institutions?
Replacing members- relationships
Socializing new members- education, religion, family
Producing and distributing goods and serviceseconomics
 Preserving order- law
 Providing a sense of purpose- all parts of society




Conflict Perspective
 Social institutions do not work harmoniously for the
good
 Powerful groups manipulate other institutions to
maintain positions of wealth and power
 Small groups control a majority of wealth and exert
influence on political institutions and lawmakers
 Gender- society divides males and females into groups
and each has unequal access to societies resources
Microsociological Perspective: Social Interaction
Symbolic interactionists- most important
part of society is social interaction and the
symbols they use.
How people perceive things, effects on
attitude, behavior and orientations in life
Examples of interaction- stereotyping,
personal space, touching and eye contact
Stereotypes, Touching, Eye Contact
 Stereotypes
 First impressions set the tone for interaction
 Race, age, gender, clothing are thing we all notice
 These things affect how we interact with that person
and how that person reacts to you
 Touching
 Frequency and meaning vary from culture to culture
 In general higher status individuals do more
touching
 Eye Contact
 One way to control our personal space bubble
Personal Space
 We surround ourselves with a “personal bubble” and we
let in our intimates and keep others out
 We extend our space by placing personal items around
us
 The amount of space we need varies from culture to
culture
 North Americans have four different “distance zones”




1. Intimate distance- 18”
2. Personal distance- 18” to 4’
3. Social Distance- 4’ to 12’
4. Public Distance- beyond 12’
Dramaturgy
 Social Life is analyzed in terms of drama
or the stage. (Erving Goffman 1959)
 Birth ushers us onto the stage and
socialization consists of learning to play
on that stage
 The self - center of these performances
 ideas how we want others to perceive us
and we use roles in everyday life to
communicate ideas
 Goffman called the efforts impression
management
 Front stage, where we perform, back
stage, reflect and plan for future
performances
Dramaturgy
 Our style is known as role
performance
 Role Performance is defined by social
limits the role provides
 Sometimes what is expected of us in
one role is not compatible with
another role.
 Role conflict- conflict between roles.
We avoid role conflict by segregating
our status
 Role strain is the conflict within a
role
 We tend to become the roles we play,
our roles become part of our self
concept. Leaving a role (role exit)
threatens a person’s identity

Dramaturgy
 To communicate information about the self we use
sign-in vehicles
 Three types of Sign-In Vehicles
 Social Setting- where the action unfolds, where you
interact with others. Includes the scenery, things you
use to communicate messages
 Appearance- props, what we use to decorate our
person
 Manner- attitudes we show as we play roles
Dramaturgy
 Good role players receive positive
recognition from others
 We use teamwork to receive this
recognition
 When a performance fails we use
face saving behavior
 Studied nonobservance is a face
saving technique that allows the
performance to go on
Ethnomethodology
 We give meaning to things by placing them in
categories and classifying them. We place them in
categories provided by our culture- it helps us interpret
our world
 Ethnomethodology is how people use common sense
understandings to interpret life
 These interpretations begin with background
assumptions (deeply embedded common
understandings of how the world operates and how
people ought to act)
 These interpretations provide us basic directions for
living
The Social Construction of Reality
 Symbolic Interactionists stress how ideas shape our
reality
 The definition of the situation, or the Thomas
Theorem, if people define situations as real they are real in
their consequences
 Social construction of reality- the social groups we
belong to hold particular views on life, specific ways
of looking at it. This is the use of background
experiences and assumptions to define what is real