Download SOCIOLOGY Ch 5

SOCIOLOGY
Chapter 5
Social Structure and Society
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“All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and entrances. And one man in his time plays
many parts.” Shakespeare, “As You Like It”
• All members of a group have a part
they are expected to play.
• Ex. Teacher and students
• In most cases the teacher knows what
to expect from the students, and
students know what to expect from the
teacher.
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Social Structure and Status
• Social Structure is all around us.
– Culture guides us in our thinking, feeling, and
behaving; without culture, humans would
have no blueprint for social living.
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What is Social Structure?
• In our minds, we carry a “social map” to
help guide us through various group
situations.
• Social Structure – the underlying patterns
of relationships in a group.
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Everyone has status.
• We must learn the mental maps of social
structure from others. In the process, we
learn about status and roles – major
elements of social structure.
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Micro vs. Macro
• Micro-the branch of sociology that studies
small groups and units within a larger
society
• Macro-the branch of sociology concerned
with the study and analysis of societies in
their entirety
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What do Sociologists mean by
status?
• Labels that we apply to everyone is
actually a status.
• Status –a position a person occupies
within a social structure.
• Status helps us define who and what we
are in relation to others within the same
social structure.
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What do Sociologists mean by
status?
• Some statuses are acquired at birth:
– Ex. A newborn female instantly becomes a
child and a daughter.
– From then on she assumes an increasingly
number and variety of statuses.
There are two types of social status:
1. Ascribed – a status that is not earned or
chosen, it is assigned to us.
2. Achieved – a status that is earned or
chosen by us.
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What is an ascribed status?
• What cards have you been dealt?
Privileged People have a King, Queen, or Jack
Semi-Privileged = 7,8,9, or 10
Not Privileged = 4,5,or 6
Inferior People = Ace, 2, or 3
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What is an achieved status?
• What have you earned or achieved?
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What is a Status set?
• Status Set – all of the statuses that a
person occupies at any one time.
– Ex. Teacher, husband, father, grandfather,
son, brother, uncle, hunter, musician, singer.
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Are all of a person’s statuses
equal?
• Some statuses are more important than others.
• Master Statuses – influence other aspects of a
person’s life. These may be ascribed or
achieved.
• In an Industrialized society, occupations –
achieved statuses for the most part – are
achieved.
• Age, Gender, Race, & Ethnicity are examples of
ascribed Master Status
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Sec. 2 – Social Structure and Roles
– I. Rights and Obligations
An expected behavior associated with a
particular status is a ROLE.
Roles are statuses in action.
Statuses describe positions, Roles describe
behaviors.
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Rights and Obligations
Rights are behaviors that individuals
expect from others.
Obligations are behaviors that
individuals are expected to perform
toward others.
• THE RIGHTS OF ONE STATUS
CORRESPOND TO THE OBLIGATIONS
OF ANOTHER.
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Rights and Obligations
• ROLE - AN EXPECTED BEHAVIOR
ASSOCIATED WITH A PARTICULAR
STATUS.
• RIGHT – A BEHAVIOR THAT
INDIVIDUALS CAN EXPECT FROM
OTHERS.
• OBLIGATION – A BEHAVIOR THAT
INDIVIDUALS ARE EXPECTED TO
PERFORM TOWARD OTHERS
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II. ROLE PERFORMANCE AND
SOCIAL INTERACTION
• Statuses and roles provide the basis for
group life. It is when people interact with
each other socially that they “perform” in
the roles attached to their statuses.
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Role Performance & Social
Interaction
• Role Performance – the actual behavior of
an individual in a role. Role performance
can occur without an audience as when a
student studies alone for a test. Most Role
Performance though, involves social
interaction.
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Role Performance & Social
Interaction
• Social Interaction – the process of
influencing each other as people relate.
– Ex. As two boys begin to fight, they have
probably gone through the process of
insulting and challenging each other.
Fortunately, most social interaction is not as
negative and violent, but the same process of
influence and reaction to others is involved.
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Role Performance & Social
Interaction
• Think of the analogy of the Play.
– If statuses are like the parts in a play and
roles are like the script, the social interaction
represents the way actors respond to the
cues given by the other actors.
Role Performance is the Performance itself.
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Role Performance & Social
Interaction
• “It is never too late to be what
you might have been”.
• George Eliot
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Role Performance & Social
Interaction
• “My Most Embarrassing Moment.”
• Write on a sheet of paper about your most
embarrassing moment. Do not use your
name or the names of anyone else that
someone in here might know.
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Role Performance & Social
Interaction
• What Role Performance occurred?
• Was the embarrassment caused by
having to change roles without
preparation?
• This should make you think about
how we are expected to perform a
certain way in a particular role.
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How does Playacting differ from
Social Interaction?
• Unlike stage performances, most real-life
role performances occur without planning.
• Usually actors stick pretty close to a script,
sometimes they ad lib, but they stay close
to the script. This is not the case with
differences between a role and a role
performance.
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How does Playacting differ from
Social Interaction?
• On stage, there is a programmed and
predictable relationship between cues and
responses.
– Ex. One performer’s line is a cue for a
specific response from another actor.
In life, we can choose our own cues and
responses. The process of choosing the role
and then acting it out occurs in nearly all
instances of Social Interaction.
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How does Playacting differ from
Social Interaction?
• How does Playacting differ from Social
Interaction?
CULTURE
TRANSMITTED VIA ROLES
ATTACHED TO SOCIAL STATUS
GUIDES ROLE PERFORMANCE
THROUGH SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
WHICH MAY BE OBSERVABLE A PERFORMANCE
RELATIONSHIPS
WHICH CONSTITUTE
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE
STRAIN.
• The existence of statuses and roles
permits social life to be predictable and
orderly. However, each status involves
many roles, and each individual holds
many statuses. This diversity invites
conflict and strain.
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ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE
STRAIN.
• Role Conflict - condition in which the
performance of a role in one status
interferes with the performance of a role in
another status.
• Role Strain - condition in which a person
has trouble meeting the many roles
connected with a single status
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ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE
STRAIN.
• Ex. Teacher/Club Sponsor
– Each of these roles is time consuming and may
interfere with the performance of the other.
If your expectations as a high school student require
you to perform well academically, join a social
organization, pursue a sport, date, and participate in
other high school activities, you experience some
degree of Role Strain as a result of these
expectations.
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How do we manage Role
Conflict and Role Strain?
• Usually when we experience Role Conflict
or Strain, we decide which Role is more
important to us and act accordingly. Most
people make this decision by setting
priorities.
• We can also segregate Roles, by
separating our behavior in one Role from
our behavior in another Role.
EX. Teacher/Club Sponsor
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ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE
STRAIN.
• Because of Role Conflict and Role Strain,
meeting the goals and expectations of all
our Roles is impossible. This poses no
problem as long as Role performance
occurs within acceptable limits.
• Ex. Coaches who emphasize fairplay,
character, and scholarship rather than a
winning record are usually not rewarded
very long.
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ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE
STRAIN.
You
Son or Daughter
Friend
Student
Employee
Visit Mom
in Hospital
Go to Friends
Birthday Party
Study for
Tomorrows Exam
Comne in for
Emergency overtime
YOUR
ROLE
CONFLICT
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ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE
STRAIN.
• You
YOU
• Student
Student
Do Well
Not Make Others Look Bad
Role Strain
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SEC III. PREINDUSTRIAL
SOCIETIES
• Society - people living within a defined territorial
border a sharing a common culture.
• In this section, we will study several basic
societies. Each type of society is unique in
important ways. All Societies are comprised of
social structures. Members in type of society
know what is expected of them and what they
can expect from others.
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETIES a
society that survives by hunting animals and
gathering edible plants.
• H&G societies were usually nomadic.
• Because they carried all their possessions with
them, they had few material goods.
• H&G Societies tend to be small, usually less
than 50 people.
• The family is the only institution in a H&G
Society.
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• Economic relationships within the H&G society
are based on cooperation.
– Members share what they have with other members.
– Members give without worrying about how payment
will be made.
– The more scarce something was, the more freely it
was shared.
– Generosity and Hospitality are valued.
– Thrift is considered a reflection of selfishness.
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• H&G Societies have no concept of private
property or ownership, since they share
everything.
• H&G Societies have no social classes, nor rich
or poor. See Inuits of Canada & Alaska.
• Division of labor in H&G Societies is based on
age & gender.
• H&G societies have more leisure time.
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• Horticultural Societies - a society that primarily
survives through the growing of food.
• 10k to 12k years ago H&G’s found they could
grow their food supply instead of gathering it.
• Anthropologist think this transition took several
centuries.
• The shift from H&G to HC societies led to more
permanent settlements.
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• This relative stability led to multi
community societies averaging 1k to 2k
people each.
• The family is even more basic to social life
in HC societies.
• In HC societies, the primary emphasis is
providing for the household members, not
survival of the group as it was in H&G
societies.
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• Producing food in HC societies can be
handled by members of the family group.
• With labor necessary for survival,
households depended more on
themselves and less on others outside the
family unit for their subsistence.
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Types of Societies
• Pastoral Societies – society in which food is obtained
primarily by raising and taking care of animals.
• This society is made up of Pastoralist or Herders. They
raise cattle, camels, goats, and sheep.
• Pastoralist must also either farm or barter for grain that is
needed to feed the animals.
• There is more migration with Pastoralist societies.
• Permanent villages are maintained, if the herds are
moved to different pastors in a given area as the
seasons change.
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Types of Societies
• Pastoral Societies are male dominant, as
the men are responsible for providing food
and the status of women is very low.
• HC & Pastoral Societies create social
change, because members of these
societies can create surpluses, some
members are freed up to create a more
complex division of labor.
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Types of Societies
• People can become political or religious leaders
or specialize in making such goods as pottery,
clothing, or weapons.
• Because non-edible goods are produced, an
incentive to trade with others emerges.
• The production of a surplus also leads to social
inequity (Class or Caste) although it is limited.
• Even the smallest surplus means that some
families, villages, or class have more wealth
than others.
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Types of Societies
• Agricultural Societies – a society that uses plows
and draft animals in the growing of food.
• The transition from a HC to an AG society was
made possible by the invention of the plow
(plough).
• The plow allows the farmer to till nutrient rich soil
up to the surface to plant seeds in, thereby
resulting in a more productive harvest.
• Using animals, allowed larger areas to be
farmed by fewer people, which led to surpluses.
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Types of Societies
• As a result, people were free to engage in nonagricultural activities such as education, Arts,
politics, etc.
• Cities were now built and occupations that were
not tied to farming started to appear:
carpenters, potters, cobblers, etc.
• AG Societies were headed by the Nobility
(Wealthy Land Owners).
• A Trade economy emerged, which gave way to
a monetary economy.
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Types of Societies
• Religion and Government became
separate institutions.
• Rulers were believed to be divinely
chosen, but few were also religious
leaders.
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Sec 4: Industrial and Postindustrial
Societies
• Industrial Society – A society that depends of
science and technology to produce its basic
goods and services.
• When societies shift from AG to Industrial
Societies, changes occur; away from the simple
traditional technology (plows, hammers,
harnesses) toward the application of scientific
knowledge to create more complex
technological devices.
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Industrial Societies
• Early Industrial Technology included
steam engines and electrical power.
• More recent Tech developments include
nuclear energy, aerospace-related
inventions, and the computer.
• Mechanization – the process of replacing
animal & human power with machines,
takes place in Industrial Societies.
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Industrial Societies
• These machines are operated by wage-earners,
who produce goods for sale in the market.
• With machinery farmers are able to produce
enough food for themselves and others. This
surplus allows people to move away from the
farms and villages, and add to the population of
the cities.
• Urbanization – the shifting of population from the
farms to the cities.
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Industrial Societies
• With Industrialization, family roles change
in many ways.
– Cottage industries move to the factory.
– Education in the AG Society moves from the
home to the formal school.
– An Industrialized Society requires a more
broadly educated and trained work force.
Therefore, young people can no longer be
prepared for the work force by their families.
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Industrial Societies
• Blood relationships begin to decline in
importance as families begin to separate socially
and physically due to urbanization and to taking
jobs in distance places.
• Women through their entrance to the work force,
become less subordinate to their husbands.
• Individual mobility increases and social class is
based more on occupational achievement rather
than the social class of one’s parents.
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Conversation with two Sociologist
• Ferdinand Tonnes distinguished between
Gemeinschaft, The preindustrial society
based of tradition, kinship, and close
personal ties. (Community)
• And
• Gesellschaft, the industrialized society
characterized by weak family ties,
competition, and impersonal social
relationships. (Society)
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Conversation with two Sociologist
• Emile Durkheim distinguished between the
two societies by the nature of their Social
Solidarity – the degree to which a society
is unified or can hold itself together in the
face of obstacles.
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Conversation with two Sociologist
• Durkheim looked at a societies division of labor.
Those societies in which everyone is doing the
same type of work is Mechanical Solidarity.
• In an industrial society, social unity is based on
interdependence of the other members of their
society. This is Organic Solidarity it achieves
social unity in which a members’
interdependence is based on specialized
functions and statuses.
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Postindustrial Society
• Postindustrial Society – Society in which the
emphasis is on providing services and
information.
• Features:
– The majority of the labor force is employed in services
rather than AG or manufacturing.
– White-collar employment replaces blue-collar work.
1st occurred in 1956
– Technical knowledge is the key organizing feature in
PostIndustrial Societies.
– Technological change is planned and assessed.
– Reliance on computer modeling in all areas.
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Social Instability
• Historian Francis Fukuyama (1990) believes that
the transition to a service economy has
increased social instability.
• His reasoning is based on:
– Crimes and social disorder began to rise, making
inner-city areas almost inhabitable.
– Marriages and births declined as divorce soared.
– 1 out of every 3 children in the US and more than half
of all children in Scandinavia were born out of
wedlock.
– Trust & confidence in institutions went into a 40 year
decline.
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Will Social Instability continue?
• Fukuyama sees indications that we are
returning to social stability.
– Crime levels are down 15% since their peak
in the 1990’s.
– Divorce rates have declined.
– Illegitimate births have stopped increasing.
– Levels of trust in both institutions and
individuals has significantly recovered.
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What Caused the Return to Social
Stability?
• Fukuyama believes that humans find it
difficult to live without values and norms.
• And
• Because culture can be changed, it can be
used to create new social structure better
adapted to social and economic
circumstances.
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