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Chapter 4: Social
Structure
Definition: a network of interrelated statuses
and roles that guide interaction
Status: a socially defined
position in a group or society
• Ascribed status: assigned according to qualities
beyond the individuals control, not according to
effort or abilities; ex. teen or adult
• Achieved status: from abilities, special skills,
knowledge; ex. Sports player or actor.
• Master status: the one which plays the greatest role
in shaping one’s life or identity, can be achieved or
ascribed. Changes over lifetime; ex. parenthood
Roles: bring meaning to status,
play many roles simultaneously
• Reciprocal roles- no husband without wife
• Role expectations for behavior
• Role performance- actual behavior, may not always
match. Ex. Parent beating child
• Role set- all those roles attached to a status can lead
• Role conflict-when conflict, fulfilling one makes another
difficult. Ex good worker goes to work, good parent stays
home with sick child.
• Role strain-if difficult meeting expectations of a single
status. Ex. Good boss increase morale but make stay late.
Conflicts in play
Status
Examples of Roles
Examples of
Conflict / Strain
Firefighter
Put out fires, save lives,
wear a uniform
Voluntarily puts self in danger,
but has loved ones who need
him or her
Mother
Provide food and
shelter, nurture family,
discipline children
Fatigue and long shifts make
household tasks and interactions
difficult
P.T.A.
President
Run meetings, recruit
new members, plan
activities
Has trouble getting members to
attend and follow through on
promises
Social Institutions
• Must organize statuses to make sure needs of society
are meet;
• Physical and emotional support for members
• Transmitting knowledge
• Producing good and services
• Maintaining social control
Types of social institutions
• Family
• Economy
• Politics
• Education
• Religions
• The media
• Medicine
• Science
Types of social interactions
Competition
Exchange
Types of Social
Interactions
Conflict
Cooperation
Accommodation
Interactions stabilize or
promote change
• Exchange: people interact in an effort to receive a
reward or return for their actions. Ex dating, politics,
family life. Peter Blau calls the most basic and common
form of interaction.
• Reciprocity: do for another so will do for you. Rewards
nonmaterial as a thank you, or material as wage
• Exchange theory-people are motivated by self-interest in
all interactions, repeated if rewarded. What have you
done for me lately?
• Stabilizes
• Competition: 2 or more oppose each other to
achieve a goal that only one can attain.
• Accepted rules of conduct
• Can be positive or negative in effects.
• Deborah Tannen: the argument culture reading, not
everything is 2 sided. Polarizes battles, hurts
cooperation and agreement. Language: “war on
drugs”, courts adversarial, neg ads politics.
• Can disrupt society
• Conflict: deliberate attempt to control a person
through force, harm, or by opposing.
• Few rules of conduct, can break. Snubbing to killing.
• Georg Simmel- 4 sources of conflict: wars,
disagreements within groups, legal disputes, clashes
over ideology (religion, politics).
• Can increase loyalty, group cohesion, focus changes
away from internal problems.
• Can disrupt society
• Cooperation: 2 or more work together toward a
common goal to benefit all or most.
• Motivate to work harder to achieve goal. Ex. Sports
teams, work groups.
• Stabilizes
• Accomodation: state of balance between
cooperation and conflict
• Compromise
• Truce-bring a halt to conflict
• Mediation- 3rd party used to reach agreement
• Arbitration-3rd party decision is binding
• Stabilizes
Subsistence strategies
• Group- a set of people who interact on the basis of
shared expectations and who possess some degree of
common identity.
• Most complex societies are classified by their
subsistence strategies or how the society uses
technology to provide for the needs of its members
• Preindustrial, Industrial and Postindustrial societies.
• Preindustrial—food production is the main economic
activity; can be subdivided according to the level of
technology and the method of producing food (hunting
& gathering, pastoral societies, horticultural societies,
agricultural societies)
• Industrial—emphasis shifts from the production of food
to the production of manufactured goods, made
possible by changes in production methods
• Postindustrial—much of the economy is involved in
providing information and services. US 73% work in
these sectors, 2% agriculture, 25% production of
goods.
Preindustrial
Hunting and gathering;
pastoral; horticultural;
mechanical solidarity
Industrial
Types of
Societies
Manufacturing;
urbanization;
technology
Organic
solidarity
Postindustrial
Information;
provision of services
Contrasting Societies
• Durkheim-preindustrial societies held together by
mechanical solidarity-people share same values and
perform same tasks, united whole
• Industrial societies held together by organic
solidarity-impersonal relationships, depend on
others for needs not shared values
• Ferdinand Tonnies- how simple and complex
societies differ, 2 ideals types based on structure of
social relations and degree of shared values.
• Gemeinschaft-community. Most members know
each other, close relationships, family and
community central to activities, strong sense of
group identity and solidarity
• Gesellschaft-society. Society based on need not
emotion, impersonal, often temporary relations,
individual goals more important than group, urban
society.
What is a group?
• 1. two or more people
• 2. interaction amongst members
• 3. members must have shared expectations
• 4. members must possess some sense of common identity
• An aggregate is without these, ex. Airplane flight or on
line. A social category is classifying by trait. Ex students.
• Vary by SIZE, TIME and ORGANIZATION.
Types of Groups
Primary Groups
• Interact over a long period of time on a direct and
personal basis
• Entire self of the individual is taken into account
• Relationships are intimate and often
face-to-face
• Communication is deep and intense
• Structure is informal
Types of Groups
Secondary Groups
• Interaction is impersonal and temporary in nature
• Involve a reaction to only a part of the individual’s
self
• Casual
• Limited in personal involvement
• Individual can be replaced easily
• Reference Groups-individual identify with attitudes
and behaviors. Ex. Occupational groups.
• In-groups vs Out groups-1. members tend to
separate themselves from other groups by use of
symbols, 2. members tend to view themselves
positively and out group negatively, 3. competition
with out groups can lead to conflict.
• E-communities- on internet
• Social network – sum of all interactions with others,
support system, feeling of community.
Group Functions
Define Boundaries
Set Goals
Make Decisions
Select Leaders
GROUP
FUNCTIONS
Assign Tasks
Control Members’
Behavior
• Select leaders—people that influence the attitudes
and opinions of others. Instruemental leaders-task
oriented. Expressive Leaders- emotion oriented.
• Define boundaries—members can tell who belongs
and who does not
• Set goals, assign tasks, and make decisions
• Control members’ behavior—if members violate
group norms, the group cannot survive long
Formal Organizations
• Large, complex with specific goals
• Bureaucracy- ranking authority structure that
operates according to specific rules and procedures.
• Rationality- post industrial society, every feature of
human behavior is measured, controlled, and
calculated.
Weber’s Model of
Bureaucracy
• Division of labor
• Ranking of authority
• Employment based on formal qualifications
• Rules and regulations
• Specific lines of promotion and advancement
• Relationships develop within formal organizations. Informal
groups develop among workers with own sets of norms more
important than the structure of the organization.
• Are Bureaucracies effective? Efficient at coordinating large
numbers of people, defining tasks and rewards
• Provide stability
• Can lose sight of goals, create red tape, and result in oligarchies
(domination by increasingly small groups of people: the iron law of
oligarchy).
• In some instances, reward incompetence and expand
uncontrollably, endless waste of time from red-tape or bureaucratic
delay.
• The Peter Principle- “In a hierarchy every employee
tends to rise to his level of incompetence”. Often
organized into role not qualified to perform.
• Parkinson’s Law- “work expands to fill the time
available for its completion”. Worker feels
overworked. Can 1. resign (lose benefits), 2. cut
work in half by sharing with another (would create a
rival for promotion), or 3. demand the assistance of
2 subordinates. Choice: 3! Now more work
overseeing and likelihood for promotion.
Cross Cultural Studies: Japan
• Reading: strict codes and roles to follow, mentors,
rules for dining, special training sessions, formal
social controls.
• You spend much of your day in a formal
organization-school. Describe some of the formal
structures that guide day to day life at Myers Park.
Discussion: students with cross-cultural experiences,
how does school differ?
• Do you think American businesses differ from
Japanese model? Why?
Investigating Formal
Organizations
• The structure of CMS and its’ bureaucracies.
• In media, The Office, Pilot & Diversity Training.