1. Social Structure
Chapter 4

2. Truth or Fiction?
An individual’s statuses and roles are limited an unchanging
TRUE: Individuals cannot affect the statuses and roles into which they are born
FALSE: Individuals will take on many different statuses and roles throughout the course of their lives

3. Truth or Fiction
Informal interaction has little effect on the functioning of formal organizations
TRUE: There are few or no informal interactions in formal organizations
FALSE: Although formal organizations are dominated by formal interactions, informal interactions have a strong influence on these organizations as well

4. Building Blocks of Social Structure
Society is made up of interrelated parts
Social structure gives us enduring characteristics
Makes patterns of human activity predictable

5. Building Blocks
Social Structure: network of interrelated statuses and roles that guide human interaction
Status: socially defined position in a group or in a society
Role: the behavior-the rights and obligations-expected of someone occupying a particular status

6. Status We can hold multiple statuses
Male, on, brother, teacher, American, etc.
Statuses help define where we fit in society and how we relate to each other

7. Ascribed and Achieved Status
We can control some statuses, some we cannot
Ascribed status: assigned status according to qualities beyond a person’s control
Not based on abilities, efforts, or accomplishments
Inherited traits or assigned at an age
Teenager/adult/retired
Achieved status: status through direct efforts
Skills, knowledge, or abilities

8. Master Status
We all have many statuses…but we rank one the most important
Master status: status that plays the greatest role in shaping our life and determines social identity
Achieved or ascribed
Changes over lifetime

9. Roles Statuses serve as social categories Roles bring statuses to life
You occupy a status, you play a role
You play roles associated with your status
Reciprocal roles: roles that define the patterns of interaction between related statuses
In order to be a husband…you need a wife
Doctor/patient, athlete/coach, boss/employee, etc.

10. Role Expectations and Performance
Role Expectations: socially determined behaviors expected of a person performing a role
Parents: love and protect their children
Doctor: treat patients with care
Role performance: actual role behavior
Doesn’t always match expected behavior

11. Role Conflict/Strain
It’s possible we have multiple roles to play in one status
Different roles attached to a single status is a role set
Possible contradictory expectations within/between role sets
Role conflict: occurs when fulfilling the role expectations of one status makes it difficult to fulfill the role expectations of another.
Doctor/Parent

12. Role Conflict/Strain
Role strain: occurs when a person has difficulty meeting the role expectations of a single status
Coach making team practice long hours to win

13. Social Institutions
When statuses and roles are organized to satisfy one or more of the basic needs of society, the group is called a social institution
Providing physical and emotional support, transmitting knowledge, producing goods and services, and maintaining social control

14. 4.2 Types of Social Interaction
Name some ways we interact
5 common ways we interact: exchange, competition, conflict, cooperation, and accommodation

15. Exchange
When we interact to receive a reward or return for our actions that is an exchange
Suggested as the most basic and common interaction
Reciprocity: the idea that if you do something for someone, they owe you something in return
Basis for exchange
Rewards may be material and nonmaterial
Exchange theory: ppl are motivated by self-interest in their interactions with other people

16. Competition What is competition?
Competition: occurs when 2 or more ppl or groups oppose each other to achieve a goal that only one can attain
Promotes many advancements; business, school, gov’t
As long as comp follows accepted rules of conduct…mostly seen as positive
Negative aspects: stress, inequality, conflict, lack of cooperation

17. Conflict Competition we focus on achieving the goal
Conflict we focus on defeating the opponent
Conflict: deliberate attempt to control a person by force, oppose someone, or to harm someone
Few rules of conduct, most are ignored anyway
4 sources of conflict: wars, disagreements w/in groups, legal disputes, and clashes over ideology
Religion, ideology, politics
Businesses, loyalty, social change

18. Cooperation What does it mean to cooperate?
Football team, fans, band…shared win
Cooperation: 2 or more people or groups work together to achieve a goal that will benefit multiple people

19. Accommodation
Many of our interactions we neither cooperate nor have conflict.
What do you think we do^^^^^^^^^^?
Accommodation: state of balance between cooperation and conflict
Hotel stay
Compromise
Mediation

20. 4.3 Types of Societies Role behavior often takes place in groups
Group: set of people who interact on the basis of shared expectations and who possess some degree of common identity
Largest/complex groups are societies
Sociologists classify societies according to:
Subsistence strategies: the way a society uses technology to provide for the needs of its members

21. Preindustrial Societies
Preindustrial: food prod. carried out by human and animal labor, is the main economic activity
Subdivisions of preindustrial societies
Hunting & gathering: collection of wild plants and hunting wild animals
Nomads, small societies, relatively equal

22. Preindustrial Societies
Pastoral society: rely on domesticated herd animals to meet food needs
Nomadic, larger societies
Division of labor: specialization of individuals or groups in the performance of specific economic activities
Craft workers, weapons, jewelry, farmer, smith
Promotes trade = inequality

23. Preindustrial Societies
Horticultural societies: fruits and vegetables grown in a garden specifically cleared
Crop rotation = semi/permanent settlements (villages)
Surplus food = complex division of labor
Craftspeople, religious leaders, traders
Large amount of artifacts
Economic and political systems

24. Preindustrial Societies
Agricultural societies: animals are used to pull plows to till the fields
Plant more crops, irrigation, terracing
High crop yields = very large populations
Even more specialized roles
Development of cities, power to single people
Building of armies, construction of roads, more trade
Abandon barter: exchange of good for a service
$ invented, system of writing, statuses

25. Industrial Societies
Industrial societies: shift from food production to manufactured goods
Machines instead of humans
Advanced technologies
More food = ^ pop.
More industry = < farmers (focus more on goods)

26. Industrial Societies
The advancements in technology make it possible to manufacture a wider variety of goods
Changes the location of work
Rural farm to the cities. Urbanization: concentration of the population in cities
More productivity, less skill required
Religion is challenged by science
Freedom to compete for social positions

27. Postindustrial Societies
Postindustrial: much of the economy is involved in providing information and services
(73% of U.S. workforce)
2% agricultural
25% goods production
Standard of living is greater along with wages
Emphasis on science and education
Individual rights and personal fulfillment

28. Contrasting Societies
Durkheim believed preindustrial societies were held together by mechanical solidarity: when ppl share the same values and perform the same tasks, they become united as a common whole
As division of labor becomes more complex, MS gives way to organic solidarity: individuals can no longer provide for all their own needs, they depend on others to survive

29. Contrasting Societies
Ferdinand Tönnies (German) interested in simple/complex societies
Gemeinschaft: close relat. Activities center around family/community
Gesellschaft: based on need rather than emotion. Impersonal relationships. Individual goals > group

30. 4.4 Groups Within Society
Every individual in society participates in a group
What is a group?
A group has 4 major features:
2+ people
Interaction among members
Shared expectations
Posses sense of common identity
The last 3 distinguish a group from an aggregate or social category

31. Groups Within Society
Aggregate: when ppl gather in the same place at the same time but lack organization or lasting patterns
Ppl on an airplane, waiting for tickets, checkout
Social Category: means of classifying people according to a shared trait or common status
Students, women, teenagers, left-handed people
Groups differ in size and length of time they’re together

32. Size Dyad: smallest group possible, 2 members Triad: 3 person group
Small group: few enough members to interact face to face
Sociologists have found 15 is the largest #

33. Time Some groups meet once, then never again
Some exist for many years (who would?)
Interaction is not continuous (not 24 hours a day)

34. Organization 2 types of organization
Formal: structure, goals, and activities are clearly defined
Student council
Informal: no official structure or est. rules of conduct
Your circle of friends

35. Types of Groups
Primary group: small group of people who interact over a relatively long period of time on a direct personal bias
entire self of the individual is taken into account
Intimate relationships, often fact-to-face
Deep communication, often informal
Family is probably most common

36. Types of Groups
Secondary group: interaction is impersonal and temporary in nature
Only part of the individual is involved
Casual and limited in personal involvement
Classroom, factory, political party

37. Types of Groups
Reference group: any group with whom individuals identify and whose attitudes and values they adopt
Students: Friends or school clubs
Adults: members of a particular occupation
As we grow we change our reference groups
Both positive and negative effects on behavior

38. Types of Groups
When a groups boundaries are clearly marked, we think in terms of in-groups and out-groups
In-groups: group that a person belongs to and identifies with
Have 3 things: separate from other groups through symbols, members view themselves positively and out-groups in negative terms, and in-groups compete with out-groups
Out-groups: any group a person does not belong to or identify with

39. Types of Groups
Social network: the web of relationships that is formed by the sum total of a person’s interactions with other people
Direct and indirect relationships
Unlike groups, social networks don’t have clear boundaries and no common sense of identity
Sense of community

40. Group Functions
Must determine boundaries to determine who belongs and who doesn’t
Must select a leader: ppl who influence the attitudes and opinions of others
2 types of leaders:
Instrumental: task-oriented. Find means that will help the group reach its goals
expressive: emotion-oriented. Find ways to keep the group together and maintain moral
Other group functions: goals, tasks, decisions

41. Structure of Formal Organizations
Formal organization: large, complex, secondary group est. to achieve specific goals
School, business, gov’t, religious & political orgs, unions
Bureaucracy: ranked authority structure that operates according to specific rules and procedures
Most formal organizations work under one
Rationality: subjecting every feature of human behavior to calculation, measurement and control

42. Weber’s Model of Bureaucracies
According to Weber, bureaucracies have these charact.
Division of labor
Ranking of authority
Employment based on formal qualifications
Rules and regulations
Specific lines of promotion and advancement
Voluntary association: non-prof to purse common interest

43. Effectiveness of Bureaucracies?
Create order, define tasks/rewards, stability
Lose sight of original goals
Abandon them for self-continuation (EPA)
Strict adherent to rules/regs “Red Tape”
Tendency to end up like oligarchies
Peter Principle