1. Introduction to Sociology SOC-101
Unit 5 – Social Structure and Social Interaction

2. Levels of Sociological Analysis
Macrosociology
This is the analysis of social life that focuses on the broad features of society
This includes social class and how groups related to one another
Used by conflict theorists and functionalists
Goal is to examine the large-scale social forces that influence people
Microsociology
This is the analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction
What people do when they come together
Used by symbolic interactionists
Both analyses need to be used to get a full perspective of what is being studied

3. Macrosociological Perspective
In order to understand human behavior, we must examine the social structure
Social Structure
This is the framework that surrounds us
Consists of the relationships of people and groups to one another
It guides our behavior
People learn certain attitudes and behaviors because of their location in the social structure

4. Components of Social Structure
The components of social structure include:
Culture
Social Class
Social Status
Roles
Groups
Social Institutions

5. Components of Social Structure
Culture
This refers to a group’s language, beliefs, values, behaviors, gestures and material objects
This is the broadest framework that determines who we become
Social Class
A group of people who rank close to each other in income, education, and power
This influences not only our behaviors but attitudes and ideas

6. Components of Social Structure
Status
A recognized social position that an individual occupies
Different from “prestige,” where someone who holds a high position has high status
We hold multiple statuses at once
Each status adds to our social identity, defines our relationships to one another, and guides our behavior

7. Components of Social Structure
Status Set
All the statuses a person holds at a particular time
For example, at one time a person can be a sister, daughter, student, and friend
Status sets can change over the course of one’s life
We gain and lose many statuses over the course of our lifetimes

8. Components of Social Structure
Ascribed Status
This is a social position that a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life
Race, ethnicity, gender, daughter, teenager
Achieved Status
This is a social position that a person assumes voluntarily and reflects personal ability and choice
Honors student, spouse, parent, teacher

9. Components of Social Structure
Master Status
This is a position that carries exceptional importance for identity and often shapes a person’s entire life
Cuts across all other statuses you hold
For most people occupation is a master status because it says a lot about your social background, education, and income
Master status can be a negative if it is tied in with a disease, disability, or even gender in some societies

10. Components of Social Structure
Status Inconsistency
When a person’s statuses are mismatched or contradict one another
10-year-old college student or 25-year-old with Alzheimer's
Status Symbol
Item used to identify a status
Wedding rings, uniforms, luxury car
Can also be negative like the “scarlet letter” in Hawthorne’s book

11. Components of Social Structure
Role
The behaviors, obligations and privileges expected of someone who holds a particular status
Individuals hold a status and perform a role
Roles lay out what is expected of people
Group
People who regularly interact with one another
They usually share similar values, norms, and expectations
To belong to a group we have to yield the right to make certain decisions about our behavior to others in the group

12. Social Institutions Social Institution
The organized, usual, or stand ways by which society meets its basic needs
Examples include family, education, law, military, and mass media
In industrialized societies, the social institutions are more formal, while in tribal societies they are more informal

13. Society and Its Transformations
A group of people who share a culture and a territory
In order to understand society, we need to examine its transformation over time
Hunting and Gathering Society
A group that depends on hunting and gathering for its survival
Consisted of small, nomadic groups that moved as they depleted an area’s vegetation or pursued migratory animals
Had an egalitarian society since no one owned anything and no one became wealthier than anybody else
There were no rulers as the group as a whole made decisions

14. Pastoral and Horticultural Societies
Pastoralism
This is the domestication of animals
Horticulture
This is the cultivation of plants using hand tools
First Social Revolution
With a dependable source of food, labor became specialized and with that people were able to accumulate material possessions
Creation of an elite, ruling class

15. Agricultural Societies
Agriculture
Large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources
Growth of permanent settlements with populations growing into the millions
Members of this society become even more specialized and money is invented as a form of common exchange

16. Agricultural Societies
Second Social Revolution
Social inequality became a fundamental feature of social life
Most people worked as serfs or slaves
The elites were free to study philosophy, art, and literature
The elites also created armies to hold their power
Men began to gain pronounced power and privilege over women

17. Industrial Societies Industrial Societies
Industry
The production of goods using advanced sources of energy (like steam) to drive large machinery
Before 1765, most had depended upon human or animal to provide power
With the development of the steam engine, production became much more efficient

18. Industrial Societies Third Social Revolution
Industrialization brought even greater surplus and even greater social inequality
Those who first used the new technology created massive amounts of wealth
People moved off their farms into the cities to work in factories
Over time, the social equalities diminished as workers gained rights, slavery was abolished, and there was the creation of a more representative form of government

19. Postindustrial (Information) Societies
Postindustrial Society
It is based on information, services, and the latest technology rather than on raw materials and manufacturing
Basic component is information
Fourth Social Revolution
Based on the microchip, the information revolution is transforming society

20. Social Integration Social Integration
This is the degree to which members of a society are united by shared values and other social bonds
With the way society has evolved and its many conflicting groups, how does society still hold itself together?
Sociologists have found that as societies change, so do people’s orientations to life

21. Mechanical/Organic Solidarity
Emile Durkheim (1893)
Believed that as society changes, the relationships amongst its members also change
Mechanical Solidarity
People have much in common through similar work, education, religion, and lifestyle
This was found in more traditional and small scale societies

22. Mechanical/Organic Solidarity
As societies get larger, labor becomes more specialized
People become more dependent on one another for the work they contribute to the whole
Organic Solidarity
The interdependence that results from the division of labor where people depend on others to fulfill their jobs
This is found in more modern and industrial societies

23. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Ferdinand Tönnies also analyzed the evolution of two types of human association in 1887
Gemeinschaft (“Intimate Community”)
A type of society in which life is intimate, and where everyone in the community knows everyone else
Found in traditional and small scale societies
An example of this is Amish society

24. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Over time, society changed and the relationships among people became more impersonal
Gesellschaft (“Impersonal Association”)
A type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest
This is more modern day, industrial society

25. Microsociological Perspective
While macrosociologists look at the overall features of society, microsociologists looks that the interpersonal, face-to-face interactions
Stereotypes
Assumptions of what people are like, whether true or false
First impressions of a person can be shaped and affected by their sex, race, ethnicity, age and clothing
This can also affect how you act towards that person

26. Personal Space Personal Space Edward Hall (1969)
This refers to the surrounding area over which a person makes some claim to privacy
The definition of personal space varies from culture to culture
In the U.S., most people prefer to stand several feet apart when talking
In the Middle East, they stand much closer
Edward Hall (1969)
An anthropologist who observed that North Americans use four different “distance zones” when it comes to personal space

27. Personal Space Four levels of personal space
Intimate Distance – (> 18 inches from our bodies)
Reserved for comforting, protecting, hugging, intimate touching, and lovemaking.
Personal Distance – (18 inches to 4 feet)
Reserved for friends and acquaintances and ordinary conversations
Social Distance – (4 to 12 feet)
For impersonal or formal relationships
For example, we use this zone for such things as job interviews
Public Distance – (<12 feet)
Reserved for more formal relationships
For example, it is used to separate dignitaries and public speakers from the general public

28. Dramaturgy Dramaturgy – Erving Goffman (1922-1982) Performances
Analyzed social life in terms of drama or the stage
Socialization consists of learning how to perform on the stage of life
Performances
Everyday life includes things like dress (costume), objects carried along (props), and tone of voice and gestures (manner)
Impression Management
People’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them
Front Stage – This is where we give “our lines” to an audience
Back Stage – “Behind the scenes” where there is no audience
This is where we can relax and let “our hair down”

29. Dramaturgy Roles play a vital aspect in dramaturgy Role Performance
The ways in which someone performs a role within the limits that role provides
Being the “ideal” daughter, or the “good” worker
Role Conflict
The conflict someone feels between roles because the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectation of another role
Do you study, go to your friend’s party, or help your parents out with chores?
Role Strain
Conflicts that someone feels within a role
A friendly boss still needs to keep his distance to evaluate his workers properly

30. Dramaturgy Team Work Face-Saving Behavior Tact
The collaboration of two or more people to manage impressions jointly.
Face-Saving Behavior
Techniques used to salvage a performance going sour
Tact
Helping someone save face; when members of the “audience” help a performer recover from an embarrassment

31. Role Strain and Role Conflict

32. Ethnomethodology Ethnomethodology – Harold Garfinkel (1967)
This is the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings using commonsense
Background Assumptions
These are deeply embedded common understandings of how the world operates and how people are supposed to act
In order to discover our background assumptions we must break the rules
This is the only way to see how people construct their reality
Examples include bargaining for items in a supermarket, the teacher playing the student for a class, talk to people an inch away from their face
By breaking the rules, people will become agitated, surprised, and possibly angry

33. Social Construction of Reality
The use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real
Thomas Theorem – William and Dorothy Thomas (1928)
“If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”
We behave according to the way we perceive the world
It is not the reality of something that impresses itself on us, but society impresses the reality of something on us

34. “Saints” and “Roughnecks”
In 1978, William Chambliss published his study on the “Saints” and the “Roughnecks”
Examined two different delinquent groups in a town’s high school
The “Saints” were boys from “good” middle-class families and were expected to “go somewhere”
The “Roughnecks” were boys from lower-class families and perceived to have “no futures”

35. “Saints” and “Roughnecks”
The boys in both these groups skipped school, got drunk, did a lot of fighting, and committed numerous acts of vandalism
The Saints actually were more delinquent since they skipped school more often and committed more acts of vandalism
After high school, seven of the eight Saints graduated college and went on to well paying jobs
Three of them received advanced degrees
With the Roughnecks, only four finished high school
Two did well in sports, went to college on scholarships, and became high school coaches
Two who did not graduate wound up in prison for separate murders

36. “Saints” and “Roughnecks”
Using macrosociology, we can see:
How social class can either open or close doors for us
How people learn different goals in different groups
Using microsociology, we can see:
How the Saints used their reputation to their advantage and how it negatively affected the Roughnecks
How the Saints used the fact that they had cars and were able to use them to commit crimes in other communities (thus keeping their “good” reputation in their own community
How the Roughnecks, by not having cars, were focused in a small area and visible to their own community

37. Macro- and Micro-Sociology
We need to study both macro- and micro-sociology to get a complete understanding of social life as they both give us different aspects