Principles Chapter 5

Social structure is the framework of societal institutions (economy, politics, and religion) and social practices (rules and social roles) that make up a society and organize and limit people�s behavior. This structure is essential for the survival of society and for the well-being of individuals because it provides a social web of familial support and social relationships that connects each of us to the larger society.

• A socially defined position in society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.
• Ascribed Status - A social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race/ethnicity, age, and gender.
• Achieved Status - A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

• Role Conflict - A situation in which incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.
• Role Strain - A condition that occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies.
• Role Expectation - A group's or society's definition of the way that a specific role ought to be played.

• Three of these are referred to as preindustrial societies = hunting and gathering (they use simple technology for hunting animals and gathering vegetation, until about 10,000 years ago main society), horticultural and pastoral (Between 13,000 and 7,000BCE was shift from collecting food to producing food - 3 factors: depletion of the supply of large game animals as source of food, increase in size of the human population, dramatic weather and environmental changes that occurred by the end of the Ice Age), and agrarian societies (use the technology of large-scale farming, including animal-drawn or energy-powered plows and equipment, to produce their food supply.). Farming made it possible for people to spend their entire lives in the same location.
• The other two are industrial and postindustrial societies. Industrial societies are characterized by mechanized production of goods. Postindustrial societies are based on technology that supports an information-based economy in which providing services is based on knowledge more than on the production of goods.

Dramaturgical analysis is the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation. Impression management (presentation of self) refers to people's efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.

Arlie Hochschild suggests that we acquire a set of feeling rules that shapes the appropriate emotions for a given role or specific situation. These rules include how, where, when, and with whom an emotion should be expressed. Like a funeral.

A master status is the most important status a person occupies. It dominates the individual's other statuses. It is the overriding ingredient in determining a person's general social position. Master statuses are vital to how we view ourselves, how we are seen by others, and how we interact with others. Examples - Being poor or rich, Occupation, race/ethnicity, or daughter/wife/mother.

A formal organization is a highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

• Nonverbal communication is the transfer of information between persons without the use of words. (Facial expressions, head movements, eye contact, body positions, touching, and personal space). Supplements verbal communication, regulates social interaction, and establishes the relationship among people in terms of their power over one another.
• A formal organization is a highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

Role exit occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity. Ebaugh says four stages: Doubt (frustration or burnout), search for alternatives, turning point, and creation of new identity.

• Primary groups are family, close friends, school or work-related peer groups.
• Secondary groups are schools, churches, corporations

A social institution is a set of beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will meet its basic social needs. Five basic social institutions: Family, Religion, Education, Economy, and Government or politics.

• Social solidarity is based on social structure which is based on division of labor.
• Mechanical solidarity - people are untied by traditions and shared values.
• Organic solidarity - people are united by mutual dependence on one another.
• A Gemeinschaft society would be made up of the various family trees and how they are related to one another.
• A Gesellschaft society would be made up of clump of trees, each has a specialized relationship and may not be committed to the others.

The process by which our perception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience. This meaning strongly influences what we "see" and how we respond to situations.

• According to functionalist theorists, social institutions perform several prerequisites of all societies: replace members; teach new members; produce, distribute, and consume goods and services; preserve order; and provide and maintain a sense of purpose.
• Conflict theorists suggest that social institutions do not work for the common good of all individuals. Institutions may enhance and uphold the power of some groups but exclude others, such as the homeless.

• Ethnomethodology is the study of the common sense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.
• Break "rules"
• Does not examine the impact of macrolevel social institutions
• Fail to look at how social realities are created.
• Make aware of sub conscious social realities in our daily lives.

The process by which people act toward or respond to other people; the foundation for all relationships and groups in society.

The complex framework of societal institutions (such as the economy, politics, and religion) and the social practices (such as rules and social roles) that make up a society and that organize and establish limits on people's behavior.

A socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.

A social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

The most important status that a person occupies.

A material sign that informs others of a person's specific status.

A set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status.

A group's or society's definition of the way that a specific role ought to be played.

How a person actually plays a role.

A situation in which incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.

A condition that occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies.

A situation in which people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity.

A group that consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common indentity and a feeling of interdependence.

Charles Horton Cooley�s term for a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.

A larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more-impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.

A highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

A set of organized beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will attempt to meet its basic social needs.

Societies that use simple technology for hunting animals and gathering vegetation.

Societies based on technology that supports the domestication of large animals to provide food, typically emerging in mountainous regions and areas with low amounts of annual rainfall.

Societies based on technology that supports the cultivation of plants to provide food.

Societies that use the technology of large-scale farming, including animal-drawn or energy-powered plows and equipment, to produce their food supply.

Societies based on technology that mechanized production.

Societies in which technology supports a service- and information-based economy.

Emile Durkheim's term for the social cohesion of preindustrial societies, in which there is minimal division of labor and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds.

Emile Durkheim's term for the social cohesion found in industrial societies, in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence.

A traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

A large, urban society in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus on values.

The process by which our perception of reality is shaped largely by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience.

The situation in which a false belief or prediction produces behavior that makes the originally false belief come true.

The study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.

The study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation.

Erving Goffman's terms for people�s efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.

The transfer of information between persons without the use of words.

The immediate area surrounding a person that the person claims as private.