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Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups
Chapter 5
Social Interaction and Reality
• Reality shaped by perceptions, evaluations, and definitions– Varies across cultures– Ability to define social reality
reflects group’s power – Social change involves redefining or reconstructing
social reality
Social Interaction
• The process by which people act and react in relation to others
• Social construction of reality – the process by which people shape reality through social interaction
• Thomas Theorem – Situations defined as real become real in their consequences
Status
• Status – a social position – Status set – consists of all the statuses a person
holds at a given time– Ascribed status – a social position given to a
person by society– Achieved status – a social position that someone
assumes voluntarily and that reflects ability and effort
Status
– Master status – a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life.
Figure 5-1: Social Statuses
Roles
• Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status
• Role conflict - conflict among roles corresponding to two or more different statuses
• Role strain – incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status
Understanding Social structure
• Durkheim • Tonnies• Lenski
Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
• Division of Labor ([1893] 1933)– Mechanical solidarity: Collective consciousness
that emphasizes group solidarity, implying all individuals perform the same tasks
– Organic solidarity: Collective consciousness resting on the need society’s members have for one another
Tönnies Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Gemeinschaft (guh-MINE-shoft): Small community in which people have similar backgrounds and life experiences
• Gesellschaft (guh-ZELL-shoft): Large community in which people are strangers and feel little in common with other community residents
Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach
• Human societies undergo process of change characterized by dominant pattern known as sociocultural evolution– Level of technology critical• Technology: “Cultural information about the
ways in which the material resources of the environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 2006:361)
Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach
• Preindustrial Societies– Hunting-and-gathering society:
People rely on whatever foods and fibers are readily available
– Horticultural societies: People plant seeds and crops
– Agrarian societies: People are primarily engaged in production of food
Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach
• Industrial societies: societies that depend on mechanization to produce its goods and services– People depend on mechanization
to produce goods and services– People rely on inventions
and energy sources – People change function of
family as a self-sufficient unit
Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach
• Postindustrial and Postmodern Societies– Postindustrial society:
Economic system engaged primarily in processing and controlling information
– Postmodern society: Technologically sophisticated society preoccupied with consumer goods and media images
Groups
• Group: any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact on a regular basis– Primary group: small group with intimate,
face-to-face association and cooperation– Secondary group: formal,
impersonal groups with little social intimacy or mutual understanding
Table 18-1: Comparisons of Primary and Secondary Groups
Groups
• In-groups and Out-Groups– In-groups: any groups or categories to which
people feel they belong– Out-groups: any groups or categories to which
people feel they do not belong• Conflict between in-groups and out-groups can turn
violent on a personal as well as political level
Groups
– Reference group: any group thatindividuals use as standard for evaluating their own behavior
Formal Organizations
• Large, secondary groups that are organized to achieve goals efficiently
Types of formal Organizations
• Utilitarian - primary motive is income
• Normative – not for income but to pursue some worthwhile goal
• Coercive- involuntary
Bureaucracy
• a form of organization based on explicit rules, with a clear, impersonal, and hierarchical authority structure
Characteristics of Bureaucracy
• Complex division of labor (specialization)• Hierarchy of authority• Explicit rules• Rewards on the basis of performance• Extensive written records
Corporation
• A group that, through the legal process of incorporation, has been given the status of a separate and real social entity– Limited liability
Group Think
• Intense social pressure within a group for individuals to conform to group norms and abandon individual and critical thinking
• People will compromise judgment to avoid being difficult– Solomon Asch’s experiment
Types of Leadership
• Instrumental Leadership – group leadership that emphasizes the completion of tasks
• Expressive Leadership – group leadership that focuses on collective well-being
Organizational Culture
• Classical theory (scientific management) workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards
• Human relations approach – emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation within a bureaucracy