Social Structures, Institutions, and Socialization

Notes to chapters 8, 9, 10

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

STATUSES ROLES

Social Structure

Ascribed Achieved

• Social structure refers to the way society is organized. • Status = is a position in a social structure.• Role = how we (generally) expect members of a status to behave.

– Statuses and Roles exist independently of their ‘incumbents’ or ‘occupants’

Expectation Performance

Statuses

• You can think of (sets of) statuses as different ways of categorizing people in different situations. – Examples: Family statuses, occupational statuses , social

class statuses, demographic statuses, etc.1. Achieved statuses – positions that are achieved by

the individuals for themselves (but not always on purpose); these statuses can change.

2. Ascribed statuses – statuses given to individuals generally at birth, and from which they cannot escape; these statuses are fixed.

Statuses

• Master Status- the most important status someone occupies (as perceived by others)

• Status Symbol- material sign that indicates someone’s status.

Roles

• Roles- how we expect occupants of a social status to behave and their attempt to meet those expectations in role performances. – Role = the common denominator among all

occupants of a status; (i.e. what they all have in common)

• Role Conflict- a situation in which incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses at the same time.

Primary and Secondary Groups• Primary group: the people we spend the most time with; a common whole, a “WE.” (George Horton Cooley)• Secondary group: a larger, more specialized group in which members engage in impersonal, goal-oriented relationships.

PRIMARY GROUP SECONDARY GROUP

Relationships are ends in themselves Relationships are viewed as means to an end (e.g. money)

Tend to be small in size; intimate association

Tend to be larger in size

Personal or individual qualities are most important

Your status, rather than personal attributes are most important

The family is typically the first and the most enduring source of influence on the individual

The most important secondary group is the formal organization (e.g. bureaucracy)

Social Structures

• Social structure is made up of statuses and roles. A status is a position in a social structure, and the role is how we (generally) expect members of a status to behave.

• Statuses and Roles exist independently of their ‘incumbents’ or ‘occupants’

Status• A social status is a ‘position that a person occupies in a

social structure’ – You can think of these are different ways of categorizing people

in different situations. – Examples: Family statuses, occupational statuses , social class

statuses, demographic statuses, etc.1. Achieved statuses – positions that are achieved by the

individuals for themselves (but not always on purpose); these statuses can change.

2. Ascribed statuses – statuses given to individuals generally at birth, and from which they cannot escape; these statuses are fixed.

Role

• A role is the ‘sum total of expectations about behavior attached to a particular social status’; how we expect occupants of a social status to behave. – ‘Occupants of a social status are expected to perform

certain roles’– Role = the common denominator among all occupants of

a status; (i.e. removing all idiosyncracies, what they all have in common)

– Example: I have the status of ‘teacher’; My role is to teach.

Three Problems

1. Role Strain– Overwhelm, Stress with a single role

2. Status Inconsistency– Ascribed vs. Achieved statuses

3. Role Conflict– Conflict of interest; clashing expectations

between many roles

Society and Social Institutions

• Society = the totality of people and social relations in a given geographic space.– Societies, unlike groups, are self-sufficient: ‘no group,

no matter how large, qualifies as a society unless it provides the resources to answer all of its members’ basic needs’ (p. 140)

• Social Institutions = An institution is an accepted and persistent constellation of statuses, roles, values, and norms that respond to important societal needs.

The Family as a Social Institution

Statuses Mother, father, son, daughter

Role expectations Wives and husbands must be sexually faithful to one another

Values ‘All for one, and one for all’;

Norms Help one another; children treat parents with respect; parents treat children equally

Basic Needs and Social Institutions

Societal Needs Social Institutions

Have continual supply of new members

The family

Socialize new members The family, Education, Religion

Deal with health and sickness Medicine

Assign jobs and tasks Education, labor market

Create knowledge Science, religion

Control its members Law enforcement, judicial system, religion

Defend against enemies Government, military

Produce and exchange goods Economic system

Nature of Social Institutions

1. Institutions generally unplanned, and develop gradually

2. Institutions are inherently conservative and change slowly

3. Society’s institutions are interdependent: a change in one leads to changes in the others

4. The statuses, roles, values, and norms associated with an institution in one society may be very different from those in another society.

Socialization

• Socialization = the lifelong process of social interaction through which individuals acquire a self-identity and the skills necessary to achieve cultural competency.– Agents of Socialization include the Family, Schools,

Mass Media, Peer Groups, and the Workplace• Social self = the relatively organized complex

of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors associated with an individual

What is REAL?

• Thomas theorem: "If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences“– To understand human inter-actions and

relations, sociologists have to understand both reality, and perceived reality.

– ‘There is always a conflict between spontaneous definitions of the situation made by members of a society, and the definitions which this society provides for him’

W. I. Thomas1863 - 1947

Irving Goffman• Social roles and the ‘Definition of the

Situation’– We are always performing social roles – social roles

are the expectations about the behavior attached to our social status, i.e. how we are expected to behave.

– Roles are scripted; content of roles provided to us by society, but roles are not necessarily fake or insincere!

– Most effective way to ensure a convincing role performance is to influence the definition of the situation: how things are defined initially will influence enormously people’s subsequent behaviors and expectations…

Irving Goffman

• Rituals: refers to all those simplified, exaggerated, stereotyped behaviors that signal or display particular emotions or social statuses in a situation

• Interaction rituals: are the institutionalized, frequently unspoken, ways of behaving in a society.– Example: how to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’

in a culture.

Play and Games• Play: in play, there are no rules; the child makes it up as

he or she goes along.– Play is the first step toward constructing a “Me”

• Games: games have rules and specific roles (e.g. batter, pitcher, catcher, outfielder); the rules specify how the person in each role participates– In Mead’s view, the roles and the rules of games are

‘impersonal’. – Participating in games enhances the ability of children for

role-taking, to see other people’s points of view, and to acquire a generalized other (pg. 161)

PART II. SOCIALIZATION AND THE SELF

Feral (‘Wild’) Children

Charles H. Cooley“The looking-glass self”• The individual internalizes the attitudes of

others toward him/her (“Me”) and responds or reacts to those attitudes (“I”)

• The self emerges out of social interaction: selves can only exist in definite relationships to others selves

• ‘Generalized Other’: we internalize or anticipate how others we don’t know will expect us to behave; – “the community and society in which we live”

(p.261)– The collectively shared consensual meanings in

society

Charles H. Cooley

“The looking-glass self”1. We imagine how we look to the

other person2. We imagine the other person’s

reaction to our appearance3. In response, we have some

feeling, such as pride or shame

George Herbert Mead• Influenced by Pragmatism, school of

American philosophy• Focus on practical conditions and

consequences of action The Self• Self = Dynamic interaction between the

“I” (subject) and the “Me” (object).• The ‘ME’ sees myself as an object, as

others see me; the ‘I’ is my response to my perception of how I think others see me in this situation.

• Children are not born with an I and a ME!

George Herbert Mead• Play: in play, there are no rules; the child makes it up as

he or she goes along.– Play is the first step toward constructing a “Me”

• Games: games have rules and specific roles (e.g. batter, pitcher, catcher, outfielder); the rules specify how the person in each role participates– In Mead’s view, the roles and the rules of games are

‘impersonal’. – Participating in games enhances the ability of children for

role-taking, to see other people’s points of view, and to acquire a generalized other (pg. 161)

PART III. TYPES OF INFLUENCE (POWER)

INFLUENCE

UNINTENDED(unconscious)EMERGENCE

INTENDED = POWER

1.FORCE 2.MANIPULATION 3.PERSUASION 4.AUTHORITY

CoerciveInduced

LegitimateCompetent

Personal

Types of Influence

Definitions of Power

1. Dennis Wrong: power is the capacity to intentionally influence others.

2. Bertrand Russell: “power is the actual production of intended effects”

3. Max Weber: ‘the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will even against the resistance of others...’

Russell(1872-1970)

Weber(1864-1920)

Forms of Power (intended influence)

I. ForceII. ManipulationIII. PersuasionIV. Authority: – Coercion, Induced, Legitimate, Competent, and

Personal• * Note: all forms of power except ‘force’

must be communicated.

1. Force• Force = treating a human as an object. Note: this only refers to the

application of force, not to the threat of force. • Violence is the ultimate form of force: assaulting the body to

inflict pain, injury, suffering, or even death.

Depiction of slave whippingMedieval torture

2. Manipulation(aka ‘Fraud’)

• Definition: any deliberate attempt to influence or elicit a desired response from another person, *where the desired response is not explicitly communicated to the other person*– Spontaneous, informal interaction

depends on the shared belief that manipulation isn’t taking place.

Shamwow!

3. Persuasion

• Persuasion occurs whenever someone agrees with someone else’s arguments or appeals after evaluating them independently in light of his/her own interests.

• Persuasion implies a context of open and free communication, with no anticipation of punishments or rewards, i.e. without any felt need to do what the other wants.

4. Authority

• Authority is successful ordering or forbidding– A relationship of command and obedience. – Persuasion = tested acceptance; Authority = untested

acceptance.• 5 types (based on motivations for obeying):

1. Coercion (punishments, threat of force)2. Induced (rewards such as money)3. Legitimate (rights to command, obligations to obey)4. Competent (based on perceived expertise)5. Personal (based on desire to please)

Personal authority

• Personal authority is usually low in extensiveness (# of people it

influences): e.g. a lover who declares ‘your wish is my command!’

• But charismatic leaders use personal authority to generate mass followings that challenge the traditional order. Mussolini and Hitler are

(negative) examples of charismatic leaders