Transcript Sociology 12 - Unit 4 - Social Organization

Unit #4 – Social Organization
Living Together as Humans
Unit Overview
The concepts and theories presented in the
previous unit focused primarily on a process that
is central to sociology—the transmission of
culture to society’s members.
While culture and socialization are central
themes in sociology, they represent only one
aspect of its study.
Sociologists also focus on the structure,
organization and operation of human societies,
with particular emphasis on how interaction
within these structures shapes human behaviour.
Unit Overview
Our examination of social organization begins with its
smallest unit—the group.
Sociologists have developed several concepts and
frameworks that provide a deeper understanding of the
role that groups play in meeting basic social and physical
needs as well as shaping human behaviour.
Cooley’s distinction between primary and secondary
groups provides a basis for analyzing their role in the lives
of individuals.
Other sociologists have examined the influence of groups
on the behaviour of individual members. All of these
studies provide us with a deeper understanding of the
significant role of groups in our daily lives.
Unit Overview
The social group also provides the basic unit upon which
modern society is built.
Sociologists apply two key ideas—status and role—to the
behaviour of humans in groups.
In turn, these concepts form the basis of social organization.
Sociologists use the term stratification to describe the
structures of modern societies.
Stratification systems, like human cultures, come in a
variety of forms that have evolved over time. This unit
examines the two primary types of stratification systems,
caste and class, providing several examples for analysis.
Unit Overview
Sociologists are particularly interested in the
primary effect of stratification systems on society—
the emergence of inequalities that can create
prejudice and discrimination in human societies.
It is important that students develop an
understanding of the relationship between these
contemporary social problems and the
stratification systems by which modern societies
are organized.
Unit Overview
Finally, social institutions also make a significant
contribution to social organization.
All human societies have developed specific
institutions that perform important social tasks.
The three most important institutions—family,
religion, and education—provide examples that
illustrate the key role that institutions play in the
organization and operation of modern societies
as well as the daily lives of their members.
Mean Girls Lesson
Objectives:
To learn the terms:
Status
Ascribed /
Achieved
Roles
Role Conflict
Role Strain
Role Exit
Process of Stages
Social Interaction
Status Game
Treat each other according to what is placed on
your forehead. However, do not tell that
person what it says. Spend 10 minutes doing
this activity.
Once we finish, take off the sticky notes and
look at what was written. How did the exercise
make you feel? Why do you think you felt that
way?
Social Structure: A Guide to
Everyday Living
Members of every society rely on
social structure to make sense out of
daily situations.
The world can be disorienting and
even frightening when society's rules
are unclear.
What is Status?
Status is one of the basic building blocks of social
organization.
 Status is the social position a person holds.
 Status is part of our social identity and defines our
relationships to others
Status set
All the statuses a person holds at a given time
Example: Teenage girl is a daughter to her parents, a sister to her
brother, a student at her school, and a goalie on her hockey team
Think about some of your status sets. What are they?
Status sets change over the course of life
Example:
THEN... Student, Athlete, …
NOW..... Teacher, Runner, …
How do people attain statuses?
Ascribed status
Social position a person receives at birth or takes
involuntarily later in life. Little or no choice
Daughter, an American, a teenager, a widower, an
orphan
Achieved status
Social position a person takes on voluntarily that
reflects personal ability and effort
Honor student, Olympic athlete, a wife/husband, a
criminal
Do some statuses matter more
than others?
Master status:
A status that has special importance for social identity,
often shaping a person's entire life
A Job
Reveals a lot about social background and education
A name
A “Bush” or a “Kennedy”
Can be both +/Negative: diseases (cancer, AIDS) or disabilities
What is Role?
Another building block of social interaction
Role is the behavior expected of someone who
holds a particular status.
A person holds a status and performs a role.
Student (status)
Attend class, finishing assignments (roles)
Role set
A number of roles attached to a single status
How do different roles cause
conflict and strain?
People in the U.S. Juggle many responsibilities demanded by their
various statuses and roles.
Role conflict
Conflict among the roles
corresponding to two or more statuses
Working mothers: parenting vs, job
Role strain
Tension among the roles connected to a single status
Manager: being friendly with workers and meeting deadlines
Can you ever leave a role behind?
Role exit
The process by which people disengage from important
social roles
“exes” ex-nuns, ex-doctors, ex-husbands, and ex-alcoholics
Process of stages
People begin to doubt their ability to continue in a
certain role
Imagine new roles
Decide to pursue a new life
Past roles can continue to influence their lives
Must rebuild relationships with people who knew them
in their earlier life
What is Social Interaction?
5 types of social interaction are basic to
group life
􏰁 Cooperation
􏰁 Social exchange
􏰁 Coercion
􏰁 Conflict
􏰁 Conformity
Cooperation
Interaction in which individuals or
groups combine their efforts to
reach a goal 􏰁
Agreements
Conflict
Working against one another for
a large share of the reward or
outcome
Social Exchange
A voluntary action performed in the
expectation of getting a reward in return
Doing something in exchange for
something else
Coercion
Interaction in which individuals or
groups are forced to behave in a
particular way
Opposite of social exchange
􏰁 Prisoners or War
􏰁 Teens with Curfew
Conformity
Behavior that matches group
expectations
􏰁Adapt to fit the behavior of those
around us
􏰁How far would you go??
How can we become more aware of the
social reality in which we play a part?
Ethnomethodology
The study of the way people make sense of their everyday
surroundings.
Everyday behavior is based on assumptions
“How are you?”
Interested in how the person is mentally, spiritually, or financially
The person assumes you are just being polite
􏰁 Purposely break the rules
􏰁 From broken rules we learn what the rules are and how important
our everyday reality is.
What are performances?
How do we interact??
As we present ourselves in everyday situations, we reveal information
to others
􏰁 Consciously
and unconsciously
The way we dress (costume)
What we carry (props)
Tone of our voice and gestures (manners)
We craft our performance according to the setting
􏰁 Loud in a restaurant
􏰁 Quiet in a church
Are we actually listening???
Human Communication
55% Non-Verbal
38% Vocal Tone
7% Words
How do we use nonverbal
communication in our performances?
Communication using body movements, gestures, and facial
expressions rather than speech
􏰁 Facial expressions are the most significant
􏰁Smiling
􏰁 Eye contact is another crucial element
Make eye contact as an invitation to socially interact
Hand gestures
As insults, a request for a ride
How is body language used to deceive
others?
Unintended body language can contradict our
planned meaning
􏰁 A teen explains why they are getting home
late but his mother doubts him because he
will not look at her in the eye
􏰁 Nonverbal communication is hard to control
therefore it can be used to help detect deception
􏰁There is no way to rid the world of
dishonesty
􏰁 Researcher have discovered ways to detect
lying for nonverbal clues
Spotting Lies: What are the Clues?
Clues to deception can be found in 4 elements of
performance
Words
􏰁 Good liars go over their
lines
A slip of the tongue might
suggest the person is hiding
something
Voice
Tone and pattern
Trembling, and speed
Fast= anger
Slow= sadness
Body Language
Jitters
Shallow or rapid breathing
Facial Expressions
Fake smiles= less laugh lines
Gender and Performance
Women are more sensitive to nonverbal communication
than men
Men and Women differ in 3 ways
􏰁 Demeanor
􏰁 Use of space
􏰁 Staring, smiling, touching
Demeanor
The way we act and carry ourselves 􏰁
A clue to social power
􏰁 Powerful people enjoy more freedom in how they act 􏰁
Cursing, being relaxed at work is ok for the boss
􏰁 Women generally have lesser power--> demeanor of women is
more reserved
Use of Space
The more power you have the more space you use
􏰁 Men use more
􏰁 Women less
􏰁 Personal space
􏰁 The surrounding area over which a person makes
some claim to privacy
􏰁 US has the greatest amount of personal space
􏰁 Invasion of personal space can make people feel
uncomfortable or suggest sexual interest
Staring, smiling, and touching
Eye contact encourages interaction.
􏰁 Women hold eye contact more than
men
􏰁 Men stare as a sign of interest
Smiling is a symbol of appeasement or
submission
Women smile more than men
􏰁 Mutual touching conveys intimacy and
caring
MEAN GIRLS
WHY MEAN GIRLS????
Well... shows us great examples of:
Group
Social Status
In-group
Out-Group
It also talks discusses some aspects of Culture and how they affect
Suburban High Schools.
After we will talk about social interactions
Groups, Aggregates, and
Categories
A group consists of two or more people who interact
over time, have a sense of identity and belonging, and
have norms that make them act differently from
nonmembers.
An aggregate is a collection of people who just happen to
be in the same place at the same time.
A category is a collection of people who share a
particular characteristic. They do not necessarily interact
with one another and have nothing else in common.
Group Classifications
Primary groups tend to be small and are characterized
by emotional intimacy among members.
Secondary groups tend to be larger and meet primarily
for the purpose of accomplishing some kind of task.
An in-group is a group to which we belong and to
which we feel a sense of loyalty.
An out-group is a one to which we don’t belong and to
which we don’t feel a sense of loyalty.
Group Classifications
For purposes of self-evaluation, people often
turn to reference groups. Reference groups can
be either primary or secondary in nature, or they
can be general categories or even celebrities.
Social Integration
It’s important to feel an emotional connection to one’s
group or to one’s community. Such a feeling is called
social integration.
Émile Durkheim coined the term anomie to indicate a
lack of social integration. He concluded that anomie was
one factor in putting single, male Protestants at greater
risk for suicide.
Sociology also studies group dynamics, which is the
term that implies that our thoughts and behaviors are
influenced by the groups of which we are members. In
turn, our thoughts and behaviors can influence those of
other group members.
Social Integration
Georg Simmel studied how group size affects
interactions between group members. He found that
a dyad, a group of two people, is less stable than a
triad, a group of three people.
Irving Janis coined the term groupthink to refer to
the tendency of people in positions of power to follow
the opinions of the group and to ignore any
dissenting opinions.
Groups Within Society
Each society is made up of smaller groups and
associations.
According to C. Wright Mills, the power elite, a
small group representing the most powerful and
influential people, runs the United States.
A voluntary association is a group that we choose to
join, in which the members are united by the pursuit
of a common goal. These associations can be
temporary or permanent.
Groups Within Society
As societies modernize, groups change in size and
purpose. A feature of modernized societies is the
formal organization, a secondary group
organized to achieve specific goals.
A bureaucracy is an example of a formal
organization that arises as a result of
modernization. Weber argued that bureaucracies
gain increasing power over everyday life in a
process called rationalization of society.
Groups Within Society
A bureaucracy is characterized by a division of labor,
written rules, hierarchy, official communication, and
impersonal relationships within the organization.
Bureaucracies appear to be the most rational
approach to accomplishing the stated goals, but
human beings are not always rational. This conflict
makes bureaucracies inefficient.
Sociologist Robert Michels theorized that
bureaucracies tend to be run by an oligarchy, a
small, ruling group.
Identify Terms and Find
Examples
Status
Role
Ascribed Status
Role Expectation
Achieved Status
Role Conflict
Master Status
Role Strain
Status Symbol
Role Exit