Transcript Social Interaction in Everyday Life

Social Interaction in Everyday Life
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Social interaction is the process by which people act and
react in relation to others
In every society, people build their everyday lives using the
idea of status, a social position that a person holds
Status is part of our social identity and helps define our
relationship to others
An ascribed status is a social position a person receives at
birth or takes on involuntarily later in life (examples: being a
daughter, a Greek, a teenager)
By contrast, an achieved status refers to a social position a
person takes on voluntarily that reflects personal ability and
effort (examples: honors student, nurse, thief)
A master status is a status that has special importance for
social identity, often shaping a person's entire life
(examples: job, gender, name, being in the Bush family
attracts attention)
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A second important social structure is role, behaviour
expected of someone who holds a particular status
A person holds a status and performs a role (holding the
status of student leads you to perform the role of attending
classes and completing assignments)
As most mothers (and more and more fathers) can testify,
the combination of parenting and working outside the home
is physically and emotionally draining. Sociologists thus
recognise role conflict as conflict among the roles connected
to two or more statuses
The Social Construction of Reality
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Reality is not as “fixed” as we may think
The social construction of reality is the process by which
people creatively shape reality through social interaction
To become more aware of the world we help create, Harold
Garfinkel (1967) devised ethnomethodology, the study of
the way people make sense of their surroundings
Erving Goffman was another sociologist who analysed
social interaction, explaining that people live their lives much
like actors performing on a stage
If we imagine ourselves as directors observing what goes on
in the theater of everyday life, we are doing what Goffman
called dramaturgical analysis, the study of social
interaction in terms of theatrical performance
A status is like a part in a play, and a role serves as a script,
supplying dialogue and action for the characters
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Goffman described each individual's performance as the
presentation of self, a person's efforts to create specific
impressions in the minds of others
Non-verbal communication is communication using body
movements, gestures, and facial expressions rather than
speech
People use many parts of the body to convey information
through body language
Eye contact is another key element of nonverbal
communication. We use eye contact to invite social
interaction. Hands, too, speak for us. Gestures also
supplement spoken words (pointing at someone, shrugging
the shoulders)
Gender and Performance
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Demeanor is the way we act and carry ourselves; it is a clue
to social power
Simply put, powerful people enjoy more freedom in how they
act
Because women generally occupy positions of lesser power,
demeanor is a gender issue as well
The more power you have, the more space you use
Personal space refers to the surrounding area over which a
person makes some claim to privacy
Embarrassment is discomfort following a spoiled
performance. Goffman describes embarrassment as “losing
face”
Tact is, however, helping someone “save face”
“All the world's a stage
And all the men and women are merely players:
They have their exists and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts” (William
Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 2, scene 7)
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Emotions, more commonly called feelings, are an important
element of human social life
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Emotions are powerful forces that allow us to overcome our
self-centeredness and build connections with others
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Culture does play an important role in guiding human
emotions
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Questions: If you are on social media, in what ways do you
selectively “present” yourself to others? Have you noticed
differences in the way men and women communicate?
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