Transcript Social Interaction and Social Groups

Chapter 6
Group Structure
Social Interaction and Social
Groups
Self-Learning Guide: You Will Be Able To Apply:
1. Social Interaction
2. Types of Social Interaction
3. Statuses
4. Roles
5. Groups
6. Bureaucracy
7. Institutions/Social Organization
FYI:American Personal Space
Most Americans use (4) main distance zones.
1. Intimate: physical contact to 6-18 inches
2. Personal: 2.5 to 4 ft. used in conversations
3. Social: used for business or interacting with a
(clerk or salesman) 4-12 ft.
4. Public: used by teachers/speakers; from 12-25 ft.
EYE
CONTACT
FYI:American Eye Contact
Most urban Americans use the eye contact
norm of:
1. Definite recognition distance: usually 1632 ft.
-once they are within, direct and
prolonged contact ceases
In small-town/rural areas:
2. Contact will continue after initial contact
and more direct contact is tolerated
Humor
Purpose of Humor
1.
Releases Tension
2.
Diffuses Tension
3.
States the truth in a “safe”
fashion; hence…the truth
in said in jest
Humor
How We Get Jokes
“Getting It”
•
•
•
Conventional
understanding
Unconventional
understanding
Francisco Smells!
Humor
Topics
1. Cultures and subcultures
largely determine what
the topic of jokes can be.
2. Because of their diffusing
or informal, they are often
in regards to: minorities,
racial groups, sex/gender,
other subcultures,
inappropriate sex acts,
bodily functions etc.
Social Interaction
• Social Action: anything people are
conscious of doing because of other people
-to study these phenomena a soc. needs to
employ “verstehen”(sympathetic
understanding)
• Social Interaction: involvement of two or
more people taking one another into
account
How is our modern age
affecting how we interact
or if at all?
Social Context
•
Where an interaction takes place is
defined by:
1. Physical setting or place
2. The social environment
3. Activities surrounding the interaction
For all of the above add:
• Before
• During
• After
I was once called in to advise a firm that has
operations all over the world. One of the first
questions asked was, “How do you get the
Germans to keep their doors open?”. In this
company the open doors were making the
Germans feel exposed and gave the whole
operation an unusual relaxed and unbusinesslike
air. Closed doors, on the other hand, gave the
Americans the feeling that there was a
conspirational air about the place and that they
were being left out. Point being, whether a door
being open or closed, it is not going to mean the
same in different countries or contexts. (Hall,
1969) * FYI: The Japanese executives encourage
the sharing of offices to encourage information
sharing
Social Norms
• Human behavior is not random.
Norms: specific rules of behavior, agreed
upon and shared, that prescribe limits of
acceptable behavior.(how we dress, how we
speak, our possessions etc.)
North Americans (overtly open and outgoing)
v.
Japanese (it is unacceptable to display too
much of yourself in public)
One day Suzanne Berger bent down to pick
up her child and found that she couldn’t
straighten up. She had injured her back so
severely that for years thereafter she could
neither walk nor sit for more than a few
minutes. Traveling meant she would have
to lie down every few minutes on a mat. In
effect, she would violate norms by sitting
or stretching out on the floor of a
department store, a train station, classroom
and so on. In her words………………….
Strangers try not to stare…..At airports and train
stations people have thought I to be a derelict or
crazy or may be homeless; only the disposed lie
on floors, children lie on floors, dogs lie on
floors…but adults? What’s that woman doing
over there? A security guard said at the airport.
Dunno, leave her alone. Must be drunk. With
friends inside my house, being down here upsets
a balance of conviviality, of the whereness that
grounds a conversation. I am always looking up.
As though younger or subservient. Wherever I
go, I lie down on my mat. Hey, lady, what the
hell you doing down there? says a teenager on a
city playground. You sick? You tired?
(Berger,1996)
Ethnomethodology
• the study of the set of rules or guidelines
that individuals use to initiate behavior,
respond to behavior, and modify behavior
in social settings.
Therefore…..
all social interaction, contextual makeup, and
norms are important for they provide all of
the unwritten rules for social behavior
Dramaturgy
• in order to create an impression, people
play roles, and their performance is judged
by others who are alert to any slips that
might reveal the actor’s true character.
For example: a job applicant at an interview
appears to be everything they think the
boss wants.
Almost all interactions require some type of
“acting”. Even first dates!
Types of Social Interaction
•
Whether intentional or or unintentional
behaviors between (2) or more individuals is
considered social interaction
FYI: Human interaction encompasses all (3) of
the following all to varying degrees:
1. Language: verbal communication
2. Intonation: perceived tone of verbal comm.
3. Body language: nonverbal comm.
Exchange
• when people do something for each other
with the express purpose of receiving a
reward or return, they are involved in an
exchange interaction.
-most basic from of social interaction
- employee does the job for exchange for a
salary
-a friend goes to see a sick friend in the
hospital
-”out of every selfless act comes a selfish
act” (idk)
Cooperation
• occurs when people act together to
promote common interest or achieve
shared goals.
-basketball teammates
-husband and wife do so to pay the mortgage
-college students will do so to prepare for an
exam
• Spontaneous cooperation, is the truest and most
natural form of human social cooperation
Conflict
• People in conflict struggle with one another for
some commonly prized object or value.
Conflicts arise when people have incompatible
values or they are competing for limited
resources.
-always involve an attempt to gain or use power
-is universally viewed as negative but is quite necessary
Coercion (a form of conflict), can reside as a form of
conflict but is often used from the position of power,
equally, coercion is intended to avoid conflict through
the threat of conflict
American Civil Rights
Movement
World
War II
Competition
• A form of conflict in which individuals or
groups confine their conflict within agreedupon rules.
-the modern world creates many environments
for the existence of competition
-sports
-marketplace
-educational system
-political system
Consider……
Marriage:
Husbands ands wives cooperate on chores and
responsibilities. They engage in exchange interactions,
that is they often discuss problems with one acting as a
listener, lending a sympathetic ear. They also experience
conflicts. They may want to spend limited money on two
diff. things without finding an alternative. If an agreement
is not met, the marriage may suffer. If the marriage
becomes irreversibly damaged they may find themselves
in direct competition. If they seek divorce as an answer to
their problems, in the legal meaning of the word, they
now have a conflict.
Elements of Social Interaction
We as human beings do not interact with one
another as anonymous beings. We come
together in specific environments with
specific purposes. Our behaviors therefore,
are determined by defined statuses and
particular roles.
Statuses
• are socially defined positions that people
occupy.
• They exist independent of the people who
occupy them
-common statuses may pertain to religion,
education, ethnicity, occupation: such as
Protestant, college graduate, Asian American,
teacher.
Statuses
• Most if not all occupational and
nonoccupational statuses remain
unchanged no matter the occupier.
-politician, police officer, doctor, analyst, thief,
prostitute etc.
-son, daughter, jogger, coach, friend, gang leader,
mental patient etc.
* remember: status does not involve the concept of
prestige
Statuses
• People often occupy more than one status
at a time.
-son/daughter, student, licensed car driver,
parishioner, employee, adolescent, aunt/uncle
• When one status dominates other statuses
in patterning one’s life it is called Master
status.
-now, your master status is a high school student,
however it will change to: college student,
lawyer, parent, spouse etc.
Ascribed v. Achieved
• Statuses conferred upon us by virtue of birth or
other significant factors not controlled by our
own actions or decisions; people occupy them
regardless of their intentions
-son/daughter, one’s gender, ethnicity, race etc.
• Statuses occupied as a result of an individual's
actions
-student, professor, mechanic, prisoner, husband,
mother,
Roles
• The culturally defined rules for proper
behavior that are associated with every
status (think of them as a collection of rights and
obligations)
-the rights of an employee are to be paid and
trained to do their job, in return they are
obligated to be at work on time and do their job
to the best of their ability
Role Sets
• All the roles attached to a single status are
known collectively as a role set.
-not every role is used all the time
-an individual’s role is dependent on the situation
As a student you behave one way with:
-other students
-another with teachers.
-another with parents
-another with a boss
-another with siblings and so on
Role: Strain, Conflict, Playing
1. Role Strain: when a …..
2. Role Conflict: when an individual who is
occupying more than one status at a
time…
3. Role Playing: the roles we play can feel
natural, awkward, could make us feel
likes we’re actors, or feel quite natural.
(Some) Sociologists feel that the roles a
person plays are the person’s only true
self.
Role: Exit
• The process by which people disengage
from important social roles.
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ex-wife
ex-husband
former-student
former-employee
ex-cop
the Nature of Groups
• Group: almost any occasion when two or
more people come together.
*Social Group: a number of people who have
a common identity, some feelings of unity,
and certain common goals and shared norms.
-have an established set of v_____, and
perhaps dissimilar from the larger society
n_____,
*Social Aggregate: people who temporarily
happen to be in physical proximity to one
another but share little else.
the Nature of Groups
All social groups contain the following:
1. Permanence beyond the the meeting of
the group
2. Means for identifying members
3. Ways of recruiting new members
4. Goals and purposes
5. Social statuses, roles = norms for
behavior
6. Means of controlling members’ behavior
Primary Groups
interaction among members who have an
emotional investment in one another and in a
situation, who know one another intimately
and interact as total individuals rather than
through specialized roles. (FAMILY)
• Charles Horton Cooley (1909) called primary groups the
nursery of human nature.
• Described by saying “we”; it involves the sort of
sympathy and mutual identification for which “we” is the
natural expression
• Family members interact in terms of their entire
personalities, not just as specific statuses
Secondary Groups
characterized by much less intimacy among
its members. It usually has specific goals,
is formally organized, and is impersonal.
• Tend to be larger than primary groups
• All members usually don’t react with one another
• Political parties, co-workers, church members,
town residents etc.
Functions of Groups (small)
…groups function as the bridges b/w the
individual and society as a whole. To that end,
we organize groups around fundamental
purposes.
1. Reference Groups: a group or social category
that an indiv. uses to help define beliefs,
attitudes, and values to guide behavior.
•
tend to be the resource from which we develop our own
identity, lifestyle, ideas etc.
•
can be both positive and negatives ref. groups (esp.
influential during adolescence)
Small Groups
constitute social groups such as families, peer groups,
and work groups, that actually meet together and
contain few enough members so that all members
know one another.
1. dyad: (the smallest possible group) contains only
(2) members. Husband/wife, Pilot/co-pilot, Police
partners etc.
-are often times effective at resisting change
-however the loss of (1) member destroys the group
Small Groups
2. triad: adds (1) to a dyad.
 adds an element whereas alliances can be
formed and can lead to power struggles
-very often displayed by young children engaged in
play
-after the 3rd or perhaps 4th group member, the group
dynamic changes profoundly
As the small group grows, the mere
size of it threatens its survival. At this
stage our small group, grows into a…
Large Groups
Much of the activity of modern society is
carried out through large and formally
organized groups. Thus, sociologists refer to
these groups as associations.
purposefully created special-interest groups that
have clearly defined goals and official ways of
doing things.
-agencies, businesses, labor unions, schools, colleges,
service groups, hospitals, tennis clubs, country clubs etc.
Networks
• …a web of weak social ties
• Includes people we know of – or who know of usbut with whom we interact rarely, if at all.
Facebook Issues
Privacy
Social Isolation
Large Groups
Formal Structure: Every large association must break
down tasks into a formalized structure utilizing planned
and defined statuses and roles. This process outlines a
bureaucracy. Insert any school, college, corporation etc.
In these formal structures, all planned jobs are backed up
by unwritten (assumed) assignments understood by those
who do the job.
Informal Structure: No association ever works out in
real-life as it does on paper. Therefore, all formal
structures develop procedural shortcuts or “bending”.
Because of endless human variables and situations
“unwritten rules develop.
Bureaucracy
a formal, rationally organized social structure [with]
clearly defined patterns of activity in which,
ideally, every series of actions is functionally
related to the purposes of the organization.
 most efficient (not necessarily the most desirable)
…ideally a bureaucracy [exaggeration] will contain
the following …
Bureaucracy
1. A clear-cut division of labor
2. Hierarchical delegation of power and
responsibility
3. Rules and Regulations
4. Impartiality (position are earned as well
as regulations apply to all regardless)
5. Employment based on technical
qualifications
6. Distinction between public and private
spheres
Social Institutions
the ordered social relationships that grow out
of the values, norms, statuses, and roles
that organize those activities that fulfill
society’s fundamental needs
(5) Essentials:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
the family sector
the education sector
the economic sector
the religious sector
the political sector
Social Institutions v. Social groups
A group is a collection of specific,
identifiable people. In other words, a group
is people.
An institution is a system
for organizing standardized patterns of
social behavior. In other words, a system of
actions.
Social Organization
consists of the relatively stable patterns of
social relationships among individuals
and groups in society.
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these relationships are based upon social roles,
statuses, and shared meanings
differs from society to society
social institutions also exist within patterned
relationships with one another
a society’s social organization is almost always
its most stable aspect