Social structure and interaction chpt 4 ss
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This document discusses macro and micro sociology approaches. Macrosociology examines broader social structures like culture, social class, institutions and how they influence large groups. Microsociology focuses on smaller scale face-to-face interactions and how symbols and definitions shape behavior. Both are needed to understand how social forces at a broad, societal level and interpersonal level jointly influence human behavior.
Social structure and interaction chpt 4 ss
- 1. Social Structure and Social Interaction Important text is in green this time
- 2. Macro and micro • People are influenced by the norms and beliefs of their cultures and society. • This influence can take a more personal and intimate level or a more general and widespread level that affects large numbers of people. • Sociologists who study the effect of social life on society use two approaches: • macrosociology • microsociology
- 3. Macro and micro • Functionalists and conflict theorists tend to use the macrosociological approach • Symbolic interactionists are more likely to use the microsociological approach. • both approaches are necessary for a complete understanding of social life.
- 5. Macrosociology • Using the macrosociological approach, functionalists and conflict theorists examine the more expansive aspects of social structure. • macrosociology refers to a society’s framework, consisting of the various relationships between people and groups that direct and set limits on human behavior.
- 6. Macrosociology • social structure-culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. • Social structure guides people’s behaviors. • A person’s location in the social structure underlies his or her perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
- 7. Macrosociology • People develop these perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors from their place in the social structure, and they act accordingly. • All of the components of social structure work together to maintain social order by limiting, guiding, and organizing human behavior.
- 8. Macrosociology • Social institutions are the organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs. • social institutions include the family, religion, law, politics, economics, education, science, medicine, the military, and the mass media.
- 9. Macrosociology • Structural changes can, sometimes, fundamentally and permanently alter the way a society organizes itself. • Gemeinschaft-is a society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness. • Gesellschaft-a society dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self interest‑
- 10. • Emile Durkheim found the key to social cohesion in the concepts of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. • Mechanical solidarity is a collective consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks, • Organic solidarity is a collective consciousness based on the interdependence brought about by an increasingly specialized division of labor— how people divide up tasks.
- 12. Microsociology • symbolic interactionists are more inclined to examine small-scale, face-to-face social interactions from a microsociological perspective. • Symbolic interactionists are interested in the symbols that people use to define their worlds and how these definitions, in turn, influence human behavior
- 13. Microsociology
- 14. Microsociology • Stereotypes • Personal space • Body language (touch)
- 15. Microsociology: Breaking a personal space norm…
- 16. Microsociology • Erving Goffman developed dramaturgy, an analytical approach that analyzes social life in terms of the stage, • everyday life consists of social actors playing assigned roles
- 17. Construction of Reality • Symbolic interactionists contend that reality is subjectively created by people’s perceptions of “what is real.” • People define their own realities and then live within those definitions.
- 18. Construction of Reality • Ethnomethodology is the study of how people use background assumptions (deeply embedded common understandings concerning people’s views of the world and how they ought to act) to make sense out of life.
- 19. Why do we need both macro and microsociology? • Both are necessary to understand social life fully because each adds to our knowledge of human experience.
Editor's Notes
- #6: Macrosociology places the focus on large-scale features of social structure. It investigates large-scale social forces and the effects they have on entire societies and the groups within them. It is utilized by functionalist and conflict theorists.
- #7: Social structure is defined as the patterned relationships between people that persist over time. Behaviors and attitudes are determined by our location in the social structure. Components of social structure are culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and institutions.
- #9: Social institutions are society’s standard ways of meeting its basic needs. The family, religion, law, politics, economics, education, science, medicine, and the military all are social institutions. In industrialized societies, social institutions tend to be more formal and in nonliterate societies, more informal. Each institution has its own groups, status, values, and norms.
- #10: Ferdinand Tönnies analyzed how intimate community (Gemeinschaft) was being replaced by impersonal associations (Gesellschaft). Gemeinschaft is a society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness. Gesellschaft is a society dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self‑interest.
- #11: Emile Durkheim found the key to social cohesion, the degree to which members of a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds, in the concepts of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is a collective consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks, while organic solidarity is a collective consciousness based on the interdependence brought about by an increasingly specialized division of labor—that is, how people divide up tasks.
- #13: The microsociological approach places emphasis on face-to-face social interaction, or what people do when they are in the presence of one another. Symbolic interactionists are interested in the symbols that people use to define their worlds, how people look at things, and how that affects their behavior. Included within this perspective are studies of stereotypes, personal space, and touching.
- #15: Stereotypes are used in everyday life. First impressions are shaped by the assumptions one person makes about another person’s sex, race, age, and physical appearance. Such assumptions affect one’s ideas about the person and how one acts toward that person. Stereotypes tend to be self-fulfilling—that is, they bring out the very kinds of behavior that fit the stereotype. They even have an impact on what we accomplish. People can also resist stereotypes and change outcomes. Personal space refers to the physical space that surrounds us and that we claim as our own. The amount of personal space varies from one culture to another. Anthropologist Edward Hall found that Americans use four different distance zones: (1) Intimate distance (about 18 inches from the body) for lovemaking, wrestling, comforting, and protecting; (2) Personal distance (from 18 inches to 4 feet) for friends, acquaintances, and ordinary conversations; (3) Social distance (from 4 feet to 12 feet) for impersonal or formal relationships such as job interviews; and (4) Public distance (beyond 12 feet) for even more formal relationships such as separating dignitaries and public speakers from the general public. From our culture, we learn rules about touching. Both the frequency and the meaning of touching vary from one culture to the next. Men and women react differently to being touched.
- #17: Dramaturgy is an analysis of how we present ourselves in everyday life. Dramaturgy is the name given to an approach pioneered by Erving Goffman. Social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage. According to Goffman, socialization prepares people for learning to perform on the stage of everyday life. Front stage is where performances are given (wherever lines are delivered). Back stage is where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances. Role performance is the particular emphasis or interpretation that an individual gives a role, the person’s “style.” Role conflict occurs when the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectations of another role—in other words, conflict between roles. Role strain refers to conflicts that someone feels within a role.
- #19: and how people ought to act. Ethnomethodologists try to undercover people’s background assumptions, which form the basic core of one’s reality, and provide basic rules concerning our view of the world and of how people ought to act. Harold Garfinkel founded the ethnomethodological approach. He conducted experiments asking subjects to pretend that they did not understand the basic rules of social life in order to uncover others’ reactions and break background assumptions.