Social Structure & Society

1. Social Structure & Society

2. Social Structure • The underlying patterns of relationships in a group • Status—a position a person occupies within a social structure • Status helps us define who and what we are in relation to others

3. Two types of social statuses: • Ascribed Status—a position that is assigned or is acquired at birth; it is not earned or chosen • Example: newborn female ascribed status is child and daughter • Achieved Status—a position that is earned or chosen • Example: a person who decides to become a spouse or a parent

4. Status Set • All of the statuses that a person occupies at any particular time • one lawyer may be a wife, mother, author, and choir director • One student may also be a brother, a tennis player, a tutor, and a store clerk

5. Master Status • A position that strongly affects most other aspects of a person’s life • Can be achieved or ascribed • In many societies, occupations are master statuses • “criminal” is an achieved master status

6. Roles • Role—an expected behavior associated with a particular status • Statuses include a variety of roles • Roles = statuses “in action”

7. Rights and Obligations • Rights—a behavior that individuals can expect from others • Obligations—a behavior that individuals are expected to perform toward others • Example: Doctors are obligated to diagnose their patients’ illnesses . . . patients have the right to expect their doctors to diagnose as best they can

8. Roles continued • Role Performance—the actual behavior of an individual in a role • Social Interaction—the process of influencing each other as people relate

9. When Roles Conflict • Role Conflict—the performance of a role in one status interferes with the performance of a role in another status • Example: teenagers going to school and working—hard to balance study and work demands

10. Conflicting Roles Continued • Role Strain—the roles of a single status are inconsistent or conflicting • Example: high school teachers have to prepare lessons and sponsor clubs and go to student-centered meetings and go to professional meetings and go to workshops • The fulfillment of one role can interfere with the performance of the others

11. Society • people living within defined geographic boundaries and sharing a common culture

12. Types of Societies • Hunting and Gathering Societies—society that survives by hunting animals and gathering edible plants • Horticultural Society—society that survives through the growing of plants • Pastoral Society—society in which food is obtained by raising and taking care of animals • Agricultural Society—society that uses plows and draft animals in growing food • Industrial Society—society that depends on science and technology to produce its basic goods and services

13. Groups & Formal Organization

14. Groups / Collectivities • Types of Groups (3) • 1. Social Aggregate • People who gather in the same place at the same time but lack organization or lasting patterns of interaction. • 2. Social Category • People with the same status or trait • May play similar roles • Don’t necessarily know each other

15. Groups / Collectivities • 3. Social Group • Interact regularly • Have expected behaviors for each other • Have a feeling of association between them

16. Aggregate, Category or Social Group? • Your family • Buddhists • The Senate • People at Lake Lynn • Firemen • The WHS soccer team • Watching the ball drop at Times Square • Passengers on an airplane • Drug dealers • The current Kappa Sigma fraternity members at UNC-CH • All Kappa Sigma fraternity members

17. Group Types • Group—at least two people who have one or more goals in common and share common ways of thinking and behaving • Social Category—people who share a social characteristic • Primary Group—people who are emotionally close, know one another well, and seek one another’s company

18. Groups Continued • Secondary Group—people who share only part of their lives while focusing on a goal or task • Reference Group—group used for self-evaluation and the formation of attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms • In-Group—exclusive group demanding intense loyalty • Out-Group—group targeted by an in-group for opposition, antagonism, or competition

19. Primary, Secondary, Reference or In-group? • The Senate • Alcoholics • This Sociology class • The Bloods • Your family • Vegetarians • Democrats • Your co-workers • Your clique of best friends • Coffee drinkers

20. How many primary relationships do you have? • Duke and Univ. of Arizona Study • Over last 20 years, primary relationships shrank from 3 to 2. • Number of Americans who have no one to confide in grew to 1 in 4. • 80% rely solely on family members, 9% solely on spouses • Related podcasts: • The guy at the printer (start 43:25)

21. How groups interact • Social Network—a web of social relationships that join a person to other people and groups • Social Exchange—a voluntary action performed in the expectation of getting a reward in return

22. Problems with Groups • Conformity—behavior that matches group expectations • Groupthink—self-deceptive thinking that is based on conformity to group beliefs, and created by group pressure to conform • Coercion—interaction in which individuals or groups are forced to behave in a particular way • Deviance—behavior that departs from societal or group norms • Social Control—ways to encourage conformity to society’s norms • Societal Sanctions—rewards or punishments that encourage conformity to social norms

23. Deviance leads to Labels • Labeling Theory—theory that society creates deviance by identifying particular members as deviant • Stigma—an undesirable trait or label that is used to characterize an individual