Chapter 4 Section 1

1. Chapter 4 Section 1 Building blocks of social structure

2. Social Structure: • Network of interrelated statuses and roles that guides our interaction • Status = position • Role = behavior

3. Statuses: • We each hold multiple positions within society: • i.e.: teacher, mother, wife, daughter, aunt, etc. • Some statuses are assigned and are beyond our control (ascribed) • i.e.: daughter, aunt • Some statuses are gained or acquired through effort (achieved) • i.e.: teacher, mother • For most people, one or two statuses are particularly important and define who we are …they give us our identity. (Master Status) • These change over the course or our lives.

4. Roles: • Bring a status to life • All have a corresponding roles (Reciprocal Roles) that define the patterns of interaction between related statuses. • i.e.: teacher – student, lawyer – client , etc. • Socially determined behaviors expected of a person performing a role are call role expectations • i.e.: teacher is expected to teach, student is expected to pay attention • In reality, however, people’s role performance (their actual role behavior) often does not match the behavior expected by society.

5. Roles cont.… • Within a single status you may have multiple roles to perform. This is referred to as a role set • Because we hold more than one status and each of these has multiple roles attached… the often contradictory expectations with and between our role sets can lead to: • Role Conflict = more than one status involved • Role Strain = single status involved

6. Social Institutions: • System of statuses, roles, values and norms that is organized to satisfy one or more of the basic needs of society: • Basic needs include: • Physical and emotional support • Transmitting knowledge • Producing goods and services • Maintaining social control • Five major social institutions: • Family • Economy • Politics • Education • Religion