Social Interaction and Social Structure

1. Social Interaction and Social Structure Chapter 5

2. Mock Prison Experiment • Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford University • 70 Male students were paid to give up vacation time to simulate a prison in the basement corridor of a school building • arbitrarily designated as prisoners or guards (flip of a coin) • guards acted “guardlike”. Some tough but fair • 1/3rd became cruel and abusive • <Zimbardo’s Mock Prison • Slide Show and Discussion of

3. Social Interaction and Reality • Herbert Blumer-response to someone’s behavior is based on the meaning we attach to his or her actions • meanings typically reflect the norms of the dominant culture and our socialization experiences • Interactionalists-meanings attached are shaped by interactions • <reality is constructed by our interactions

4. Defining and Reconstructing Reality • Regard tattoos-few short years ago- “weird, kooky” • associated with fringe counterculture-punk rockers, bike gangs, skinheads • increased social interaction with people with tattoos has brought about a different view • <Tattooed Brett Michaels of Poison

5. Negotiated Order • Social reality can be negotiated as changes occur in social interactions • negotiation refers to attempt to reach an agreement with others concerning some objective • does not involve coercion • through negotiation as a form of social interaction- society creates social structure • Negotiated Order-social structure that derives its existence from social interaction through which people define and redefine its character

6. Status • Status-any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society • Ascribed Status-”assigned” by a society without regard for talent • Conflict Theorists are especially interested in these • Achieved Status- comes largely through our own efforts • our achieved status is heavily influenced by our ascribed status • Master Status-a status that dominates others and thereby determines a person’s position within society • <Malcolm X. was told by an English Teacher: being a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a nigger” and encouraged him to be a carpenter

7. Status Exercise • Put in the middle of the circle ‘ME’ • surround yourself with circles filling each with a status • on top put- ascribed statuses-make it a certain design • on bottom -achieved statuses-make it a certain design • star -the master status

8. Social Roles and Role Conflict • Social Roles-Set of expectations for people who occupy a given status • view someone as only a “police officer”, difficult to view as a “friend” • Role Conflict-incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person • women promoted to supervisor on an assembly line • individuals move into occupations that are common among through ascribed status

9. Role Strain and Exit • Role Strain-difficulty of occupying two social positions simultaneously • Zimbardo-as professor at the head of an experiment and as professor looking out for the welfare of his students • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg-spies?, scientists • Role Exit-adjustments made when leaving a role-eg. Ex-convict, quitting a job, divorce • four stages of role exit • 1. Doubt • 2. Search for alternatives • 3. Action stage or departure • 4. Creation of a new identity

10. Groups • Groups-Any number of people with similar norms, values and expectations who interact with one another • Women’s basketball team, hospital’s business office, symphony orchestra • entire staff of a hospital is not • staff members rarely interact • vital part in social structure • also now- those who interact electronically • these transmission allows for impression management-alter one’s ego

11. Social Institutions • Social Institutions-organized patterns of beliefs and behaviors centered on basic social needs • five Social Institutions (in no specific order) • 1. Family • 2. Government • 3. Education • 4. Business • 5. Religion

12. Perspectives on Social Institutions • Functionalist Perspective-(David Aberle (1950), Raymond Mack and Calvin Bradford (1979) • 5 functional prerequisites must accomplish to stay alive • 1. Replacing personnel-die, leave or become incapacitated • <Shakers-came in 1774-celibacy-must replace personnel through recruitment (6000 in 1840’s-7 in 1999)

13. Functionalist Perspective of Social Institutions • 2. Teaching New Recruits- • group must encourage the recruits to learn and accept its values and customs • learning can take place formally in schools (manifest function) or informally through interaction and negotiation in peer groups (latent function) • 3. Producing and distributing Goods and Services- • society must provide goods and services for its members • the group must provide for most members or the members will become discontent and grow into disorder

14. Functionalist Perspective of Social Institutions • <4. Preserving order- • native people of Tasmania are now extinct-1800’s destroyed by the hunting parties of European conquerors-looked on as half human • must protect themselves from attack as well as preserve order • 5. Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose- • people must feel motivated to continue as a member of that society to fulfill the other four requirements

15. Conflict Theorist Perspective on Social Institutions • Do not agree with the functionalists • object to the idea that the outcome is efficient and desirable • present order is not an accident • maintains the privileges of certain powerful groups and individuals, contributing to the powerlessness of those without power • social institutions are inherently conservative

16. Conflict Theorists Perspective on Social Institutions • Functionalist-social change could be dysfunctional • why should we preserve unfair and discriminatory social structures? • Social Institutions work in Gender and racist environments • Matrix of Domination-Patricia Hill Collins (1971)-interlocking models of oppression-unless activists or policymakers intervene-those in less advantaged groups will remain in those groups

17. Interactionalist Perspective of Social Institutions • Emphasize that our social behavior is conditioned by the role and statuses that we accept, the groups which we belong, and the institutions in which we function • “judge”-in relation to attorney, defendant, plaintiff, witness • judicial system derives its significance due to the roles people carry out in social interactions

18. Gemeinschaft and Gessellschaft • Ferdinand Tonnies(1855-1936)-rise of industrial city marked the end of the ideal type close-knit community-Gemeinschaft • brought about the impersonal mass society-Gessellschaft • <Characteristics of both

19. Sociocultural Evolution • Gerhard Lenski-change according to the dominant pattern • rather than opposite forces as Tonnies had seen • level of technology is critical to the way it is organized • <Technology-information about the ways in which material resources of the environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires.

20. Preindustrial Society • 1. Hunters and Gatherers-rely on food and fiber readily available • technology is minimal, organized in groups and constantly searching for food-little division of labor • small widely dispersed groups, each group is related-kinship ties rule the groups • last group has virtually disappeared by the close of the 20th century

21. Preindustrial Society • 2. Horticultural Society-plant seeds and crops rather than subsist merely on available food • much less nomadic • production of tools and household objects • technology is still limited-digging sticks or hoes are the furthest reaches of technology • 3. Agrarian Society-production of food • technology allows for increased production-Plow

22. Preindustrial Society • Still relies on physical power of humans and animals • social structure has more defined roles than in Horticultural society • individual concentrate on specialized tasks-ie. Blacksmith • social institutions become more elaborate-property rights • create artifacts

23. Industrial Society • Industrial revolution-in England between 1760-1830 • scientific revolution focused on the nonanimal(mechanical) sources of power to labor tasks • people left the homesteads and started to work in centrally located factories • specialization of task • social consequences-families and communities could not function as self-sufficient units • individuals, villages and regions exchanged goods and services and interdependent

24. Industrial Society • Family loses its position as the power source and authority • specialization knowledge leads to more formalized education, education becomes distinct from the family

25. Postindustrial and Modern Society • Postindustrial-a society whose economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information • main output is services not manufactured goods • Postmodern-technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied by consumer goods and media images • global perspective-note the ways a nation’s culture crosses its borders