Social Interaction

Chapter Outline What is Social Interaction? What Shapes Social Interaction? The Sociology of Emotions Modes of Social Interaction

Social Interaction Involves people communicating face-to-face and acting and reacting in relation to other people. Structured around: a person’s status: recognized social position that people occupy a person’s role: set of expected behaviors that people perform a culture’s norms: a generally accepted way of doing things

Statuses and Roles Status set: the group of positions that a person occupies at the same time Each status is composed of several sets of expected behaviors, or a role set

Role Set and Status Set

Role Conflict Occurs when different role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time. A flight attendant might experience role conflict due to contradicting demands of these statuses?

Role Strain Occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person in a single status. Why was the status of stewardess in the 1960s and 1970s high in role strain?

Consider this… Draw a map illustrating your role set and status set. Identify any role conflict or role strain that exists in your life.

How We Get Emotional

Emotion Management Involves people obeying “feeling rules” and responding appropriately to the situations in which they find themselves. Emotion labor is emotion management that people do as part of their job and for which they are paid.

Conflict Theories of Social Interaction When people interact, their statuses are often arranged in a hierarchy. Those on top enjoy more power and attention than those on the bottom. Social interaction involves competition over valued resources such as attention, approval, prestige, information, and money

Symbolic Interaction Theories of Social Interaction We learn norms and adopt roles and statuses through our social interaction We are constantly negotiating and modifying the norms, roles and statuses that we encounter as we interact with others

Goffman’s Dramaturgical Analysis People always play roles, especially in “front stage” public settings We may be our “true” selves during our “backstage” performance Always engaging in role-playing and impression management

Impression management May use role distancing to illustrate a lack of role commitment if we find a role beneath us or embarrassing Furthermore, we regularly try to place ourselves in the best possible light by engaging in impression management

Nonverbal Communication Facial Expressions Gestures Body Language Status cues - Visual indicators of a person’s social position these can turn into stereotypes that impair interactions

Theories of Social Interaction

How Social Groups Shape Our Actions 1. Norms of solidarity demand conformity. When we form relationships, we develop norms of solidarity about how we should behave to sustain the relationships. The Nazis who roamed the Polish countryside to shoot and kill “enemies” felt they had to get their job done or face letting down their comrades.

How Social Groups Shape Our Actions 2. Structures of authority tend to render people obedient. Most people find it difficult to disobey authorities because they fear ridicule, ostracism, and punishment. Demonstrated in experiment conducted by social psychologist Stanley Milgram.

How Social Groups Shape Our Actions 3. Bureaucracies are highly effective structures of authority. The Nazi genocide machine was so effective because it was bureaucratically organized.

Social Networks Our world is small because we are enmeshed in overlapping sets of social relations Social Networks are a bounded set of unites (individuals, organization, countries and so on) linked by the exchange of material or emotional resources

Groups vs. Categories Social groups: one or more social networks, the members of which identify with one another, routinely interact, and adhere to defined norms, roles and statuses Social categories: people who share similar status but do not routinely interact or identify with one another

Groupthink Groupthink: the pressure to conform, despite individual misgivings Can be positive (e.g., being a “team player), but can also be dangerous, if people no longer feel confident challenging the group consensus

Reference Group We generally evaluate ourselves in comparison to others These “role models” can be our reference group They may represent an imaginary ideal

Primary vs. Secondary Groups Primary groups: norms, roles and statuses are agreed on but not put in writing (e.g., our family) Secondary groups: larger and more impersonal that creates weaker emotional ties Formal organizations: secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives

Bureaucracy Weber regarded bureaucracies as the most efficient kind of secondary group 1. Was using older organizational forms 2. Only discussing ideal case

Bureaucratic Inefficiency The larger the bureaucracy, the more difficult it is for functionaries to communicate Given the hierarchy of most bureaucracies, power differentials will affect communication across levels

1. The verbal and nonverbal communication between people acting and reacting to one another: a. conversations b. social interaction c. group processes d. front stage performance

Answer: b Social interaction involves verbal and nonverbal communication between people acting and reacting to one another. It is ordered by norms, roles, and statuses.

2. Role strain occurs when: a. people communicate face-to-face, reacting to other people b. a cluster of roles are attached to a single status c. an individual occupies many statuses d. incompatible role demands are placed on a person in a single status

Answer: d Role strain occurs when: incompatible role demands are placed on a person in a single status.

3. Which of the following approaches to studying groups focuses on how people create meaning in the course of social interaction? a. Conflict approach b. Symbolic interactionist c. Functionalist d. Feminist

Answer: b Symbolic interactionists focus on how people create meaning in the course of social interaction and on how they negotiate and modify roles, statuses, and norms

4. Which of the following types of groups involve intense, intimate, enduring relations? a. primary groups b. secondary groups c. reference groups d. front stage performances

Answer: a Primary groups involve intense, intimate, enduring relations

5. Which of the following types of groups involve less personal and intense ties? a. primary groups b. secondary groups c. reference groups d. front stage performances

Answer: b Secondary groups involve less personal and intense ties than primary groups

6. The idea that no more than 6 degrees of separation separate any two people in the United States reveals the importance of _______________. a. Facebook b. friendships c. social networks d. families

Answer: c The idea that no more than 6 degrees of separation separate any two people in the United States reveals the importance of social networks.

7. The more levels in a bureaucratic structure: a. the more efficiently it operates. b. the less likely is oligarchic rule to emerge. c. the more difficult communication becomes. d. the greater the number of dyadic relationships.

Answer: c The more levels in a bureaucratic structure: the more difficult communication becomes.