Chapter 4

 Collection of interacting individuals sharing same way of life & living in same territory  Building blocks: statuses, roles, groups, & institutions

 Is a position in society; you behave according to this  Ascribed – status that is given to us regardless of what we do (i.e. race & gender)  Achieved – status we have to earn (i.e. graduate, jobs, etc)

 Role performance – people play same roles very differently for many different people  Sometimes you come into a conflict with all your different role performances & you have to play two roles at the same time – role conflict.  Can lead to role strain – stress caused by too many demands from the different roles (can be relieved by hanging out with your own social group)

 Social Control – controls through law, police, courts, & prisons  All the people we meet control us – ready to embarrass, scold, or hurt us if we don’t behave “appropriately” or meet expectations  Durkheim called these “social facts” or “something beyond us”; prisoners of society

 With social control comes social consent – we play along with rules as long as it seems reasonable or fair  We learn this from our social institutions  This is how humans interact with each other – by actively & creatively interpreting each other’s actions