1. SocIal InteractIon: understandIng everyday lIfe
Chapter 6
SocIal InteractIon: understandIng everyday lIfe

2. Social Interaction: Understanding Everyday Life
Learning Objectives
LO 6.1 Explain how social structure helps us to make sense of everyday situations.
LO 6.2 State the importance of status to social organization.
LO 6.3 State the importance of role to social organization.
LO 6.4 Describe how we socially construct reality.
LO 6.5 Apply Goffman's analysis to several familiar situations.
LO 6.6 Construct a sociological analysis of three aspects of everyday life: emotions, language, and humor.

3. The Power of Society
Is our use of social networking sites as much of a personal choice as we may think?

4. What is social interaction?
Social interaction is the process by which people act and react in relation to others.
Humans rely on social structure to make sense out of everyday situations.
LO 6.1 Explain how social structure helps us to make sense of everyday situations.

5. Social Structure: Status
Social positions a person holds at a given time
Dance partner
Boss
Friend
Harley club member
Sports participant
Business manager
LO 6.2 State the importance of status to social organization.

6. Status
Members of our society celebrate the achievements of super-stars such as Jennifer Lopez (J.Lo) not only because of her success as a musician designer, but also because she grew up in a poor neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, and had “make it” mostly on her own.

7. Type of Status: What Is…?
Ascribed: Involuntary positions
Achieved: Voluntary positions

8. Social Structure: Type of Status
Master status:
Involves special importance for social identity, shaping a person's life

9. Social Structure: Role
Role: Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status
Role set: Roles attached to a single status
LO 6.3 State the importance of role to social organization.

10. Physical Disability as a Master Status
Physical disability works in much the same ways as class, gender, or race in defining people in the eyes of others.
How do you think the loss of an arm or a leg affects a person's social identity and sense of self?

11. Housework in Global Perspective

12. Social Role Conflict and Role Strain
Involves roles connected to two or more statuses
Example
A police officer who catches her own son using drugs at home
Roles: Mother and police officer

13. Role Conflict and Role Strain
Involves roles connected to a single status
Example
Manager who tries to balance concern for workers with task requirements
Roles: Office manager and fellow worker

14. Process of becoming an “ex”
Role Exit
Role exit
Involves disengaging from social roles
Process of becoming an “ex”
Can be very traumatic without proper preparation
Can contribute to doubts about ability to continue with a certain role
Involves examination of new roles that lead to a turning point

15. The Social Construction of Reality
Involves the process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction
Presents self in terms that suit the setting and personal purposes
Involves social interaction that is a complex negotiation used that builds reality
LO 6.4 Describe how we socially construct reality.

16. The Social Construction of Reality
“Street smarts”
Form of constructing reality
Thomas theorem
Situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences
Flirting is an everyday experience in reality construction

17. The Social Construction of Reality
Ethnomethodology
Study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings
Exploration of the process of making sense of social encounters

18. Reality Building: Class and Culture
How we act or what we see in our surroundings depends on our interests.
Social background also affects what we see.
People build reality from the surrounding culture.
Cultural systems are marked by diversity and even outright conflict, reality construction always involves tensions and choices.
Here women confront starkly different definitions of what is “feminine.”

19. The Increasing Importance of Social Media
Agree or disagree?
Some sociologists have argued that the rise of social media has connected people in new ways but weakened social ties among people who share physical space.

20. Goffman's Dramaturgical Analysis: “The Presentation of Self”
Study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance
Presentation of self is used to create specific impressions in the minds of others
LO 6.5 Apply Goffman's analysis to several familiar situations.

21. Goffman's Dramaturgical Analysis
Role performance
Includes stage setting
Involves use of props: costume, tone of voice, gesture
Example
Going to the doctor and playing the expected patient role

22. Nonverbal Communication
Words
Voice
Body language
Facial expressions
Demeanor
Personal space

23. Body Language and Deception
Hand gestures vary widely from one culture to another. Yet people everywhere chuckle, grin, or smirk to indicate that they do not take another person's performance seriously. Therefore, the world over, people who cannot restrain their mirth tactfully cover their faces.

24. Body Language and Deception
Nonverbal communication is hard to control and offers clues to deception.
No single bodily gesture tells us for sure that someone is lying.
Key to detecting lies is to view the whole performance with an eye for inconsistencies.

25. Gender and Performances: Key Elements
Gender is a central element in personal performances.
Demeanor
Use of space
Staring, smiling, touching

26. Gender and Performances: Idealization
Performances constructed to idealize our intentions.
Professionals typically idealize their motives for entering their chosen careers.
We all use idealization to some degree.

27. Gender and Performances: What Is…?
Embarrassment
Discomfort following a spoiled performance
Goffman: Embarrassment is "losing face”
Tact
Helping someone "save face”
Gender and Performances: What Is…?

28. Goffman's research shows that although behavior is spontaneous in some respects, it is more patterned than we like to think.

29. Interaction in Everyday Life: Three Applications
Emotions: The social construction of feeling
Language: The social construction of gender
Reality play: The social construction of humor
Let's consider each of these.
LO 6.6 Construct a sociological analysis of three aspects of everyday life: emotions, language, and humor.

30. Emotions: The Social Construction of Feeling
Biological side of emotions
Some emotion response are “wired” into humans.
Cultural side of emotions
Ekman: Culture defines what triggers emotion.
Emotions on the job
Hochschild: Typical company tries to regulate not only employees' behavior, but emotions.

31. Managing Feelings: Women's Abortion Experiences
Emotional scripts or “feeling rules” guide how women feel about ending a pregnancy (Keys, 2002).
Scripts arise from the political controversy surrounding abortion.
The words that doctors and nurses use influence whether a woman having an abortion defines the experience in positive or negative terms.

32. Language: The Social Construction of Gender
Power and Value
Men use female pronouns to convey control and ownership.
Women often adopt the husband's surname.
Feminine terms are more likely to change to negative meanings than masculine terms.

33. Reality Play: The Social Construction of Humor
Humor is unconventional
Violation of cultural norms
Tied to a common culture and does not translate easily
“Not getting it”
Inability to understand a joke's conventional/unconventional realities

34. Functions of Humor Humor aids in stress reduction and improved health.
Humor acts as a safety valve by expressing opinions on a sensitive topic.
Humor can foster conflict.

35. GLOSSARY Make sense of Aspect Hold Ascribe Maternal Civic Fieldwork
Limb
Strain
Fellow worker
Associate
In terms
Ethnomethodology
Dramaturgical
Gesture
Nonverbal Communication
Demeanor
Chuckle
Grin
Smirk
Restrain
Mirth
Tactfully
Clue
Submission
Intimacy
Spoiled
Tact
Trigger
Script
Controversy
Convey
Masculine
Violation
Contradiction
Ambiguity
Foster
Put down