1. Social Structure

2. Social Structure The underlying patterns of relations in a group.
We carry a “social map” for situations that we have learned.
Components:
Culture
social class
social status
Roles
Groups
social institutions
All components work together to maintain social order by limiting, guiding, and organizing human behavior.

3. Social Status
Social Status describes the position that a person occupies in society or social group.
Serve as guides for our behavior
Sets limits on what we can and cannot do
EX: son, daughter, teacher, student, worker
Roles: An expected behavior associated with a particular status.
Occupy a status but you play a role.
Ex: Status male; acting tough role

4. Cont.
Ascribed Statuses: inherited at birth or receives involuntary later in life
race, sex, social class of parents
Achieved Statuses: voluntary, earned or accomplished
student, friend, spouse, dropout (positive or negative)
“Status set”: all the statuses or positions an individual occupies.
Social worker, mother, sister etc.
Master Status: a position that strongly affects most other aspects of a person’s life.
sex, race, age)
“Status inconsistency”: refers to a contradiction or mismatch between statuses. (gas station attendant with a Ph.D.)

5. Roles
Role Conflict: what is expected of us in one role is incompatible with what is expected of us in another role; conflict between role.
Roles: son, student, friend, worker
Conflict: all want different things from you on the same day (visit someone, b-day party, study, called to work)
Role Strain: the same role presents inherent conflict; conflict within a role
Role: student
Strain: do well
Role exit: refers to the ending of a role, including the adjustments people make when they face not “being” what they formerly were.

6. Social Institutions
A system of statuses, roles, values, and norms that is organized to satisfy one or more of the basic needs of society.
Family
Economic Institutions
Political Institutions
Education
Religion
Institutions of Family
Statuses: mother, father, child #1, child #2
Role expectations: Dad & mom work, teenagers help, babies play, etc
Values: All for one, and one for all
Norms: Help in need
Types of Societies
Preindustrial: Hunter Gatherer and Agricultural Societies
Industrial: shift of from production of food to manufactured goods.
Postindustrial: economic activity centers on the production of information and services.

7. Gemeinschaft and Gesellshaft Contrasting Societies
Gemeinschaft: Cmmunity
“Intimate Community”:
Ferdinand Tonnies
Describes village life, the type of society in which everyone knows everyone else.
Example: Amish
Believed that the new society was crowding out family and friendships. This new type….
Gesellshaft: Society
“Impersonal Association”:
Believed that the ties between families and friends had shrunk in importance.
Example: City Life
Social structure set the context for what we do, feel, and think, and ultimately, then, for the kind of people we become.

8. Cultural Variations
What cultural variations (differences) exist in our American culture?
Subcultures: a goup with its own unique values, norms and behaviors.
Teenagers, ethnic groups, motorcycle enthusiasts, Amish
Countercultures: A subculture who rejects values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces it with a new set of cultural patterns.
Satanists, motorcycle gangs and the mafia.