Social Structure and Interaction in Everyday Life
Adanna Nwadike
Sociology 101-052
Professor. Wyzykowski
2/21/12
Sociology in Our Times: Chapter 4 Outline: Social Structure and Interaction in Everyday Life
I. Components of Social Structure
A. Status
1. Status is a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties. 2. Status set compromises all the statuses that a person occupies at a given time. 3. Ascribed status is a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race, ethnicity, age, and gender. 4. Achieved status is a social position a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort. 5. Master status is the most important status a person occupies. 6. Status symbols material signs that inform others of a person’s specific status.
B. Role 1. Role is a set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status 2. Role expectation is a group’s or society’s definition of the way a specific role ought to be played. 3. Role performance is how a person actually plays the role. 4. Role conflict occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time. 5. Role stain occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies. 6. Role exit occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity.
C. Group 1. Social Group consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and a feeling of interdependence. 2. Primary group is a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time. 3. Secondary group is a larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time. 4. Formal organization
Sociology 101-052
Professor. Wyzykowski
2/21/12
Sociology in Our Times: Chapter 4 Outline: Social Structure and Interaction in Everyday Life
I. Components of Social Structure
A. Status
1. Status is a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties. 2. Status set compromises all the statuses that a person occupies at a given time. 3. Ascribed status is a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race, ethnicity, age, and gender. 4. Achieved status is a social position a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort. 5. Master status is the most important status a person occupies. 6. Status symbols material signs that inform others of a person’s specific status.
B. Role 1. Role is a set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status 2. Role expectation is a group’s or society’s definition of the way a specific role ought to be played. 3. Role performance is how a person actually plays the role. 4. Role conflict occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time. 5. Role stain occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies. 6. Role exit occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity.
C. Group 1. Social Group consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and a feeling of interdependence. 2. Primary group is a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time. 3. Secondary group is a larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time. 4. Formal organization