Chapter 6

Group Structure

Social Interaction and Social Groups

Self-Learning Guide: You Will Be Able To Apply:

1. Social Interaction

2. Types of Social Interaction

3. Statuses

4. Roles

5. Groups

6. Bureaucracy

7. Institutions/Social Organization

FYI:American Personal Space

Most Americans use (4) main distance zones.

1. Intimate: physical contact to 6-18 inches

2. Personal: 2.5 to 4 ft. used in conversations

3. Social: used for business or interacting with a (clerk or salesman) 4-12 ft.

4. Public: used by teachers/speakers; from 12-25 ft.

FYI:American Eye Contact

Most urban Americans use the eye contact norm of:

1. Definite recognition distance: usually 16-32 ft.

-once they are within, direct and prolonged contact ceases

In small-town/rural areas:

2. Contact will continue after initial contact and more direct contact is tolerated

EYE CONTACT

Humor

Purpose of Humor1. Releases Tension

2. Diffuses Tension

3. States the truth in a “safe” fashion; hence…the truth in said in jest

Humor

How We Get Jokes“Getting It”

• Conventional understanding

• Unconventional understanding

• Francisco Smells!

Humor

Topics1. Cultures and subcultures

largely determine what the topic of jokes can be.

2. Because of their diffusing or informal, they are often in regards to: minorities, racial groups, sex/gender, other subcultures, inappropriate sex acts, bodily functions etc.

• Social Action: anything people are conscious of doing because of other people

-to study these phenomena a soc. needs to employ “verstehen”(sympathetic understanding)

• Social Interaction: involvement of two or more people taking one another into account

Social Interaction

How is our modern age affecting how we interact

or if at all?

• Where an interaction takes place is defined by:

1. Physical setting or place2. The social environment3. Activities surrounding the interactionFor all of the above add:• Before• During• After

Social Context

I was once called in to advise a firm that has operations all over the world. One of the first questions asked was, “How do you get the Germans to keep their doors open?”. In this company the open doors were making the Germans feel exposed and gave the whole operation an unusual relaxed and unbusinesslike air. Closed doors, on the other hand, gave the Americans the feeling that there was a conspirational air about the place and that they were being left out. Point being, whether a door being open or closed, it is not going to mean the same in different countries or contexts. (Hall, 1969) * FYI: The Japanese executives encourage the sharing of offices to encourage information sharing

• Human behavior is not random.

Norms: specific rules of behavior, agreed upon and shared, that prescribe limits of acceptable behavior.(how we dress, how we speak, our possessions etc.)

North Americans (overtly open and outgoing)

v.

Japanese (it is unacceptable to display too much of yourself in public)

Social Norms

One day Suzanne Berger bent down to pick up her child and found that she couldn’t straighten up. She had injured her back so severely that for years thereafter she could neither walk nor sit for more than a few minutes. Traveling meant she would have to lie down every few minutes on a mat. In effect, she would violate norms by sitting or stretching out on the floor of a department store, a train station, classroom and so on. In her words………………….

Strangers try not to stare…..At airports and train stations people have thought I to be a derelict or crazy or may be homeless; only the disposed lie on floors, children lie on floors, dogs lie on floors…but adults? What’s that woman doing over there? A security guard said at the airport. Dunno, leave her alone. Must be drunk. With friends inside my house, being down here upsets a balance of conviviality, of the whereness that grounds a conversation. I am always looking up. As though younger or subservient. Wherever I go, I lie down on my mat. Hey, lady, what the hell you doing down there? says a teenager on a city playground. You sick? You tired? (Berger,1996)

• the study of the set of rules or guidelines that individuals use to initiate behavior, respond to behavior, and modify behavior in social settings.

Therefore…..

all social interaction, contextual makeup, and norms are important for they provide all of the unwritten rules for social behavior

Ethnomethodology

Dramaturgy

• in order to create an impression, people play roles, and their performance is judged by others who are alert to any slips that might reveal the actor’s true character.

For example: a job applicant at an interview appears to be everything they think the boss wants.

Almost all interactions require some type of “acting”. Even first dates!

• Whether intentional or or unintentional behaviors between (2) or more individuals is considered social interaction

FYI: Human interaction encompasses all (3) of the following all to varying degrees:

1. Language: verbal communication

2. Intonation: perceived tone of verbal comm.

3. Body language: nonverbal comm.

Types of Social Interaction

• when people do something for each other with the express purpose of receiving a reward or return, they are involved in an exchange interaction. -most basic from of social interaction

- employee does the job for exchange for a salary

-a friend goes to see a sick friend in the hospital

-”out of every selfless act comes a selfish act” (idk)

Exchange

Cooperation

• occurs when people act together to promote common interest or achieve shared goals.-basketball teammates

-husband and wife do so to pay the mortgage

-college students will do so to prepare for an exam

• Spontaneous cooperation, is the truest and most natural form of human social cooperation

Conflict

• People in conflict struggle with one another for some commonly prized object or value. Conflicts arise when people have incompatible values or they are competing for limited resources.

-always involve an attempt to gain or use power

-is universally viewed as negative but is quite necessary

Coercion (a form of conflict), can reside as a form of conflict but is often used from the position of power, equally, coercion is intended to avoid conflict through the threat of conflict

American Civil Rights Movement

World

War II

Competition

• A form of conflict in which individuals or groups confine their conflict within agreed-upon rules. -the modern world creates many environments for the existence of competition

-sports

-marketplace

-educational system

-political system

Consider……

Marriage:Husbands ands wives cooperate on chores and

responsibilities. They engage in exchange interactions, that is they often discuss problems with one acting as a listener, lending a sympathetic ear. They also experience conflicts. They may want to spend limited money on two diff. things without finding an alternative. If an agreement is not met, the marriage may suffer. If the marriage becomes irreversibly damaged they may find themselves in direct competition. If they seek divorce as an answer to their problems, in the legal meaning of the word, they now have a conflict.

We as human beings do not interact with one another as anonymous beings. We come together in specific environments with specific purposes. Our behaviors therefore, are determined by defined statuses and particular roles.

Elements of Social Interaction

Statuses

• are socially defined positions that people occupy.

• They exist independent of the people who occupy them

-common statuses may pertain to religion, education, ethnicity, occupation: such as Protestant, college graduate, Asian American, teacher.

Statuses

• Most if not all occupational and nonoccupational statuses remain unchanged no matter the occupier.

-politician, police officer, doctor, analyst, thief, prostitute etc.

-son, daughter, jogger, coach, friend, gang leader, mental patient etc.

* remember: status does not involve the concept of prestige

Statuses

• People often occupy more than one status at a time. -son/daughter, student, licensed car driver, parishioner, employee, adolescent, aunt/uncle

• When one status dominates other statuses in patterning one’s life it is called Master status. -now, your master status is a high school student, however it will change to: college student, lawyer, parent, spouse etc.

Ascribed v. Achieved

• Statuses conferred upon us by virtue of birth or other significant factors not controlled by our own actions or decisions; people occupy them regardless of their intentions

-son/daughter, one’s gender, ethnicity, race etc.• Statuses occupied as a result of an individual's

actions

-student, professor, mechanic, prisoner, husband, mother,

Roles

• The culturally defined rules for proper behavior that are associated with every status (think of them as a collection of rights and obligations)

-the rights of an employee are to be paid and trained to do their job, in return they are obligated to be at work on time and do their job to the best of their ability

Role Sets

• All the roles attached to a single status are known collectively as a role set.-not every role is used all the time

-an individual’s role is dependent on the situation

As a student you behave one way with:-other students

-another with teachers.

-another with parents

-another with a boss

-another with siblings and so on

1. Role Strain: when a …..2. Role Conflict: when an individual who is

occupying more than one status at a time…

3. Role Playing: the roles we play can feel natural, awkward, could make us feel likes we’re actors, or feel quite natural. (Some) Sociologists feel that the roles a person plays are the person’s only true self.

Role: Strain, Conflict, Playing

• The process by which people disengage from important social roles.

ex-wife ex-husband former-student former-employee ex-cop

Role: Exit

the Nature of Groups• Group: almost any occasion when two or

more people come together.

*Social Group: a number of people who have a common identity, some feelings of unity, and certain common goals and shared norms.

-have an established set of v_____, and n_____, perhaps dissimilar from the larger

society

*Social Aggregate: people who temporarily happen to be in physical proximity to one another but share little else.

All social groups contain the following:1. Permanence beyond the the meeting of

the group 2. Means for identifying members3. Ways of recruiting new members4. Goals and purposes5. Social statuses, roles = norms for

behavior6. Means of controlling members’ behavior

the Nature of Groups

interaction among members who have an emotional investment in one another and in a situation, who know one another intimately and interact as total individuals rather than through specialized roles. (FAMILY)

• Charles Horton Cooley (1909) called primary groups the nursery of human nature.

• Described by saying “we”; it involves the sort of sympathy and mutual identification for which “we” is the natural expression

• Family members interact in terms of their entire personalities, not just as specific statuses

Primary Groups

Secondary Groups

characterized by much less intimacy among its members. It usually has specific goals, is formally organized, and is impersonal.

• Tend to be larger than primary groups• All members usually don’t react with one another• Political parties, co-workers, church members,

town residents etc.

…groups function as the bridges b/w the individual and society as a whole. To that end, we organize groups around fundamental purposes.

1. Reference Groups: a group or social category that an indiv. uses to help define beliefs, attitudes, and values to guide behavior.

• tend to be the resource from which we develop our own identity, lifestyle, ideas etc.

• can be both positive and negatives ref. groups (esp. influential during adolescence)

Functions of Groups (small)

Small Groups

constitute social groups such as families, peer groups, and work groups, that actually meet together and contain few enough members so that all members know one another.

1. dyad: (the smallest possible group) contains only (2) members. Husband/wife, Pilot/co-pilot, Police partners etc.

-are often times effective at resisting change

-however the loss of (1) member destroys the group

Small Groups

2. triad: adds (1) to a dyad. adds an element whereas alliances can be

formed and can lead to power struggles-very often displayed by young children engaged in play

-after the 3rd or perhaps 4th group member, the group dynamic changes profoundly

As the small group grows, the mere size of it threatens its survival. At this stage our small group, grows into a…

Much of the activity of modern society is carried out through large and formally organized groups. Thus, sociologists refer to these groups as associations.

purposefully created special-interest groups that have clearly defined goals and official ways of doing things.

-agencies, businesses, labor unions, schools, colleges, service groups, hospitals, tennis clubs, country clubs etc.

Large Groups

Networks

• …a web of weak social ties• Includes people we know of – or who know of us-

but with whom we interact rarely, if at all.

Facebook Issues

Social Isolation

Privacy

Formal Structure: Every large association must break down tasks into a formalized structure utilizing planned and defined statuses and roles. This process outlines a bureaucracy. Insert any school, college, corporation etc. In these formal structures, all planned jobs are backed up by unwritten (assumed) assignments understood by those who do the job.

Informal Structure: No association ever works out in real-life as it does on paper. Therefore, all formal structures develop procedural shortcuts or “bending”. Because of endless human variables and situations “unwritten rules develop.

Large Groups

Bureaucracy

a formal, rationally organized social structure [with] clearly defined patterns of activity in which, ideally, every series of actions is functionally related to the purposes of the organization.

most efficient (not necessarily the most desirable)

…ideally a bureaucracy [exaggeration] will contain the following …

1. A clear-cut division of labor2.2. Hierarchical delegation of power and Hierarchical delegation of power and

responsibilityresponsibility3. Rules and Regulations4.4. Impartiality (position are earned as well Impartiality (position are earned as well

as regulations apply to all regardless)as regulations apply to all regardless)5. Employment based on technical

qualifications 6.6. Distinction between public and private Distinction between public and private

spheresspheres

Bureaucracy

the ordered social relationships that grow out of the values, norms, statuses, and roles that organize those activities that fulfill society’s fundamental needs

(5) Essentials:1. the family sector2. the education sector3. the economic sector4. the religious sector5. the political sector

Social Institutions

Social Institutions v. Social groups

A group is a collection of specific, identifiable people. In other words, a group is people.

An institution is a system for organizing standardized patterns of

social behavior. In other words, a system of actions.

Social Organization

consists of the relatively stable patterns of social relationships among individuals and groups in society.

these relationships are based upon social roles, statuses, and shared meanings

differs from society to society social institutions also exist within patterned

relationships with one another a society’s social organization is almost always

its most stable aspect