Chapter 4 SOCIETY WHAT IS SOCIETY Collection of

Chapter 4 SOCIETY

WHAT IS SOCIETY? �Collection of interacting individuals sharing same way of life & living in same territory �Building blocks: statuses, roles, groups, & institutions

STATUS: ASCRIBED VS. ACHIEVED � 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)

PLEASE PASS THE ‘ROLES’ � Role performance – people play same roles very differently for many different people � Role conflict – play two roles at the same time; Sometimes you come into a conflict with all your different role performances � Role strain – stress caused by too many demands from the different roles (can be relieved by hanging out with your own social group)

SOCIETY CONTROLS US � Social Control – formal controls through law, police, courts, & prisons; informal through social relationships � 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

Role Performance Role Strain and Role Conflict Social Control

SOCIAL INTERACTION � 5 main forms of interaction between members of a society: � Exchange, Competition, Conflict, Cooperation, and Accommodation � Conflict & Competition encourage societal change, while Exchange, Cooperation, and Accommodation encourage societal unification and stability

BUT WE HAVE TO CONSENT! � 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 � Crash Course: How We Got Here Video