Social Structure Asif Raza Social Structure Social Structure

Social Structure Asif Raza

Social Structure • Social Structure guides our behavior. • It is the stable set of relationships among individuals and groups that enables them to function as a society. • We are linked to the larger social order by our acceptance of rules controlling our behavior and by our willingness to carry out tasks that benefit the group as a whole.

• Social Structure refers to predictable patterns of interaction between groups such as parents and children, employees and managers, and producers and consumers. • SS reflects the presence of an underlying and unifying culture. • Two levels

Elements of Social Structure • SS in its simplest form is an arrangement of individuals in various positions. • Status – Any social position, high or low, that has socially defined rights and obligations. • Role – The behavior expected of a person in a particular social position.

• Status and Self – Your status makes you what you are as well as your conception of yourself. • Status Set – Each of us has a number of roles. Together they make the status set. • Ascribed Status – is a status given to us without regard for our innate differences or individual abilities.

• Achieved Status – is acquired by personal effort or sometimes by lack of effort. • Role Strain – can occur when placed in a new role without any training. For example, becoming a widow or jobless. • Role Conflict – occurs when there is competition between different roles. For example, police officer and son, and a promotion.

Social Relationships – F. Tonnies Geminschaft or community is when relationships are spontaneous and based on cultural homogeneity. This is found in peasant societies. • Gesellschaft or association are relationships that are individualistic, impersonal, competitive, and contractual. This is found in modern society.

Social Solidarity – E. Durkheim • Mechanical Solidarity is based on similarity between individuals and is found in simple and less advanced societies. • Organic Solidarity is based on the division of labor and complementarities between individuals. It occurs in modern advanced societies.

The Social Construction of Reality • The giving of meanings to events/situations is the social construction of reality. • W. I. Thomas – If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.

• Ethnomethodology • ethno = people • method = how people do something • ology = the study of • H. Garfinkel • Dramaturgical Analysis – Goffman

• By “ethnomethod”, Garfinkel means the means or methods that individuals use in everyday interactions to create a shared meaning. • Ethnomethodology is the methods that are used to understand the social orders people use to make sense of the real world.

• Group Pressure • People like us • Harold Garfinkel

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Social Groups • A group is defined as two or more people who interact with and influence each other towards a common purpose. • Types – a) Membership Groups and Reference Groups • b) Primary Groups and Secondary Groups

• Group Status – Leader, Primary Members, Fringe, and Out. • Group Size • Deindividuation – My Lai • My Lai: Legacy Seymour Hersh • My Lai: Hero • Power of the group – Jonestown • Conformity Asch Study • Group Decision Making

• Groupthink – occurs in highly cohesive groups because members lose their willingness and ability to evaluate one another’s ideas critically. There is an overemphasis on agreement and consensus. For example, the Challenger, Bay of Pigs Invasion and Pearl Harbor. • Still willing to torture

The Presentation of Self - Goffman • If everyday life is like the stage, then all of us are actors – as this article points out. But if this is true, then where is the “real” me? If we are all actors in our daily life, then is everyday life really anything more than a “put-on”? Is nothing “real” or “genuine” any more? Where is sincerity?

• What does Goffman mean by the term “definition of the situation”? How do we develop a definition of the situation when we first meet someone? How do definitions of the situation affect everyday interaction?

• Handling the dead • How do funeral directors overcome the stigma associated with handling the dead?

• Describe how reality is socially constructed with reference the article "Behavior in Pubic Places".

• If Hitler asked you • If you were a subject in Milgram’s experiment, do you think you would have pushed the lever all the way? Why? Or why not?

• You were born a member of the upper-upper class. Your parents are extremely rich. How has your life been different from what it has been? Be specific. Also analyze how your outlook (your orientations to life, your attitudes, values, goals and what you expect out of life) is different.

• If you have ever been a victim of police violence, know someone who has been, or seen such an event, analyze it from the framework of the article “Police Accounts of Normal Force”. If not, read an account of the Rodney King beating and analyze that event from the framework of this article.