Levels of Sociological Analysis

• Macrosociology – focusing on the broad features of social structure
• Examples – functionalists and conflict
• Microsociology – concentrating on small-scale, face-to-face social interaction between people
• Example – symbolic interactionist
• Both are important to grasp social structure (macro) and social interaction (micro)

Macrosociological Perspective: Social Structure

• Functionalist and conflict examine how the broad features of social structure influence human behavior
• Social Structure – framework that surrounds us consisting of the relationships of people and groups to one another, which give direction and set limits on human behavior
• Major components – culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions
• Location in social structure – his or her social class and social status; the roles he or she are assigned to play; and the culture, groups, and social institutions to which he or she belong underlie his or her perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors

Components of Social Structure

• Work together to maintain social order by limiting, guiding, and organizing human behavior
• 1) Culture – language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that are passed from one generation to the next
• 2) Social class – large number of people with similar amounts of income, education, and occupational prestige
• 3) Social status – position that a person occupies in a society or social group
• 4) Group – people who regularly and conscious interact with one another and, ordinarily, share similar values, norms and expectations
• Social structure is dynamic not static
• Culture changes in responses to advances in technology and evolving values
• Social classes expand and contract based upon economy
• Shifting relationships between racial and ethnic groups (power and prestige)
• Social institutions are created, modified, or eliminated as societal needs and priority change

Groups

· Belong to multiple groups

· Primary groups-small, long periods, intimate, multiple statuses, cooperative, emotional depth

· Secondary groups-usually larger, temporary, formal, superficial relationships, particular status, impersonal

Social Status

• People have multiple statuses-status set
• Ascribed – can be inherited at birth (race, ethnicity, sex) or received involuntary later in life (teenage, adult, senior citizen)
• Achieved – positions that are earned, accomplish, or involve at least some sort on the individual’s part (college student, spouse, nuclear scientist)
• Each status people belong to provides guidelines for how he or she should act or feel
• Status symbols [any item used to identify a status] are often flashed (wedding ring, expensive jewelry, luxury cars, college degrees, jobs) to announce their statuses
• Master status is a status that cuts across the other statuses an individual occupies; overriding status that blinds all others
• Status inconsistency – contradiction or mismatch between statuses (gas station attendant with a Ph.D.
• Roles – behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status.
• Person occupies a status as be male (something), but PLAYS a role such as acting tough
• Role exit – refers to the ending of a role

Social Institutions

• Organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets it basic needs
• Tend to be me formal in industrialized societies; less formal in tribal societies
• Establish the context in which people live
• Shape priorities, obligation, activities, relationships, behavior, thoughts, and orientations
• Examples in industrial and postindustrial societies include: family, religion, law, politics, economics, education, science, medicine, military, and mass media

Social Institutions, Functionalists, and Conflict Theorists

• Functionalists
• Social institutions exists to meet universal needs so that the society will survive
• Five functions that must be fulfilled for survival
• 1) Replacing members
• 2) Socializing new members
• 3) Produce, distribute, and services
• 4) Preserving order
• 5) Providing a sense of purpose
• Conflict
• Social institutions are a primary means by which members of the elite maintain their privileged positions
• 1) Preserve the social order
• 2) Legitimating, reinforcing, and perpetuating gross levels of social inequality
• Feminists focus how the world divide males and females into separate groups with unequal access to society’s resources

What holds society together if groups are competing?

• Agricultural to Industrial shift
• Durkheim argued social cohesion unites a society
• Organic vs. Mechanical Societies
• Ferinand Tonnies
• Gemeinschaft – societies based upon intimate relationship in which everyone knew everyone else and shared a sense of togetherness (pre-industrial)
• Gesselschaft – a new type of society dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self interest

Microsociological Perspective: Social Interaction

• Small-scale face-to-face social interactions from a microsociological perspective
• Focus on Symbols that people use to define their worlds and how these definitions in turn influence human behavior
• Example – Stereotypes (not necessarily bad); gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and intelligence
• Stereotypes – are assumptions that people make about other people based on previous associations with “similar types” of people and or based on what they have been “told” about such people
• Stereotypes affect how people define and treat other people which influences how “these people” define themselves and to behave in ways that match these definitions

Personal Space/”Social Bubbles

• People surround themselves with a personal bubble that they carefully protect by controlling space, touching, eye contact, and other means
• Different groups have different perceptions of personal space
• Differences vary from culture to culture
• 4 different distance zones of personal space while talking to one another used in North Americans
• 1) Intimate – extends about 18 inches from body
• 2) Personal distance – 18 inches to 4 feet
• 3) Social distance – 4 to 12 feet
• 4) Public distance – extending beyond 12 feet

Erving Goffman and Dramaturgy

• Everyday life consists of social actors assigned roles
• People have front stages – where performances are given
• Back stages – where people rest from their performances, discuss presentations, and prepare for future performances
• People play man roles in their everyday life (daughter, student, doctor, husband, wife, democrat, republican, friend, etc)
• Role performances – particular emphasis, interpretation, and style a person brings to a role within the limits of that role
• Role conflict – when the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectations attached to another role (work on Friday vs. going out with girlfriend); role of a boyfriend vs. an employee
• Turning your brother in for a murder (being a brother vs. religious or patriotic person)
• Role strain- refers to conflict a person feels with a single role (choosing to spend Thanksgiving with your mom vs. dad if they are divorced); pain of discipline a child yet feeling bad
• With time people tend to become the roles they place
• Longer and harder a person prepares for and plays at a particular role, the more likely it will be deeply incorporated into that person’s self concept
• Impression management – how people try to control other people’s impressions of them through sign-vehicles, team, and face-saving behavior
• Sign vehicles – used to communicate information about the self and include social setting, appearance, and manner
• Social Setting is the place where the action of everyday life unfolds, such as an office, living room, bar, home, etc.
• Appearance is how an individual looks when playing a role and may include everything from clothes one wears to type of liquor one drink to the care you drive
• Manner refers to the attitudes that people show as they play their roles (conveying feeling and moods)
• Teamwork involves the collaboration of two or more people working together to make sure a performance goes off as planned
• Face-saving behavior – is used when a performance doesn’t come off as planned and techniques are used to salvage the performance

Enthnomethodology

• Study of how people use background assumptions to make sense out of life
• Background assumptions are deeply embedded common understandings concerning people’s view of the world and how the ought to act
• Background assumptions can be uncovered by breaking basic social rules and observing how people react

Social Construction of Reality

• Refers to the process by which people use their background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real for them
• Symbolic interactions – reality is subjectively created out of people’s perceptions of what is real
• People define their realities and then live in their reality