Social Interaction

Statuses

• Positions in society used to classify individuals
  • Ascribed: involuntary (e.g., race, sex)
  • Achieved: result of choice/effort (e.g., doctor)
  • Master: most influential, dominates perception (e.g., president)

Roles

• Set of norms, beliefs, attitudes, values for a status
• Role performance: carrying out behaviors associated with role
• Role partner: person interacted with
• Role set: all roles tied to a status
• Role conflict: difficulty satisfying multiple roles
• Role strain: difficulty satisfying multiple requirements of same role
• Role exit: dropping one identity for another

Groups

• Definition: 2+ people with shared characteristics and unity
• Dyad/Triad: smaller groups, intimacy/stability higher
• Peer group: self-selected equals with similar interests
• Family group: determined by birth/adoption/marriage
• In-group/out-group: belong vs oppose
• Reference group: standard for self-evaluation
• Primary groups: close, direct interactions
• Secondary groups: superficial, temporary
• Community/Society:
  • Gemeinschaft: togetherness via shared values
  • Gesellschaft: mutual self-interest (e.g., companies)

Observing and Analyzing

• Interaction Process Analysis: classify and measure group interactions
• SYMLOG: revised multi-level observation system
  • Dominance vs submission
  • Friendliness vs unfriendliness
  • Instrumental vs emotional expression
• Group conformity & groupthink: ignoring outside ideas, focusing on group consensus

Networks

• Patterns of social relationships
• Network redundancy: overlapping connections
• Immediate networks: dense, strong ties
• Distant networks: loose, weak ties

Organizations

• Entities to achieve goals, structured with culture
• Characteristics:
  • Formal structure persists beyond individual
  • Expressed goals
  • Enforcement mechanisms
  • Hierarchical duties
• Bureaucracy: rational political organization
  • Paid officials, defined responsibilities, seniority rights, exams for promotion
  • Slow to change, less efficient
• Iron law of oligarchy: democracies shift toward elite rule
• McDonaldization: efficiency, predictability, control

Self-Presentation

• Impression management: process of influencing perception
• Authentic self: who we are
• Ideal self: who we want to be
• Tactical self: marketed version of self
• Techniques: self-disclosure, managing appearances, ingratiation, aligning actions, alter-casting
• Dramaturgical Approach: life as performance
  • Front stage: visible performance
  • Back stage: private, true behavior

Emotions

• Darwin’s basic model: facial expressions, behaviors, postures, vocal, physiological changes; some universal
• Social construction model: emotions shaped by cultural norms
• Display rules: cultural expectations for emotion
• Cultural syndromes: shared cultural beliefs about emotions
  • Example: happiness internal in US, collective in Japan
  • Gender norms affect expression (women repress anger, men repress sadness)

George Mead

• Me: response to environment
• I: creative, spontaneous expression

Communication

• Verbal: spoken/written words, tone, pauses
• Nonverbal: gestures, body language, facial expressions, posture; culturally influenced
• Animal communication: intraspecific signaling
  • Body language (teeth/lunging), visual displays, dance (bees), scent marking (skunks)