Social Interaction in Everyday
Life
Social Structure
 Status
 Role
Status
 Ascribed
status
• Received at birth or involuntarily
assumed
 Achieved status
• Voluntary
 Master status
• Special importance for your identity
 Status set
Role
 Behavior
expected on someone who holds a
particular status
 Role set
 Role conflict
• Employee and husband
 Role strain
• Supervisor and friend
 Role exit
The social construction of
reality
 People
creatively shape reality through
interaction
 Thomas theorem
• “Situations that are defined as real
become real in their consequences”
• “Definition of the Situation”
Dramaturgical Analysis
 Erving
Goffman
• Sees society as a theatrical performance
 Presentation of self
• Efforts to create specific impressions in
the minds of others
 Performance
• Costumes, props, tone of voice, etc.
 Use of tact in embarrassing situations
Getting the humor in a joke
 Audience
must inferentially complete the
joke in their minds
 Audience must understand the two realities
involved, and appreciate their difference