Social Interaction
Chapter Outline
 What is Social Interaction?
 What Shapes Social Interaction?
 The Sociology of Emotions
 Modes of Social Interaction
Social Interaction
 Involves people communicating face-to-face and
acting and reacting in relation to other people.
 Structured around:
 a person’s status: recognized social position that
people occupy
 a person’s role: set of expected behaviors that people
perform
 a culture’s norms: a generally accepted way of doing
things
Statuses and Roles
 Status set: the group of positions that a person
occupies at the same time
 Each status is composed of several sets of expected
behaviors, or a role set
Role Set and Status Set
Role Conflict
 Occurs when different
role demands are placed
on a person by two or
more statuses held at the
same time.
 A flight attendant might
experience role conflict
due to contradicting
demands of these
statuses?
Role Strain
 Occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on
a person in a single status.
 Why was the status of stewardess in the 1960s and 1970s
high in role strain?
Consider this…
 Draw a map illustrating your role set and status set.
 Identify any role conflict or role strain that exists in
your life.
How We Get Emotional
Emotion Management
 Involves people obeying “feeling rules” and responding
appropriately to the situations in which they find
themselves.
 Emotion labor is emotion management that people
do as part of their job and for which they are paid.
Conflict Theories of Social
Interaction
 When people interact, their statuses are often
arranged in a hierarchy.
 Those on top enjoy more power and attention than
those on the bottom.
 Social interaction involves competition over valued
resources such as attention, approval, prestige,
information, and money
Symbolic Interaction Theories of
Social Interaction
 We learn norms and adopt roles and statuses through
our social interaction
 We are constantly negotiating and modifying the
norms, roles and statuses that we encounter as we
interact with others
Goffman’s Dramaturgical Analysis
 People always play roles, especially in “front stage”
public settings
 We may be our “true” selves during our “backstage”
performance
 Always engaging in role-playing and impression
management
Impression management
 May use role distancing to illustrate a lack of role
commitment if we find a role beneath us or
embarrassing
 Furthermore, we regularly try to place ourselves in the
best possible light by engaging in impression
management
Nonverbal Communication
 Facial Expressions
 Gestures
 Body Language
 Status cues - Visual indicators of a person’s social
position
 these can turn into stereotypes that impair interactions
Theories of Social Interaction
How Social Groups Shape Our
Actions
1. Norms of solidarity demand conformity.


When we form relationships, we develop norms of
solidarity about how we should behave to sustain the
relationships.
The Nazis who roamed the Polish countryside to
shoot and kill “enemies” felt they had to get their job
done or face letting down their comrades.
How Social Groups Shape Our
Actions
2. Structures of authority tend to render people obedient.


Most people find it difficult to disobey authorities
because they fear ridicule, ostracism, and
punishment.
Demonstrated in experiment conducted by social
psychologist Stanley Milgram.
How Social Groups Shape Our
Actions
3. Bureaucracies are highly effective structures of
authority.

The Nazi genocide machine was so effective because
it was bureaucratically organized.
Social Networks
 Our world is small because we are enmeshed in
overlapping sets of social relations
 Social Networks are a bounded set of unites
(individuals, organization, countries and so on) linked
by the exchange of material or emotional resources
Groups vs. Categories
 Social groups: one or more social networks, the
members of which identify with one another, routinely
interact, and adhere to defined norms, roles and
statuses
 Social categories: people who share similar status but
do not routinely interact or identify with one another
Groupthink
 Groupthink: the pressure to conform, despite
individual misgivings
 Can be positive (e.g., being a “team player), but can
also be dangerous, if people no longer feel confident
challenging the group consensus
Reference Group
 We generally evaluate ourselves in comparison to
others
 These “role models” can be our reference group
 They may represent an imaginary ideal
Primary vs. Secondary Groups
 Primary groups: norms, roles and statuses are agreed
on but not put in writing (e.g., our family)
 Secondary groups: larger and more impersonal that
creates weaker emotional ties
 Formal organizations: secondary groups designed to
achieve explicit objectives
Bureaucracy
 Weber regarded bureaucracies as the most efficient
kind of secondary group
Was using older organizational forms
2. Only discussing ideal case
1.
Bureaucratic Inefficiency
 The larger the bureaucracy, the more difficult it is for
functionaries to communicate
 Given the hierarchy of most bureaucracies, power
differentials will affect communication across levels
1. The verbal and nonverbal communication between
people acting and reacting to one another:
a.
b.
c.
d.
conversations
social interaction
group processes
front stage performance
Answer: b

Social interaction involves verbal and nonverbal
communication between people acting and reacting
to one another. It is ordered by norms, roles, and
statuses.
2. Role strain occurs when:
a.
b.
c.
d.
people communicate face-to-face, reacting to other
people
a cluster of roles are attached to a single status
an individual occupies many statuses
incompatible role demands are placed on a person in
a single status
Answer: d
 Role strain occurs when: incompatible role
demands are placed on a person in a single status.
3. Which of the following approaches to studying
groups focuses on how people create meaning in
the course of social interaction?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Conflict approach
Symbolic interactionist
Functionalist
Feminist
Answer: b
 Symbolic interactionists focus on how people create
meaning in the course of social interaction and on how
they negotiate and modify roles, statuses, and norms
4. Which of the following types of groups involve
intense, intimate, enduring relations?
a.
b.
c.
d.
primary groups
secondary groups
reference groups
front stage performances
Answer: a
 Primary groups involve intense, intimate, enduring
relations
5. Which of the following types of groups involve less
personal and intense ties?
a.
b.
c.
d.
primary groups
secondary groups
reference groups
front stage performances
Answer: b
 Secondary groups involve less personal and intense
ties than primary groups
6. The idea that no more than 6 degrees of separation
separate any two people in the United States
reveals the importance of _______________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Facebook
friendships
social networks
families
Answer: c
 The idea that no more than 6 degrees of separation
separate any two people in the United States reveals
the importance of social networks.
7. The more levels in a bureaucratic structure:
a.
b.
c.
d.
the more efficiently it operates.
the less likely is oligarchic rule to emerge.
the more difficult communication becomes.
the greater the number of dyadic relationships.
Answer: c
 The more levels in a bureaucratic structure: the more
difficult communication becomes.