SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
CHAPTER 3
Social Structure
Section
Section
Section
Section
Section
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
Building Blocks of Social Structure
Types of Social Interaction
Types of Societies
Groups Within Society
The Structure of Formal Organizations
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: Building Blocks of Social Structure
Objectives:
 Identify and describe the two major
components of social structure.
 Analyze how these two components
of social structure affect human
interaction.
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: Building Blocks of Social Structure
Major Components of Social Structure
 Social Structure -the network of interrelated
statuses and roles that guide human interaction,
give society its enduring characteristics and make
patterns of human interaction predictable
 Status – a socially defined position in a group or
in a society and has attached to it one or more
roles
 Role – the behavior expected of someone
occupying a particular status
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: Building Blocks of Social Structure
Roles, Status, and Human Interaction
 People’s particular roles and statuses affect how they
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relate to one another.
Statuses are ways of defining where individuals fit in
society and how they relate to others
ascribed status – assigned according to qualities beyond a
person’s control
achieved status – acquired through individuals own direct
efforts
master status – one status tends to out-rank others, plays
the greatest role in one’s life and determining social
identity
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: Building Blocks of Social Structure
Roles, Status, and Human Interaction
 Roles are the components of social structure
that bring statuses to life.
 reciprocal roles – corresponding roles that
define the patterns of interaction between
related statuses
 role expectations – socially determined
behaviors expected of a person performing a
role
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: Building Blocks of Social Structure
Roles, Status, and Human Interaction
 role performance – actual role behavior, does not
always match expectations
 role set – the different roles attached to a single
status
 role strain – occurs when a person has difficulty
meeting the role expectations of a single status
 role conflict – occurs between two statuses when
trying to fulfill expectations
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: Building Blocks of Social Structure
Roles, Status, and Human Interaction
 Role exit:
 Statuses and their related roles
determine the structure of groups in
society.
 social institution – statuses and roles
are organized to satisfy one or more
of the basic needs of society
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Types of Social Interaction
Objectives:
 Identify the most common types of
social interaction.
 Distinguish between types of
interactions that stabilize social
structure and those that can disrupt it.
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Types of Social Interaction
Common Types of Social Interaction
 When playing a role, must interact with others
 Interactions either change or stabilize society
 1. exchange – interacting in an effort to receive a
reward or a return for one’s actions
 reciprocity – you do something for someone
else, they owe you something in return
 exchange theory – people are motivated by selfinterest in their interactions
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Types of Social Interaction
Common Types of Social Interaction
 2.Competition – two or more people or groups in opposition to
achieve a goal that only one can attain
 positive means of motivating people to perform roles society
asks
 can also lead to psychological stress, lack of cooperation in
social relationships, inequality, and conflict
 3. Conflict – the deliberate attempt to control a person by force,
to oppose someone else, or to harm another person
 sources of conflict: war, within group, legal disputes, clashes
over ideology
 positive effects: reinforces group boundaries, strengthens
group loyalty, draw attention away from internal problems, lead
to social change
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Types of Social Interaction
Common Types of Social Interaction
 4. Cooperation – two or more people or
groups working together to achieve a goal
that will benefit more than one of them
 5. Accommodation – a state of balance
between cooperation and conflict, a
compromise, truce
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Types of Social Interaction
Interactions That Stabilize and Disrupt
 Competition and Conflict – disrupt social
stability
 Accommodation, Exchange, and
Cooperation stabilize social stability
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Types of Societies
Objectives:
 Identify and describe the types of
societies that exist in the world today.
 Explain the roles individuals play in
these models of group systems.
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Types of Societies
Types of Societies
 role behavior takes place in groups
 group – set of people who interact on the basis of
shared expectations and who possess some
degree of common identity
 largest and most complex groups are societies
 Sociologists classify societies according to
subsistence strategies.
 subsistence strategies – way a society uses
technology to provide for the needs of members
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Types of Societies
Types of Societies
 Preindustrial – food production is the main economic
activity and can be subdivided according to the level
of technology and the method of producing food
 hunting and gathering, pastoral societies, horticultural
society, agricultural society
 Industrial – emphasis shifts from the production of
food to the production of manufactured goods made
possible by changes in production methods
 leads to urbanization
 Postindustrial – much of the economy is involved in
providing information and services
 73% of Americans
 SmartNotebook Activity
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
Objectives:
 Summarize the major features of
primary and secondary groups.
 Identify the purposes that groups
fulfill.
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
What is a group?
 A group has 4 major features:
 two or more people, interaction among members,
shared expectations, common identity
 These distinguish a group from an aggregate or social
category
 aggregate – people gathered in the same place at the
same time, but lack organization or patterns
 social category – classifying people according to a
shared trait or common status
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
Types of Groups
 Features of Primary Groups:
Interact over a long period of time on a
direct and personal basis
Entire self of the individual is taken into
account
Relationships are intimate and face-toface
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
Types of Groups
 Features of Secondary Groups:
Interaction is impersonal and temporary
in nature
Involve a reaction to only a part of the
individual’s self
Casual and limited in personal
involvement
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
Types of Groups
 Features of Reference Groups:
 group with whom individuals identify and whose
attitudes and values they adopt
 Features of In-Groups and Out-Groups
 in-group – group that a person belongs to and
identifies with
 out-group – any group that the person does not
belong to or identify with
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
Types of Groups
 Features of E-communities
 e-community – people interact with one
another regularly on the Internet
 Features of Social Networks
 social network – web of relationships that is
formed by the sum total of a person’s
interactions with other people
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 4: Groups Within Society
Purposes of Groups
 Select leaders – people that influence the attitudes
and opinions of others
 instrumental leaders – task oriented
 expressive leaders – emotion oriented
 Define their boundaries – so that members can tell
who belongs and who does not
 Set goals, assign tasks, and make decisions
 Control their members’ behavior – if members violate
groups norms, the group cannot survive long
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 5: The Structure of Formal Organizations
Objectives:
 Explain how bureaucracies are
structured.
 Evaluate the effectiveness of
bureaucracies.
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 5: The Structure of Formal Organizations
What are Formal Organizations?
 Sociologists use the term formal organization to
describe a large, complex secondary group that has
been established to achieve specific goals.
 Most organizations are structured in the form of a
bureaucracy.
 bureaucracy – a ranked authority structure that operates
according to specific rules and procedures
 Bureaucracies were created to rationally organize
groups to complete a set of goals
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 5: The Structure of Formal Organizations
Weber’s Model
 Division of Labor
 work is divided among specialists in various positions,
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expected to complete specific task
Ranking of Authority
 clear-cut lines of authority, each is responsible to a
supervisor at a higher level
Employment based on formal qualifications
 individuals are hired based on tests, education, or
previous experience
Rules and regulations
 identify the responsibilities of each person
Specific lines of promotion and advancement
 job security and seniority
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 5: The Structure of Formal Organizations
Effectiveness of Bureaucracies
 Efficient at coordinating large numbers of
people, defining tasks and rewards
 Provides stability
 Can lose sight of goals, create red tape,
and result in oligarchies
 In some instances, rewards incompetence
and expands uncontrollably