Social Interaction and Social
Structure
Chapter 5
Mock Prison Experiment
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Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford
University
70 Male students were paid to give
up vacation time to simulate a
prison in the basement corridor of a
school building
arbitrarily designated as prisoners
or guards (flip of a coin)
guards acted “guardlike”. Some
tough but fair
1/3rd became cruel and abusive
<Zimbardo’s Mock Prison
Slide Show and Discussion of
Social Interaction and Reality
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Herbert Blumer-response to
someone’s behavior is based
on the meaning we attach to his
or her actions
meanings typically reflect the
norms of the dominant culture
and our socialization
experiences
Interactionalists-meanings
attached are shaped by
interactions
<reality is constructed by our
interactions
Defining and Reconstructing
Reality
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Regard tattoos-few short years
ago- “weird, kooky”
associated with fringe
counterculture-punk rockers,
bike gangs, skinheads
increased social interaction with
people with tattoos has brought
about a different view
<Tattooed Brett Michaels of
Poison
Negotiated Order
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Social reality can be negotiated as
changes occur in social interactions
negotiation refers to attempt to
reach an agreement with others
concerning some objective
does not involve coercion
through negotiation as a form of
social interaction- society creates
social structure
Negotiated Order-social structure
that derives its existence from
social interaction through which
people define and redefine its
character
Status
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Status-any of the full range of socially defined
positions within a large group or society
Ascribed Status-”assigned” by a society
without regard for talent
Conflict Theorists are especially interested in
these
Achieved Status- comes largely through our
own efforts
our achieved status is heavily influenced by our
ascribed status
Master Status-a status that dominates others
and thereby determines a person’s position
within society
<Malcolm X. was told by an English Teacher:
being a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a
nigger” and encouraged him to be a carpenter
Status Exercise
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Put in the middle of the
circle ‘ME’
surround yourself with
circles filling each with a
status
on top put- ascribed
statuses-make it a certain
design
on bottom -achieved
statuses-make it a certain
design
star -the master status
Social Roles and Role Conflict
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Social Roles-Set of expectations for
people who occupy a given status
view someone as only a “police
officer”, difficult to view as a “friend”
Role Conflict-incompatible
expectations arise from two or more
social positions held by the same
person
women promoted to supervisor on
an assembly line
individuals move into occupations
that are common among through
ascribed status
Role Strain and Exit
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Role Strain-difficulty of occupying two
social positions simultaneously
Zimbardo-as professor at the head of an
experiment and as professor looking out
for the welfare of his students
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg-spies?,
scientists
Role Exit-adjustments made when
leaving a role-eg. Ex-convict, quitting a
job, divorce
four stages of role exit
1. Doubt
2. Search for alternatives
3. Action stage or departure
4. Creation of a new identity
Groups
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Groups-Any number of people with
similar norms, values and
expectations who interact with one
another
Women’s basketball team,
hospital’s business office,
symphony orchestra
entire staff of a hospital is not
staff members rarely interact
vital part in social structure
also now- those who interact
electronically
these transmission allows for
impression management-alter one’s
ego
Social Institutions
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Social Institutions-organized
patterns of beliefs and
behaviors centered on basic
social needs
five Social Institutions (in no
specific order)
1. Family
2. Government
3. Education
4. Business
5. Religion
Perspectives on Social Institutions
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Functionalist Perspective(David Aberle (1950),
Raymond Mack and Calvin
Bradford (1979)
5 functional prerequisites must
accomplish to stay alive
1. Replacing personnel-die,
leave or become incapacitated
<Shakers-came in 1774celibacy-must replace
personnel through recruitment
(6000 in 1840’s-7 in 1999)
Functionalist Perspective of Social
Institutions
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2. Teaching New Recruitsgroup must encourage the recruits to
learn and accept its values and customs
learning can take place formally in
schools (manifest function) or informally
through interaction and negotiation in
peer groups (latent function)
3. Producing and distributing Goods
and Servicessociety must provide goods and services
for its members
the group must provide for most
members or the members will become
discontent and grow into disorder
Functionalist Perspective of Social
Institutions
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<4. Preserving ordernative people of Tasmania are
now extinct-1800’s destroyed
by the hunting parties of
European conquerors-looked
on as half human
must protect themselves from
attack as well as preserve order
5. Providing and maintaining
a sense of purposepeople must feel motivated to
continue as a member of that
society to fulfill the other four
requirements
Conflict Theorist Perspective on
Social Institutions
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Do not agree with the
functionalists
object to the idea that the
outcome is efficient and
desirable
present order is not an accident
maintains the privileges of
certain powerful groups and
individuals, contributing to the
powerlessness of those without
power
social institutions are inherently
conservative
Conflict Theorists Perspective on
Social Institutions
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Functionalist-social change
could be dysfunctional
why should we preserve unfair
and discriminatory social
structures?
Social Institutions work in
Gender and racist
environments
Matrix of Domination-Patricia
Hill Collins (1971)-interlocking
models of oppression-unless
activists or policymakers
intervene-those in less
advantaged groups will remain
in those groups
Interactionalist Perspective of
Social Institutions
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Emphasize that our social
behavior is conditioned by the
role and statuses that we
accept, the groups which we
belong, and the institutions in
which we function
“judge”-in relation to attorney,
defendant, plaintiff, witness
judicial system derives its
significance due to the roles
people carry out in social
interactions
Gemeinschaft and Gessellschaft
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Ferdinand Tonnies(1855-1936)rise of industrial city marked the
end of the ideal type close-knit
community-Gemeinschaft
brought about the impersonal
mass society-Gessellschaft
<Characteristics of both
Sociocultural Evolution
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Gerhard Lenski-change
according to the dominant
pattern
rather than opposite forces as
Tonnies had seen
level of technology is critical to
the way it is organized
<Technology-information about
the ways in which material
resources of the environment
may be used to satisfy human
needs and desires.
Preindustrial Society
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1. Hunters and Gatherers-rely
on food and fiber readily
available
technology is minimal,
organized in groups and
constantly searching for foodlittle division of labor
small widely dispersed groups,
each group is related-kinship
ties rule the groups
last group has virtually
disappeared by the close of the
20th century
Preindustrial Society
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2. Horticultural Society-plant
seeds and crops rather than
subsist merely on available
food
much less nomadic
production of tools and
household objects
technology is still limiteddigging sticks or hoes are the
furthest reaches of technology
3. Agrarian Society-production
of food
technology allows for increased
production-Plow
Preindustrial Society
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Still relies on physical power of
humans and animals
social structure has more
defined roles than in
Horticultural society
individual concentrate on
specialized tasks-ie. Blacksmith
social institutions become more
elaborate-property rights
create artifacts
Industrial Society
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Industrial revolution-in England
between 1760-1830
scientific revolution focused on the
nonanimal(mechanical) sources of
power to labor tasks
people left the homesteads and
started to work in centrally located
factories
specialization of task
social consequences-families and
communities could not function as
self-sufficient units
individuals, villages and regions
exchanged goods and services and
interdependent
Industrial Society
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Family loses its position as
the power source and
authority
specialization knowledge
leads to more formalized
education, education
becomes distinct from the
family
Postindustrial and Modern Society
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Postindustrial-a society whose
economic system is engaged
primarily in the processing and
control of information
main output is services not
manufactured goods
Postmodern-technologically
sophisticated society that is
preoccupied by consumer
goods and media images
global perspective-note the
ways a nation’s culture crosses
its borders