Social Interaction, Social
Structure, and Groups
Chapter 5
Social Interaction and Reality
• Reality shaped by perceptions,
evaluations, and definitions
– Varies across cultures
– Ability to define social reality
reflects group’s power
– Social change involves redefining or reconstructing
social reality
Social Interaction
• The process by which people act and react in
relation to others
• Social construction of reality – the process by
which people shape reality through social
interaction
• Thomas Theorem – Situations defined as real
become real in their consequences
Status
• Status – a social position
– Status set – consists of all the statuses a person
holds at a given time
– Ascribed status – a social position given to a
person by society
– Achieved status – a social position that someone
assumes voluntarily and that reflects ability and
effort
Status
– Master status – a status that has special
importance for social identity, often shaping a
person’s entire life.
Figure 5-1: Social Statuses
Roles
• Behavior expected of someone who holds a
particular status
• Role conflict - conflict among roles
corresponding to two or more different
statuses
• Role strain – incompatibility among roles
corresponding to a single status
Understanding Social structure
• Durkheim
• Tonnies
• Lenski
Durkheim’s Mechanical
and Organic Solidarity
• Division of Labor ([1893] 1933)
– Mechanical solidarity: Collective consciousness
that emphasizes group solidarity, implying
all individuals perform the same tasks
– Organic solidarity: Collective
consciousness resting on the need
society’s members have for one another
Tönnies Gemeinschaft
and Gesellschaft
• Gemeinschaft (guh-MINE-shoft): Small
community in which people have similar
backgrounds and life experiences
• Gesellschaft (guh-ZELL-shoft): Large
community in which people are
strangers and feel little in common
with other community residents
Lenski’s Sociocultural
Evolution Approach
• Human societies undergo process of
change characterized by dominant
pattern known as sociocultural evolution
– Level of technology critical
• Technology: “Cultural information about the
ways in which the material resources of the
environment may be used to satisfy human
needs and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 2006:361)
Lenski’s Sociocultural
Evolution Approach
• Preindustrial Societies
– Hunting-and-gathering society:
People rely on whatever foods
and fibers are readily available
– Horticultural societies:
People plant seeds and crops
– Agrarian societies: People are
primarily engaged in production of food
Lenski’s Sociocultural
Evolution Approach
• Industrial societies: societies
that depend on mechanization to
produce its goods and services
– People depend on mechanization
to produce goods and services
– People rely on inventions
and energy sources
– People change function of
family as a self-sufficient unit
Lenski’s Sociocultural
Evolution Approach
• Postindustrial and Postmodern Societies
– Postindustrial society:
Economic system engaged
primarily in processing
and controlling information
– Postmodern society:
Technologically
sophisticated society
preoccupied with consumer
goods and media images
Groups
• Group: any number of people with
similar norms, values, and expectations
who interact on a regular basis
– Primary group: small group with intimate,
face-to-face association and cooperation
– Secondary group: formal,
impersonal groups with little social
intimacy or mutual understanding
Table 18-1: Comparisons of Primary and Secondary Groups
Groups
• In-groups and Out-Groups
– In-groups: any groups or categories to which
people feel they belong
– Out-groups: any groups or categories to which
people feel they do not belong
• Conflict between in-groups and out-groups can turn
violent on a personal as well as political level
Groups
– Reference group: any group that
individuals use as standard for
evaluating their own behavior
Formal Organizations
• Large, secondary groups that are organized to
achieve goals efficiently
Types of formal Organizations
• Utilitarian - primary motive is income
• Normative – not for income but to pursue
some worthwhile goal
• Coercive- involuntary
Bureaucracy
• a form of organization based on explicit rules,
with a clear, impersonal, and hierarchical
authority structure
Characteristics of Bureaucracy
•
•
•
•
•
Complex division of labor (specialization)
Hierarchy of authority
Explicit rules
Rewards on the basis of performance
Extensive written records
Corporation
• A group that, through the legal process of
incorporation, has been given the status of a
separate and real social entity
– Limited liability
Group Think
• Intense social pressure within a group for individuals
to conform to group norms and abandon individual
and critical thinking
• People will compromise judgment to avoid being
difficult
– Solomon Asch’s experiment
Types of Leadership
• Instrumental Leadership – group leadership
that emphasizes the completion of tasks
• Expressive Leadership – group leadership that
focuses on collective well-being
Organizational Culture
• Classical theory (scientific management)
workers are motivated almost entirely by
economic rewards
• Human relations approach – emphasizes the
role of people, communication, and
participation within a bureaucracy