SOC 312: American Society
Social Psychology
Dominant Social Psychology
Approaches
• behavioral
– rises and falls in sociology
– dominant in micro economics
– major field of psychology
• interactional
– Goffman
– major sociological approach today
• phenomenological: always been marginal
Freud
• represents a tradition important in
psychology: cognitive psychology
– never been dominant in social psychology or
as sociological theory
– but major challenge to social psychology and
major field within psychology
– Freudian is only one of many cognitive
theories but is best known and most influential
outside of psychology
Freud (1856-1939)
• dialectical model of human mind
– id: animal instincts and drives—eros, thantos,
and libido; these drive individual to selfdestructive hedonism
– super ego: culture, collective conscience,
beliefs and values—civilization
– these contradictory elements are synthesized
in ego
Freud's Dialectical Model
super ego
ego
id
Freud's Model of Personality
• various instincts: eros, thantos, libido
• are controlled through sublimation,
repression, transference
• as child moves through stages
– oral
– anal
– phallic
Freud (continued)
• Oral stage: kids put everything in their
mouths
– unsuccessful attempts to control this desire
can lead to obesity, anorexia, smoking, etc.
– these are all oral fixations
• Anal stage: kids urinate and defecate
whenever and wherever
– problems in toilet training yield slob or
neatness freak
Freud (continued)
• phallic stage: kids seek sexual gratification
– unsuccessful attempts to control this behavior
leads to various neuroses
– frigidity, impotence, permiscuousness, rape,
and various types of phobias (unreasonable
fears) and fetishes (abnormal obsessions,
e.g. foot fetish)
Civilization and its Discontents
• Freud develops his conservative
philosophy
– "Human life is only possible [through the ]
replacement of [the] liberty of the individual
[by] the development of civilization." (p. 49)
– criticizes Marxists of his day (1890-1930), "the
communists (p. 70) [and their illusions about
human nature and] aggressiveness" (p. 71)
– he concludes, "the fateful question" (p. 111)
Behaviorism: History
• John B. Watson (1878-1958)
– Animal Behavior (1903)
– Behaviorism (1925)
– was foil for George Herbert Mead (18631933), Father of Symbolic Interactionism
• George Casper Homans (sociologist)
– Human Group (1950)
– Social Behavior (1961)
Homans' Exchange Theory
• Homans versus Parsons at Harvard
– golden age of American sociology (19451973)
– nationalism and conservativism
– functionalism was sociology
– pluralism was political science
– Homans challenged functionalism with
behaviorism (in 1950s)
Blau's Exchange Theory
• Peter Blau (of Blau and Duncan fame)
resurrected Exchange Theory
– Exchange and Power in Social Life (1964)
– part of general critique of Parsons and
functionalism
– also part of self-help popular psychology that
was challenging Freudianism
• instead of psychotherapy
• buy a book
Self-help Pop Psych Books
•
•
•
•
B.F. Skinner, Walden II
Wm. Glasser, Reality Therapy
Abraham Maslow, Self Actualized Man
Eric Fromme, The Art of Loving (actually a
Marxist, but this book was very popular in
Sixties and early Seventies)
Behaviorism (history)
• remained viable alternative to psychotherapy
• never firmly established in sociology
• Blau gave up on Exchange Theory and
became functionalist and Weberian
organization theorist
• James Coleman resurrected theory as
Rational Choice
Behaviorism (history)
• Coleman
– Asymetric Society (1982)
– Rational Choice Theory (1992)
• Since then
– Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The
Churching of America (1992)
– Ken Ferraro, Fear of Crime (1995)
– Wm Brustein, The Logic of Evil (1996)
– Scott Feld works in this tradition as well
What is Behaviorism?
• Rooted in behavior modification
– operant behavior is random (observed)
– desired behavior can be induced through
• reinforcement: reproducing (rewarding) behavior
that approximates desired
• punishment: extinguishing behavior that deviates
from desired
• In laboratory setting, two options
– positive: impose condition
– negative: remove condition
Behavior Modification
reinforce
punish
positive
impose
pleasure
impose
pain
negative
remove
pain
remove
pleasure
Applying Reinforcement and
Punishment
Behavior Modification in Three Stages
Stage 1
Stage 2
punish reinforce
-
+
Operant
Behavior
punish reinforce
-
+
Success
punish reinforce
Desired
Behavior
+
Social Exchange Theory
• relations are instrumental or value rational
• “other” is source of reinforcement or
punishment
+/-
self
+
other
Social Exchange Theory (cont.)
• power, values and social structure (Blau
1986 [1964)
– dependence and obligation (pp. 118-125)
– status as capital (pp. 132-133)
– legitimacy (p. 30)
– authority and social structure (p. 211)
Blau (1986 [1964], p.124)
Alternatives
to Compliance
Conditions of
Independence
Requirements
of Power
Structural
Implications
1. Supply
inducements
Strategic
resources
Indifference to
what others
offer
Exchange and
distribution of
resources
2. Obtain
elsewhere
Available
alternatives
Monopoly over
what others
need
Competition and
exchange rates
3. Take by
force
Coercive
forces
Law & order
Organization &
differentiation
4. Do without
Ideals
lessening
needs
Materialistic
and other
relevant values
Ideology
formation
Rational Choice and all That
• Continuing interest in Soc of Religion:
religious market place: Finke & Stark
• Continuing interest in CJ/deviance
– Social learning
– Deterrence
– Opportunity structures
– prisoner’s dilemma
Prisoner's Dilemma
Prisoner A
plea
plea
Prisoner
B
no plea
no plea
A: 1 year
B: 1 year
A: 5 years
B: 1 year
A: 1 year
B: 5 years
A: 6 months
B: 6 months
Three Micro Approaches
• Battle of nature and nurture
– Tempest of unreason
– Animal instincts
– Cultural beliefs and values
• Global Marketplace
– Profitmaking exchanges
– Competition
– Resource dependency
• A Stage
– Actors
– Audiences
– Performances
Symbolic Interactionism
• Foundation of Goffman’s dramaturgical
analysis
• Rooted in
– Pragmatism: we can change the world
– Symbolic interactionism
• Socialization is continuous process
• Society is negotiated order
George Herbert Mead
• Father of symbolic interactionism
– Lecturer in philosophy at Chicago, 1894-1931
– Taught social psychology course
– Lecture notes published posthumously as
Mind Self and Society (the bible of SI)
society
mind
self
Mead’s Model of Emergent Self
other
me
negotiation
I
self
Society: Negotiated Order
• Process oriented
• Indeterminate
• dynamic
other
role
negotiation
self
negotiation
performance
Strains of S.I.
•
•
•
•
Mead: Mind, Self, and Society
Blumer: joint action
Goffman: dramaturgical and frame
Structural
– Kuhn
– Stryker
• Tim Owens
• Viktor Gecas
Goffman
• we can analyze form and content of social
life as a dramatic perfomance (p. xi)
– essence of dramaturgical approach
– clearly within interactionist tradition
• definition of situation (p. 1)
– expression gives and gives off (p. 2)
– presentation of self affects definition of
situation
Goffman
• definition of situation has moral
character—includes rights (p. 13)
• Goffman's definitions of terms
– defensive and protective practices (pp. 13-14)
– interaction (p. 15)
– performance (p. 15)
– social relations and social roles (p. 16)
Goffman
• performances
– sincere/cynical (p.18)
– front (p. 22)
– setting
– appearance (p. 24)
– manner
– coherence of setting, appearance, and
manner (p. 25)
performance (cont.)
•
•
•
•
•
audience segregation (p. 49)
maintainance of expressive control (p. 51)
misrepresentation (p. 58)
mystification (p. 67)
reality and contrivance (p. 70)
– statistical relation between appeance and
reality (p. 71)
Goffman
• Teams (chapter 2)
– defined (p. 79)
– function (p. 104)
• Regions (chapter 3)
– defined (p. 106)
– front (p. 107)
– back (p 112)
– back/front workers (p. 124)
regions (cont.)
• function of regions (pp. 127-8)
• limitations on back stage informality (pp.
129-30)
• outside and outsiders (p. 135)
• front region control and audience
segregation (p. 137)
• negotiating situation and identity—
embarrassment (pp. 139-40)
Goffman
• discrepant roles (chapter 4)
– function/problem for team: information control
and secrets (p. 141)
– information, region, and function (pp. 144-5)
– examples
•
•
•
•
informer (p. 145)
shil(p. 146)
spotter (p. 149)
shopper (p. 149)
More discrepant roles
•
•
•
•
•
go between (p. 149)
nonperson (p. 151)
service specialist (p. 153)
confidant (p. 159)
colleague (p. 160)
Goffman
• Communication out of character (chptr 5)
– in character: normal appearance (p. 167)
– out of character
•
•
•
•
trashing the absent (p. 170)
staging (p. 175)
team collusion (p. 176)
realigning action (p. 190)
– types (p. 195)
• concluding remarks (pp. 206-7)
– needs and social construction of reality
Goffman
• Art of Impression Management (chptr 6)
– defensive/protective measures (p. 212)
• defense
– loyalty (p. 212)
– discipline (p. 216)
– circumspection (p. 218)
• protective
– tact (p. 229)
– tact regarding tact (pp. 233-4)
• summary (p. 237)
Goffman
• Conclusion (chptr 7)
– dramaturgy and social establishment
– personality-interaction-society (plus definition
of situation)
– comparisons and cultural differences
– impressions, expressions, moral and practical
concerns
– the staging of self
Goffman
• Ultimately, "self is a product" (pp. 252-3)
socially constructed
• critical issue in "structure of social
encounters ... is the maintenance of a
single definition of the situation" (p. 254)
Toward a Big Picture
• Fifty years of sociology
– Theory
– Politics
– Economics
– Social Interaction
• Can these pieces come together in some
way?
Obviously: Theories of Political
Economy
• Bad old theories
– Adam Smith
– Evolutionary theories of development
– Functional theories of development
• The Good Stuff
– World System Theory/Dependency theory
– Theories of bourgeois/peasant revolution
Can Social Psychology Add
Something?
• Maybe something interesting?
• Race, class, gender
– Self in a world of racial segregation:
• Do white people really know any other people?
• Do white people have a racialized self?
– Men in a gendered world
• Are men aware of their gender?
• Are all women divided into kin and other
categories?
• Do men with sisters do gender differently?
Politics of Policing
• Consider a world where Normal
interactions involve
– Officer
• Self is white male police officer
• Other is black male criminal
– Suspect
• Self is black male citizen
• Other is white male cop
Police Encounters with
Suspects
• How do young black men react when they
see white police officers
– Defensive posture
– Fight/flight readiness
• How do police determine who should be
stopped and questioned
– Who looks out of place
– Who looks like a criminal