Chapter 5 Quizlet – Flashcards

found that iPod users on the subway are open to social interaction. Walls can be broken when we disrupt a person's space with words or action. They are as open to interruption as nonusers

the expected behaviors of people occupying particular social positions. The idea of social role originally comes from the theater, referring to the parts that actors play in a stage production. In every society, we have a number of these. Socially defined expectations given to a person in a given status --how we act depends on the *** we play at a given time (Goffman). Thought that every person possesses a self that is vulnerable to embarrassment. People are always trying to save face. The pose we tend to adopt depends on our social *** , but doesn't necessarily reflect sense of self. You might not act how you truly are.

the social honors or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life- patterns of behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or negative. Pariah status groups are regarded with disdain or treated as outcasts by the majority of the population

the social identity an individual has in a given group or society. They may be general in nature (those associated w gender roles) or more specific (occupational positions)

preparing for the presentation of one's social role. People are sensitive to how they are seen by others and use many forms of this to compel others to react to them in ways they wish. So we do things in a calculated way.

-Going to the OB/GYN: very sensitive experience, especially at a time when most exams were done by men. Material was analyzed and collected by Biggs (nurse) and Henslin to see what roles people assume in these exams. -Multiple "scenes" are seen throughout the exam. Prologue: sitting in the waiting room. Called into the consulting room, assumes the "patient" role, and doctor assumes a businesslike role. He decides an exam is necessary, so he leaves and scene 1 is over. -RN comes in and acts as a confidante. Nurse helps alter the patient from a person to a "non-person" whose body is just meant to be scrutinized. Helps remove clothes, folds them, gives sheet, etc. -Doctor re-enters and the nurse monitors for violations of professionalism. The examination proceeds as though the personality of the patient were absent. -the nurse then helps the patient assume the role of a person again. The doctor comes in and talks to her in a professional manner, which tells us that his intimate contact with her wasn't sexual. She is now a person again, and in the epilogue, when she leaves the office, we see her assume her normal role.

-Even though people try to help one another "save face," they also endeavor individually to preserve their own dignity. They do this by "audience segregation," or trying to act somewhat differently in each role and trying to keep what they do in each role distinct from other roles. -People have multiple selves and get stressed when the boundaries break down between them. The multiple selves don't always agree with one another. Essentially, AS is showing a difference face to different people.

the process whereby individuals in the same physical setting demonstrate to one another than they are aware of each other's presence. When you look at a stranger and then glance away. Not the same as ignoring- just not being intrusive.

communication between individuals based on facial expressions or bodily gesture rather than on language. The exchange of information and meaning via facial expressions, gestures, and body movements. "body language" is not the right term because we use such nonverbal cues to eliminate/expand on what we say w words

by Elkman; describes movements of the facial muscles that give rise to particular expressions. Tries to inject precision into an area open to inconsistent/contradictory interpretations. No one agrees on how emotions are to be identified/classified

-findings supported by Eibl-Eibesfeldt: who did experiments on deaf ; blind kids -FACS found some facial muscle actions in babies also in adults. Infants make same face of disgust as us. The facial expression of emotion seems innate, but individual and cultural factors influence what exact form facial movements take and the contexts in which they are deemed appropriate. How people smile may differ. -Darwin: said basic modes of emotional expression are the same in all humans. Elkman's research confirms this somewhat. New Guineans with no prior contact with other people could identify emotions- showing that facial expression of emotions and its interpretation are innate in human beings. -the same can't be said of bodily postures or gestures. Facial expression can be deceitful.

often inadvertently indicate that what we say isn't what we mean- acting surprised for too long might mean sarcasm. This is why we use emoticons and Webcams. Being able to see facial expressions matters for regulating conversations and taking facial cues.

interaction occurring among people present in a particular setting but not engaged in direct face-to-face communication. Takes place when you exhibit awareness of someone's presence. -can occur online when you log into chat and are not in direct contact with someone. Status updates means you can choose what people pick up from you in unconscious interaction

occurs when individuals directly attend to what others say/do. Interaction between individuals engaged in a common activity or in direct conversation with one another.

a meeting of two or more people in a situation of face-to-face interaction. Our daily lives can be seen as a series of different encounters strung out across the course of the day. In modern societies, many of these encounters are with strangers rather than people we know. An instance of focused interaction -small talk, seminar discussions, games, etc. -need "openings," or indications that civil inattention is being discarded. Eye contact. -expression and individual gives: the words and facial expressions he uses to produce certain impressions on others -expressions and individual gives off: cues that others may spot to check for sincerity/truthfulness

seemingly involuntary exclamations individuals make when they are taken by surprise, drop something inadvertently, or want to express pleasure. "oops!" Utterances that are not talk but consist of muttered exclamations. -Saying "oops" when you spill something isn't a reflex. It is directed towards other people as a way of saying you won't do something again or it wasn't intended. Used only in situations of minor failure. Sound may be used to cover the brief phase when a child feels loss of control to tell them everything is okay. -shows we take for granted the immensely complicated control of our actions

-Our activities are distributed in time and space, which is important for analyzing encounters and understanding social life in general. All interaction is situated in a place and time. People "zone" their time, like they spend zones doing certain things. -As you move through zones, you probably move through space, doing different things.

when and where events occur. People's movements across this r important

-the division of social life into different regional settings or zones. Helps us understand how social life is zoned in time-space. -house: has certain zones, like living room, bedroom, etc. We use different zones at different times of day and they are physically separated.

-time as measured by the clock, in terms of hours, mins, and secs. Before the invention of clocks, time reckoning was based on events in the natural world, such as the rising and setting of the sun. Many of our activities are influenced by this. -industrialized societies couldn't exist without the coordination of ***. World standard time helps us coordinate with ppl in other countries. -precisely organizing activities was first done by 14th century monasteries. It's necessary when you have lots of people involved. Ex: hospitals

-Internet rearranges this concept of space. We can interact with anyone in the world without moving from our chair. Shows how closely forms of social life are bound up with space and time. Communication across space no longer requires duration of time. -instantaneous comm has become basic to our social world.

the process by which we act to react to those around us. Microsociology. Developed a lot by Erving Goffman. -Two or more individuals purposefully relating to one another. -All interaction has three important components: 1. It involves an action on the part of two or more individuals. 2. It has a common goal that people hope to achieve. 3. It takes place in a social context. -The action, goal, and context help us interpret the social meaning.

-day-to-day routines have constant interactions with others and give form to what we do. Our lives are organized around the repetition of similar patterns of behavior -study of everyday life reveals to us how humans can act creatively to shape reality. Individuals are influenced by social structure, but they are capable of creative action. So they continuously shape reality through the decisions and actions they take. Reality is not fixed/static. It's created via human interaction -studying social interaction in everyday life sheds light on larger institutions. Big systems are dependent on our individual actions. Public life and bustling crowds are given that characteristic by individual people.

the physical space individuals maintain between themselves and others -Western culture: ppl maintain a distance of 3 feet when in focused interaction, and closer when side by side. -Middle east: people are closer to each other than the West.

-intimate: up to one and a half feet (lovers, parents, children) -personal distance: one and a half to four feet (normal for friends and acquaintances) -social distance: four to 12 feet. Formal settings and interviews. -public distance: beyond 12 feet. Performing to an audience -Ordinary interactions have intimate and personal distance. We actively try to maintain these.

the study of how people make sense of what others say and do in the course of day-to-day social interaction. It is concerned with the "ethnomethods" by which people sustain meaningful interaction w one another. Folk or lay methods that people use to make sense of what others do and say. We don't give attention to these methods.

-To understand how people use context to make sense of the world, sociologists need to "background expectancies" with which we organize ordinary conversations. -Experiment: required people to explain normal speech conventions. "Have a nice day." What do you mean by "nice?" people get upset when minor conventions of talk are not allowed. -This is because our social lives depend on sharing of unstated cultural assumptions about what is said and why. We take some things for granted because communication would be impossible without it.

-we can only make sense of what is said in a convo if we have the social context. A: I have a 14 yr old. B: That's ok. A: I also have a dog. B: Oh, I'm sorry. -If you knew this was a convo between a landlord and a prospective tenant, it changes the flavor of the conversation. If we don't know the social context, the responses of B bear no relation to A.

-Small talk is actually rly complicated and requires some shared knowledge brought into play by those speaking. It's so complicated that computers can't converse with people. -The words used in ordinary talk don't always have precise meanings, and we fix what we want to say through the unstated assumptions that back it up. -When someone asks you how your day went, you don't respond with what you did at each time. You answer the question based on what you and the person you're talking with find relevant. -Even though we communicate nonverbally, we do a lot of communication via talk. Language is fundamental to social life. -Convos are a way that our daily lives are maintained in a stable and coherent manner. Conventions of small talk keep us comfortable. We tune our conversations to adjust to other people's cues. Interactions are like cooperations.

the empirical study of conversations, employing techniques drawn from ethnomethodology. This examines details of naturally occurring conversation to reveal the organizational principles of talk and its role in production and reproduction of social order. Examines all facets of a conversation for meaning- from the smallest filler words to the precise timing of interchanges (pauses, interruptions, overlap)

-study: analyzed the conversations between pedestrians and street people in NYC to see why such interchanges are considered problematic using conversation analysis. -interactions between black men and women passing on the street. The men were nice but something "went wrong" so that the women barely responded. -Smooth "openings" and "closings" are important for conversation. Women resist the men's attempts for opening. If men did open, then they didn't respond to cues from women to close. -In one case, Mudrick made 9/14 utterances. Women delayed all responses and Mudrick replied immediately, comments sometimes overlapping hers. Timing in convos is important. We usually delay responses by a quarter of a second. Mudrick was technically being rude, and so was the woman. -Because these exchanges are technically "rude," they are hard for the passerby to handle, and when standard cues for conversation aren't followed, the passerby feels insecure

the deliberate subversion of the tacit rules of conversation. Describes cases like Mudrick's where a subordinate person breaks the tacit rules of everyday interaction. Leaves victims unable to articulate what has happened. -provides an example of the two-way links between micro-level interactions that operate on a macro level. The men think the women are cold and legitimate targets. The women think the men are dangerous. Leads to class, gender, and racial structures. The emotions generated in these small interactions generate outside statuses and forces that then go back to influence the interactions themselves. -these issues would be different on the Internet because timing and pauses are different. Less powerful people frequently undermine the taken for granted rules of interaction.

-a woman walking down the street is harassed by a group of men. This might seem micro, but also has a lot of macro. It's not that simple. These small actions can't be understood without looking at the larger background of gender hierarchy in the US. -harassment can be linked to male privilege in public spaces, women's physical vulnerability, and the omnipresent threat of rape

-described social interaction on the streets of two adjacent urban neighborhoods, noting that studying everyday life sheds light on how social order is created by the individual building blocks of infinite micro-level interactions. -interested in understanding interactions when at least one party was viewed as threatening. The ways many black and whites interact on the streets of a northern city in the US have a great deal to do with the structure of society. Reveals the link between micro interactions and larger macro structures of society -When people enter into interaction with others, they seek to acquire information about them or bring into play info already possessed. Info helps define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and they may expect of him -Skin color, gender, age, companions, movements, clothing, jewelry, and other objects help identify people, allowing assumptions to be formed and communication to occur. Time of day, or other factors that "explain" a person's presence can also affect the image of the person. -if people don't pass inspection and seem "safe," then they get avoided. Children pass the most easily, then white women/men, black women/men. Black male teenagers the least. -People are streetwise when they develop the "art of avoidance" and learn to deal with felt vulnerability toward violence/crime. Recognizing the difference between middle class black youths and gang members. Bypassing bad blocks, etc.

areas apart from front-region performance, as specified by Erving Goffman, in which individuals are able to relax and behave informally. You use this email when you don't want your boss seeing your personal stuff.

settings of social activity in which people seek to put on a definite "performance" for others

-don't want ur boss to see ur porn subscription so u sign up w personal email -you tell your friend you have a new bf and she replies and copies a ton of people into the email, but you didn't want anyone to know -employers finding pictures of undergraduate students drinking online and choosing not to hire them bc of it

-in modern societies, we interact with a number of people directly and indirectly on a daily basis. -rapid advances in technological comm like e-mail will increase tendency toward indirect interactions. We are becoming "devoiced" bc people are isolating themselves and interact with tech more than ppl -What is IM, email, etc., doing to us? -20% of internet users employ the medium to communicate with people they do not know -internet reduces face to face socializing, TV watching, and sleep -1/2 respondents in a study said the internet had replaced need for face-to-face comm. 1/3 said they used email to avoid direct comm. Sending abusive emails may have resulted in breakdown in certain office relations. Online comm can lead to abuse/miscommunication -survey: ppl under 25- email was fast replacing face to face contact. 44%: email is acceptable for thank us. 27% used ecards, 10% of woman used it for breaking up. 48% of young ppl get news from Facebook -some internet users say you can't use the internet to compensate for face-to-face comm. Human voice is better at expressing emotion and subtleties of meaning than words. Can convey information about social position, so sometimes it's better for people with social disadvantages to communicate via internet. -How far can internet substitute for face to face interaction? The internet is really revolutionizing comm, but we still value direct contact. We still have business meetings and family reunions.

people's need to interact with others in their presence. In person, people supply much richer information about how they think and feel/ -Only by being in the presence of people who make decision affecting us do we feel able to learn what's going on and impress them without own views and our sincerity.

-People assume that others will share their interpretation of a situation. -People interact using verbal and nonverbal communication. -Personal space is another example of nonverbal language. -The amount of personal space an individual needs to be comfortable varies by Gender, cultural setting, status, social context

1. establishing identity 2. maintaining poise 3. maintaining confidence

-Role expectations -Sense of personal discomfort derived from violation of expectations

-The World as a Stage -Dramaturgy (study of social life like a play or drama)

1. We create an impression for our audience through the play. 2. Individuals learn new lines to add to their scripts through socialization. 3. Individuals perform scripts for social audiences to maintain certain images, much like the actors in a play. 4. Individuals use props as visible symbols to create or reinforce their roles. 5. Individuals perform according to the society's script for the situation. As they do this, they take into consideration how their actions will influence others. They strive to create an impression that works to their advantage through impression management.

-Front-stage behavior is the scripted behavior that individuals act out for the public. -Back-stage behavior is behavior individuals would find unacceptable to act out in front of audiences.

-Relationships are formed (and persist) based on the rewards and costs of the interaction for the individual. --When the benefits of the interaction are high and costs are low, the interaction will be valued and sustained. --For exchange theorists, every interaction involves the following: -Calculations of self-interest -Expectation of reciprocity or a mutual exchange of favors -Decisions to act in ways that have current or eventual pay-off for the individuals

positions that individuals hold in the social world Social statuses define how individuals interact with others. A status set is the combination of statuses held by an individual. Power or deference associated with statuses also shape the interaction.

are statuses that are assigned at birth and do not change during an individual's lifetime. Exs: sex, race, gender

are statuses that are chosen or earned by the decisions one makes or by personal ability. Exs: juvenile delinquent, priest, fashion model

are statuses that are most important and take precedence over others. For many adults it is their occupation By virtue of a master status, may get other statuses Ex: Bank presidents become church elders; honorary degrees Other statuses can become master statuses Ex: Life-threatening illness such as AIDS, which has severe social limitations and thus can become a master status Ex: Homosexuality a lot of times will define the limitations and opportunities one has in society

Statuses (positions) and roles (behavioral obligations of the status) form the link with other people in the social world because they must be carried out in relationships with others. Statuses connect people and make them integral parts of meso- and macrolevel organizations.

is the tension between roles within one status.

is conflict between the roles of two or more statuses.