Module 2

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Module 2

• Society, Culture, and
• Groups

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Society

• People who engage in social interaction in a
  defined territory and share a culture.

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Social Interaction

• The process by which people act and react in
  relation to others.

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Components of Societys Social Structure

• Statuses
• Roles
• Groups
• Institutions

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Statuses

• Social positions that individuals occupy in a
  group or society.

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Forms of Statuses

• Ascribed
• Achieved

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Types of Statuses

• Master Status
• Subordinate Status

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Status Set

• Consists of all the statuses a person holds at a
  given time.

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Status Inconsistency

• The condition in which the same individual is
  given different status rankings.

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Roles

• Behavior expected of someone who holds a
  particular status.

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Role Conflict

• Conflict among roles corresponding to two or more
  difficult statuses.

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Role Strain

• Incompatibility among roles corresponding to a
  single status.

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Assignments

• Assignment 2.1 The Various Hats We Wear
• Create a hat to wear to class that
  reflects/represents the various roles in which
  you are involved.
• Assignment 2.2 Status Inconsistency, Role
  Conflict, and Role Strain
• Give an example from your life of Status
  Inconsistency, Role Conflict, and Role Strain.

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Social Institutions

• The major spheres of social life, or societal
  subsystems, organized to meet human needs. They
  map and tell us what to do with our lives.
• Most Important Institutions
• Family
• Education
• Religion
• Politics
• Economy

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Groups

• Two or more people who identify and interact with
  one another.

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Social Aggregate vs.Social Category

• Social Aggregate
• A number of people who happen to be in one place
  but do not interact with each other.
• Social Category
• A number of people who have something in common
  but neither interact with one another nor gather
  in one place.

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Types of Groups

• Primary Groups
• Small social groups whose members share personal
  and enduring relationships.
• Secondary Groups
• Impersonal social groups devoted to some specific
  interest or activity.

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Types of Group Spacing

• Intimate Space
• Up to 18 inches
• Personal Space
• 18inches to 4 feet
• Social Space
• 4 feet to 12 feet
• Public Space
• Extends beyond 12 feet

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Ingroups vs. Outgroups

• Ingroup
• The group in which one belongs and commanding a
  members esteem and loyalty.

• Outgroup
• The group of which an individual is not a member
  and which one feels competition or oppression.

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Reference Group

• Social group that serves as a point of reference
  for people making evaluations or decisions.
• Normative Effect
• Comparison Effect
• Associate Effect

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Group Characteristics

• Leadership
• Idiosyncratic credit
• Groupthink
• Bystander Apathy

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Types of Leadership

• Expressive Leaders
• Emphasizes collective well being
• Instrumental Leaders
• Achieve goals by getting others to focus on the
  tasks.
• Laissez-faire Leaders
• Let others do their work more or less on their
  own.
• Authoritarian Leaders
• Takes personal charge of decision making with
  strict compliance from subordinates.

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Idiosyncratic Credit

• Leaders of groups are given the privilege to
  deviate from the groups norms.

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Groupthink

• A tendency to maintain consensus and ignore the
  truth.
• The tendency of group members to conform by
  adopting a narrow view of some issue.

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Bystander Apathy

• The reluctance of people to get involved in an
  apparent emergency affecting a stranger in
  public.
• Central Factors
• Many emergencies appear ambiguous and the fear
  exists that a true emergency may not be
  occurring.
• The size of the group present

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When Groups Get Larger

• Less interactive
• Number of relationships increase
• More subgroups develop
• Loss of territorial dominance
• Members become less satisfied
• Members participate less
• Less cooperation more social loafing

• Relationships become more complex
• More durable
• Less likely to break up
• Coalitions develop
• Members become less satisfied
• Less personal and intimate
• Interpersonal relationships weaken
• More misbehaving

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Dynamics of Group Diversity

• Ethnicity, gender and other factors contribute to
  group diversity
• Diversity leads to more ways to solve and avoid
  group problems
• Promotes a more effective way in achieving group
  goals

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Social Networks

• A web of weak social ties.

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Formal Organizations

• Large, secondary groups that are organized to
  achieve goals efficiently.

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Types of Formal Organizations

• Utilitarian organization
• Coercive organization
• Normative organization

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Bureaucracy

• An organizational model rationally designed to
  perform tasks efficiently.

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Webers Characteristics of an Ideal Bureaucracy

• Specialization
• Hierarchy of offices
• Rules and regulations
• Technical competence
• Impersonality
• Formal, written communications

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Culture

• Beliefs, values, behavior and material objects
  that, together, form a peoples way of life.

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Culture Shock

• Occurs when an individual suffers personal
  disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar
  way of life.

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Components of Culture

• Nonmaterial culture
• Material culture
• Symbols
• Knowledge
• Language
• Beliefs and Values
• Norms

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Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture

• Nonmaterial Culture
• Intangible creations of human society

• Material Culture
• Tangible products of human society

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Symbols

• Anything that carries a particular meaning
  recognized by people who share the culture.
• The meaning of the same symbols vary from society
  to society, within a single society, and over
  time.

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Knowledge

• Ideas and facts about the physical and social
  world which make up science.

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Language

• A system of symbols that allows people to
  communicate with one another.

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Sapir Whorf Thesis

• People perceive the world through the cultural
  lens of language.

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Beliefs

• Specific statements people hold to be true.
• Subjective, unreliable, or unverifiable ideas.

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Values

• Culturally defined standards by which people
  judge desirability goodness and beauty, and
  which serve as broad guidelines for social
  living.
• Characteristics of Values
• Belief in values promote conformity to norms
• We learn values from our parents
• Values contain a moral element
• Sanctions are imposed on violators

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Norms

• Rules and expectations by which a society guides
  the behavior of its members.

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Forms of Norms

• Proscriptive
• Prescriptive

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Types of Norms

• Folkways
• Mores

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Sanctions

• Rewards for conforming to norms or punishments
  for violating them.

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Social Control

• Various means by which members of a society
  encourage conformity to norms.

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Internalization of Norms

• The unconscious process of making conformity to
  cultural norms a part of ones personality.

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Assignment 2.3
You are to violate 4 norms (folkways or weak
mores, not laws). Write a summary explaining
each norm (2pts), how you violated it (2pts) and
the social sanctions you received from those
around you (2pts) and if the norm was
proscriptive or prescriptive. Have fun with this
assignment and be creative. Points will be
awarded for thought and creativity (2pts).
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Williams Basic U.S. Values

• Equal Opportunity
• Achievement and success
• Efficiency and practicality
• Material comfort
• Freedom

• Science and rationality
• Progress
• Democracy and free enterprise
• Hardwork and activity
• Racism and group superiority

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Other Significant U.S. Values

• Self reliance
• Sociability
• Humanitarianism
• Conformity
• Nationalism and patriotism
• Individualism

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Cultural Integration

• The joining of various values into a coherent
  whole.

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Cultural Change

• Invention
• Discovery
• Diffusion

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Subcultures

• Cultural patterns that distinguish some segment
  of societys population.
• Subcultures involve, not only difference, but
  hierarchy.

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Appalachia

• 401 Counties
• 13 States
• Extending over 1,000 miles
• 23 million people

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Ergoods Cultural Characteristics of Central
Appalachian People

• Independence
• Religious fundamentalism
• Strong family ties
• Life in harmony with nature
• Fatalism
• Traditionalism

• Honor
• Fearlessness
• Allegiance
• Suspicion of government
• Born traders

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Multiculturalism

• The state in which all subcultures are equal to
  one another in the same society.
• Eurocentrism
• The view of the world from the standpoint of
  European culture.
• Afrocentrism
• The view of the world from the standpoint of
  African culture.

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Popular Culture

• A cultural pattern that is widespread among a
  societys population.

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Assignment 2.4
Identify 5 examples of popular culture of the
year which you were born. Bring them (or their
representation) to class and prepare a very brief
type written explanation of each. Creativity and
research technique will be evaluated
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Variations in Cultures

• Ideal Culture
• Real Culture
• Counterculture

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Culture Lag

• The fact that cultural elements change at
  different rates, which may disrupt a cultural
  system.

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Global Analysis of Culture

• Cultural universals
• Sociobiology
• Globalization
• Ethnocentrism
• Cultural relativism

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Cultural Universals

• Traits that are found in every known culture.
• They appear in both material and nonmaterial
  cultures.
• There are more than 60 identified cultural
  universals.

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Cultural Universals

• Games
• Gift giving
• Incest taboos
• Laws
• Medicine
• Myths
• Numerals
• Personal names
• Property rights
• Religion
• Sexual restrictions
• Toilet training
• Tool-making
• Weather making efforts

• Technology
• Art
• Music
• Language
• Athletic sports
• Bodily adornment
• Cooking
• Cooperative labor
• Courtship
• Dancing
• Dream interpretation
• Family feasting
• Folklore
• Food taboos
• Funeralization

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Assignment 2.5
Using your internet research skills, find two
cultural universals not provided in
class Include along with your cultural
universals the website address where the
universal was found.
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Sociobiology

• Believes that all human social behavior is
  genetically determined.

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Worldwide Civilizations

• Western
• Confucian
• Japanese
• Islamic
• Hindu
• Slavic-orthodox
• Latin America
• African

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Ethnocentrism vs.Cultural Relativism

• Cultural Relativism
• The practice of judging another culture by its
  own standards.
• Can bring an understanding to why people do the
  things they do.

• Ethnocentrism
• The practice of judging another culture by the
  standards of ones own culture.

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Assignment 2.6
Write a 1-2 page reaction/opinion paper on your
position of whether female circumcision should
apply under the sociological concept of cultural
relativism.