Everyday Social Interaction Chapter 6

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Everyday Social InteractionChapter 6
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Key Terms

• Social Structure the integration of statuses,
  roles, groups, and institutions into a complex
  web of social relationships.
• Group a collection of people who share
  expectations about each other.
• Primary group small, informal, intimate,
  emotional, meaningful, lasting. Example family
  and friends.
• Secondary group formal, task oriented, members
  may be anonymous. Examples a job hiring
  committee or a large scale bureaucracy.
• Institution a collection of groups, statuses,
  and roles established to address an important
  societal need, such as reproduction of members,
  or providing food and housing, or defense of
  borders, etc.

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Key Terms

• Status a social identity such as student,
  athlete, teacher, mother, boyfriend, etc.
• Status set all the statuses an individual holds
  at one time.
• Ascribed status a social identity that a person
  has no control over.
• Achieved status a social identity that a person
  is able to have some control over.
• Master status a particular status of most
  importance to an individual.
• Status inconsistency possessing multiple
  statuses, some of which are not compatible or
  which do not seem to go together, such as a
  wealthy person who works at McDonalds.

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Key Terms

• Role a behavioral expectation of a particular
  status.
• Role set all of the roles expected of a
  particular status.
• Role expectation the ideal behaviors expected
  of a particular status.
• Role performance how well an individuals
  behavior conforms to role expectations. We tend
  to feel pride with a good role performance.
• Role conflict when two or more statuses are
  incompatible with each other. Example when a
  wage-earning parent is expected to care for their
  sick children at the expense of coming in to work
  it produces a role conflict.
• Role strain when a single status as different
  role expectations, some of which are incompatible
  with each other. Example when a coach must train
  an athlete yet they must also bench them it
  produces a role strain.
• Role exit the process of disengaging from a
  status and the roles it implies, such as brought
  by divorce or by graduation from college.

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The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

• The Interactionist perspective focuses on
  everyday social interaction at the micro level.
• Humans rely upon symbols, especially language, to
  make sense of the world. Through symbols we learn
  to interpret events, people, and things.
• We respond to people according to how we have
  learned to interpret them.
• Orderly social interaction is possible only when
  we learn appropriate (socially negotiated and
  approved) interpretations.
• Everyday life has a taken-for-granted quality to
  it. Our everyday interpretations become
  habitualized.

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Interactionism

• We do not respond to people directly, but rather
  on the basis of the meanings we interpret from
  their actions.
• We are able to interpret the behavior of others
  because we have all learned common symbols and
  common interpretations. We share meanings in
  common.
• Given these common meanings, we are able to take
  the view of others, or see the world from their
  perspective.
• For example, the clothing we wear communicates a
  message to others about who we are. Most people
  can basically tell if one is intending to be
  sexy or be casual or be colorful or be
  authoritative based on the way we dress. We use
  various symbols to create and affirm our social
  identities.

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Unspoken rules

• Much of everyday life is guided by unspoken rules
  or norms - of social interaction.
• For example, we learn to show civil inattention
  to strangers in public.
• We avoid eye contact and politely ignore others
  when they are in near proximity, such as when we
  walk by others on the sidewalk or stand in an
  elevator.
• We learn these norms during socialization and
  they form the backdrop to everyday social
  interaction.

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Rituals

• Informal rituals are informal customary practices
  and procedures that are part of everyday life
  interaction. Everyday informal rituals reveal
  everyday taken-for-granted meanings. They are
  part of the unspoken rules of everyday life.
• Example the door opening ritual or ceremony
• The everyday practice of holding a door open for
  another person affirms politeness.
• Yet men hold the door for women rather than the
  other way around. Why?

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The Door Opening Ritual

• When men hold the door open for women it also
  affirms chivalry a polite relationship between
  men and women in which the knight gallantly
  takes charge of the door to usher or protect
  the lady (the weaker sex) through the door.
• This everyday ritual subtly affirms patriarchal
  masculinity and femininity.

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The Door Opening Ritual

• However, we do not all share the same exact
  interpretations of human behavior.
• The act of opening a door for another may be
  interpreted differently by different people using
  different perceptual filters.
• While a traditional-values woman might feel
  complimented by a man holding a door open for
  her, a radical feminist woman might feel insulted
  because she objects to patriarchy and the
  everyday norms that affirm it.

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Everyday informal rituals affirm patriarchy

• There are many everyday informal rituals that
  symbolically affirm patriarchy
• Men are socialized to be the driver of the car
  while women are the passengers.
• Men are expected to initiate a date more than
  women, who are not expected to be too pushy.
• Conclusion social interaction at the everyday
  (micro) level is related to the macro structure
  of society.
• If the macro structure is patriarchal then the
  micro behaviors will often symbolically affirm
  the gender pecking order that favors males over
  females.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• Dramaturgy is an Interactionist model proposed by
  Erving Goffman in his book, The Presentation of
  Self in Everyday Life (1959).
• The stage metaphor dramaturgy analyzes everyday
  social life as though the participants were
  actors on a stage.
• Impression management the self we present to
  others differs across different situations
  various front stages - and it is presented in
  such a way as to generate a favorable impression.
• As actors, we seek favorable reviews by the
  audience, so we adjust our role performances to
  try to meet audience expectations.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• We sometimes play the role of actor, and
  sometimes we are the audience. Each of us is
  called upon to perform various roles, and we also
  form the audience for the role performances of
  others.
• As actors, we seek to generate favorable
  impressions, so we often design our role
  performances using props, costumes, and other
  theatrical devices to enhance the believability
  of our performance.
• A teachers prop might be a podium, while a
  students prop might be a notebook.
• A teacher may tailor their costume maybe by a
  male teacher wearing a leather patch with a tweed
  jacket - to enhance their role performance. He
  may even grow a professorial beard to enhance his
  authority.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• The elements of impression management include
• Performances (role performances)
• Costumes (clothing)
• Props and make-up (objects used to enhance the
  performance)
• Gestures (our mannerisms)
• The Setting (we also craft the setting for our
  performance a teachers office is not supposed
  to look like a bedroom)
• Front stage versus back stage (performing vs.
  rehearsing)
• Scripts (proper dialogue attached to the
  performance)
• Improvisation (unscripted performances)

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• Front stage versus Back stage
• Front stage is wherever a role performance is
  occurring before an audience.
• Back stage is wherever we are NOT role
  performing. Back stage is where we go after a
  performance. We use back stage to rehearse, to
  relax, to review a performance, or to be alone.
• Scripts. Role performances are largely scripted.
  During socialization we learn the script for how
  to act like a mommy or a daddy, a teacher or a
  student, etc.
• Improvisation. Sometimes we forget our lines or
  for some reason we are forced to improvise.
  Improvisation is spontaneous performance that is
  off the script, and it requires wit. Some actors
  are better at it than others.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• What criteria does the audience use to evaluate
  the actors performance?

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Evaluation Criteria

• 1. Whether the role performance matches role
  expectations.
• 2. Role sincerity. We must believe that the actor
  is sincere about their performance.
• A performance includes impressions that are
  intentionally given, but they also include
  impressions that are unintentionally given off
  perhaps because the actor is nervous,
  twitching, sweating, avoiding eye contact, etc.
• The audience scrutinizes the actors performance.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• Generally, the audience is expected to applaud
  and support the actor even if their performance
  is not great.
• For example, if an actor commits a faux pas (loss
  of face) by forgetting his lines, the audience is
  expect to show tact they audience engages in
  face saving actions. They may politely ignore
  faux pas or even help them out.
• Rarely does the audience openly criticize a role
  performance. After all, we can all empathize with
  the actor because we too are actors.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• Actors may team up and form acting troupes.
• When a couple get close they typically form an
  acting troupe when they are entertaining guests
  for dinner.
• They rehearse and evaluate each others
  performances, help each other with their costumes
  and props, engage in teamwork, etc.
• The mating ritual involves eventually taking off
  ones acting masks (and make-up) and inviting
  their partner back stage, where both partners
  feel freer to be whoever they really are. This is
  what intimacy is about.

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Conditions of Scrutinization

• Sometimes we find ourselves in special conditions
  of scrutinization.
• A job interview.
• A first date.
• Meeting future in-laws.
• Under these situations we are keenly aware of the
  need for favorable impression management.

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Dramaturgy Erving Goffman

• Summary the self is situational we present the
  right self according to the norms of specific
  social situations.
• Goffmans model assumes that humans are approval
  seekers. We wish to be applauded, so we present
  the best face we can. Appearance matters.
• The ultimate display of social morality is
  protecting the image of others. We show tact and
  use discretion.
• Humans, as actors, follow norms/scripts, but do
  not necessarily believe in all of these scripts.
• To Goffman, society is a stage on which the
  actors, with premeditation, manipulate and
  withhold information about themselves to some
  extent to secure a favorable impression.

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Institutionalized Impression Management

• Impression management may also be
  institutionalized. In our modern society, some
  institutions may require that we engage in
  impression management.
• Food service corporations require scripted
  impression management.
• Roy Rogers requires its food service workers to
  smile, wear uniforms and say howdy partner to
  incoming patrons whether they are sincere about
  it or not.
• Most modern jobs require that we manage our
  feelings and presentation of self. This
  emotional work takes a psychological toll,
  particularly when workers do not believe in the
  role performance that has been scripted for them.
  
• For more, read The Managed Heart by Artie
  Russell Hochschild (1983).

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Ethnomethodology

• This is a branch of Interactionism that studies
  how people construct and share their definitions
  of reality in everyday interaction.
• Exposing the rules
• One of their basic techniques is to break the
  unspoken rules of interaction to violate
  folkways in order to map the boundaries of
  the folkway.
• Examples
• At what point is eye contact with a stranger
  inappropriate?
• How much bargaining is permitted at a
  supermarket?
• What is the appropriate body space between two
  men talking to each other?

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Ethnomethodology

• The reactions of subjects reveals understandings
  of social reality and the unspoken rules that
  guide everyday social interaction.
• The typical reaction to the violation of an
  unspoken rule (a folkway) is anger, anxiety,
  confusion, or even aggression.

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Social Psychology

• This discipline examines how personality and
  behavior are influenced by the social context.
• The Bystander Effect
• Sometimes called bystander apathy, this refers
  to the reluctance of people to get involved in
  the apparent emergency of a stranger.
• Two factors are critical
• 1. Appearance of ambiguity in emergencies.
• 2. Individuals look for cues from other
  bystanders to help define the situation.
• If others appear unconcerned then the individual
  is not likely to define the situation as an
  emergency.

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The Bystander Effect

• People are hesitant to over-react and make the
  wrong interpretation.
• Only when somebody acts do others follow.
• The larger the crowd, the less likely the
  individual will act.
• Conclusion interpretations of events are derived
  from cues given off by other people.

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Human Aggression

• Humans are aggressive as a species, but its
  expression and interpretation are social
  constructions.
• We learn about aggression from our parents, from
  history, from television and the movies, and from
  a variety of sources.
• In the U.S. the average child will witness more
  than 10,000 acts of violence in the media by the
  time they reach adolescence.
• Aggression is generally not an individual
  phenomenon it is a social phenomenon. It is
  dependent upon the social context.
• Generally, the more intimate the social
  relationship, the more likely there will be
  aggression or violence in the interaction.
• Individual excuses for aggression appear more
  legitimate when ratified by a group or by an
  authority figure.

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Hurting Others

• In 1962, Social Psychologist Stanley Milgram
  performed one of the most famous social
  psychological experiments in history.
• Milgram was interested in human aggression
  specifically what made ordinary people in Germany
  commit such horrible crimes as mass murder during
  World War II.
• Interviews with the perpetrators revealed that
  they justified their actions by saying they were
  being obedient to authority I was only
  following orders.

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Stanley Milgrams Obedience to Authority Studies

• To examine this, Stanley Milgram set up an
  experiment in which subjects were told that they
  would be participating in a learning study
  involving negative conditioning.
• They were to issue shocks to a learner on the
  other side of a partition whenever the learner
  failed a word-pair recall they were supposed to
  memorize.
• In front of the subject was an electrical switch
  box with switches ranging from 15 to 450 volts.
  For each wrong answer by the learner, they were
  to increase the voltage.
• In the room with the subject was a the official
  experimenter, who continually told the subject
  that the experiment must continue.

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Stanley Milgrams Obedience to Authority Studies

• Milgram wondered how far the subjects would go
  before they refused to participate in the
  experiment.
• He performed many variations of the experiment.
• He found that, on average, between 60-65 of the
  subjects administered the maximum of 450 volts,
  where the switch was labeled XXX Danger Severe
  Shock.
• Before reaching the maximum, the subject heard
  screams of pain from the learner. They also heard
  the learner scream out that they had a heart
  condition.
• Only about 1/4th or less of the subjects refused
  to participate further after hearing protests by
  the learner.

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Conclusion

• Ordinary people are capable of doing great harm
  to others under the right social circumstances.
• In this case, the presence of an authority figure
  urging them on was crucial to their willingness
  to increase the harm they were doing.
• I was only following orders was the refrain
  heard during the Nuremberg trials after World War
  II, and this was the refrain heard when subjects
  were asked why they administered such severe
  shocks.
• People defer responsibility to authority figures.
  They allow experts to define the situation,
  even despite obvious cues to the contrary. By
  being obedient to authority, this allows people
  to disclaim personal responsibility for wrong
  behavior.

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Conclusion, continued

• Milgram's findings suggest that personal morality
  is vulnerable to social pressure.
• Under certain social situations, the influence of
  others can override strongly held personal
  convictions.
• Obedience to legitimate authority took precedence
  over the desire to avoid doing harm to others.
  (See Wortman, Camille, Elizabeth Loftus and
  Charles Weaver. Psychology. 5th ed. Boston The
  McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.)
• This is a Link to a Google video on the Milgram
  obedience experiment, as REVISITED recently by
  ABC News. Think about what explains their gender
  findings. (30min)

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Nonverbal Communication

• Two key forms of nonverbal communication
• 1. Body language
• 2. Use of physical space between people

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Body Language

• The behavior of our faces and bodies gives off
  information which may be consciously or
  unconsciously picked up by others.
• To some, it is like a feeling that we get about
  another person.
• Lie Detectors
• Designed to pick up changes in pulse, blood
  pressure, breathing, sweating, etc as a result of
  lying.
• Lie detectors work on the idea that
  well-socialized people should feel guilt when
  they lie. The emotion of guilt produces stress,
  which is a heightened physiological response that
  can be measured.
• However, lie detectors are not reliable. Why?
• Pathological liars or sociopaths can lie without
  stress.
• Some nervous people appear to be liars.
• The machine operator may have a vested interest
  in detecting lies.

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Facial Expressions

• The facial expressions that convey our basic
  emotions are culturally universal.
• They appear to be a species reflex recognized by
  humans everywhere.
• Example raised eyebrows when people meet each
  other.

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Gestures

• Unlike basic facial expressions, gestures are not
  universal. They are culturally relative and vary
  across different cultures.
• Example The V sign for victory used by
  President Richard Nixon is an insult sign in some
  cultures. Nixon learned this the hard way on one
  of his trips overseas.
• Gestures that Americans should learn before going
  to Iraq
• 1. Men greet each other with hugs, and you are
  never to withdraw from an attempted hug.
• 2. Iraqis forbid pointing your finger at someone.
  It is a sign of contempt.
• 3. Iraqis forbid using the OK gesture with the
  thumb pointed up. It is an obscene gesture in
  Iraq.
• 4. Iraqis forbid using the left hand for gestures
  or shaking hands. The left hand is unclean.

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Pupil Dilation

• An uncontrolled reflex that communicates
  spontaneous excitement.
• Examples
• It communicates sexual interest in another person
  that one has just seen and found attractive.
• It communicates a good poker hand.
• Poker players learn to wear a poker face, with
  eyes kept down or with a hat or glasses covering
  the eyes.

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Physical Proximity

• Attached to our sense of self is a sense of
  physical space around the self. This physical
  space is called personal space, or body space.
• The violation of personal space is associated
  with stress and higher levels of aggression.
• Subways, elevators, waiting rooms where the
  chairs are too close, bathroom urinals, and other
  places of congestion can be stressful for this
  reason.
• Personal distance between people reflects the
  degree of closeness or identification with that
  person. The closer, the more intimate.

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Personal space

• Personal space varies by culture.
• Americans require a relatively large space -
  about 2 to 3 feet between two strangers or
  acquaintances talking to each other.
• If it is two close friends or relatives, then the
  distance can be shorter.
• The Iraqis prefer close proximity, and it is
  considered rude to back away from a person.
• The exception is Iraqi women. It is important to
  keep your distance from an Iraqi (Muslim) woman.
• Because of these cultural differences, Americans
  can appear to be stand-offish to the Iraqis, and
  Iraqis can appear to stand offensively close to
  the Americans.

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Personal space

• Personal space also varies by gender. Men use
  more personal space than women in patriarchal
  societies. It is a privilege of power.
• It is much more likely that a man will violate
  the personal space of a woman than the other way
  around.
• The violation of anothers personal space is
  often a behavior intended to establish dominance
  by the invader (who may be a powerful person due
  to their authority, sex, size, or other factor).
• The invasion of personal space tends to incite a
  reaction like withdrawal or glaring by the
  victim, and may even result in aggression
  (especially if it involves males).
• Men tend to be more aggressive than women if
  their body space is violated.

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Personal space

• Research into personal space has implications for
  industrial psychology and architectural design.
• It is important to pay attention to the degree of
  personal space allowed workers.
• If space is regularly violated it increases
  stress levels and affects worker productivity.

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Edward Halls 4 Zones of Physical Space

• Hall researched American body zones and found 4
  physical zones recognized by Americans
• 1. Intimate zone. 0-18 inches on average. This is
  the zone used between intimates.
• 2. Personal zone. 18inches 4 feet. This is the
  zone used between friends in ordinary
  interaction.
• 3. Social zone. 4 feet 12 feet. This is the
  zone used for formal situations.
• 4. Public zone. 12 feet or more. This is the zone
  used to maintain social distance.
• One of the latent functions of certain props like
  podiums is to create a public zone of distance
  between the speaker and the audience.

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The Social Construction of Reality

• This is the process by which people creatively
  shape subjective reality through social
  interaction.
• The sociology of knowledge examines how people
  come to see the world through social interaction
  processes.
• People negotiate common understandings about the
  nature of reality and what is True and what is
  False.
• W.I Thomas theorum if people define situations
  as real, they become real in their consequences.
• Examining different religions provides a glimpse
  of how different cultures make sense of spiritual
  reality. These are socially negotiated
  understandings.
• The key insight is that knowledge and beliefs are
  influenced by the social location of those who
  produce these beliefs.
• What is real in one culture may not be real in
  another, or may not be real later on.

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The Social Construction of Reality

• Example the Earth and the Universe.
• For 1500 years the Church taught people that the
  Earth was at the center of the universe.
• This socially-negotiated understanding was
  accepted as Truth until Galileo learned otherwise
  with a telescope. The Church, however, did not
  want to appear fallible, so it forced Galileo to
  recant his findings. Eventually science won out,
  but scientific understandings are not fixed
  either. We are still theorizing about the nature
  of time and space. There are no absolute answers
  because subjective reality is socially
  constructed and it is subject to social change.
• What is taken for Truth today may not be taken
  for Truth tomorrow.

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Gender and Everyday Social Interaction

• 1. Demeanor.
• Men are more direct, aggressive, and interrupting
  toward women than the other way around.
• 2. Use of space.
• Men claim more body space than women and
  interrupt womens body space more than women do
  men.
• 3. Body use.
• Men stare at women, smile less, and touch more.
• The level of power between two people influences
  demeanor, use of space, and body use. Patriarchy
  gives men more social power than women. As our
  society adopts feminism (gender equality) it is
  likely that these male dominance behaviors toward
  women will decline.

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Deborah Tannen and Gender Communication

• Deborah Tannen conducted linguistic studies on
  gender and communication and found major
  differences.
• Troubles Talk is Tannens term for how women
  like to talk about the days problems at length
  in order to build intimacy in a relationship.
• She may be less interested in solving the
  problems than in talking about them as a means to
  connect with her husband.
• Men, on the other hand, tend to interrupt women
  during troubles talk to offer solutions,
  frustrating the woman.
• Men are generally uncomfortable with using the
  conversation to build intimacy.
• Men are socialized to be problem solvers, while
  women are socialized toward intimacy skills. This
  can be lead to misunderstandings during
  communication.

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End of Chapter 6