• Structure

◦ Rules and resources that guid our behavior

◦ The constraints that an individual faces are informed by social status and social roles that
emerge through groups, networks, and institutions

• Agency

◦ Our ability to act given structural rules and constraints that guide our behavior

They connect to each other

(social Construction)

• Social Status

◦ position in a hierarchy of characteristics(gender, race, ect)

◦ the cumulative e ect of ones characteristics, which are each attributed di erent levels of value
by society, and together enhance or limit life chances

‣ Life chances

• the opportunities to provide yourselves with material goods and favorable life
experiences

• Occupying a high status in society improves your life chances, provides more
structural resources, and brings greater access to social rewards

◦ Achieved status

‣ the result of an individuals or groups e ort

◦ Ascribed status

‣ assigned to individuals and groups by society

◦ Social hierarchies

• Social Roles

◦ the set of expectations concerning the behavior and attitudes of people who occupy a
particular social status

◦ Role Con ict- inconsistency between two or more roles

What shapes our social structure

• Groups

◦ set the boundaries of norms and normativity

◦ provide a sense of identity, collective values, opportunities

• Networks

◦ series of social relationships with links to others

◦ can limit range of actions or make resources available

• Institutions

◦ enduring practices and rules that organize social life

◦ provide resources but also constrain action through rules

• Socialization

◦ Generalized other- the values and norms of the larger culture, that are used to guide your
actions

◦ Looking glass self- the way our perception of how others see us a ects our sense of self

◦ Agents of socialization- the individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions that in uence
your sense of self and help you learn the way of being a member of society

◦ Resocialization- the process of adopting new social norms and identities

Re exivity

• evaluating the resources we have at desposal

• evaluating ones position in the world

• evaluating rules we are expected to follow

• Macro sociology- focuses on large scale societal structures including groups and institutions as
well as social forces as norms

◦ structure of opportunity- the distribution of resources and opportunities across society that
shapes the choices individuals make

• Micro Sociology- focuses on individual identities and small scale interactions with others

◦ Symbolic interaction- studies human interaction by focusing on the words and gesture that
people use and the meaning they create about the world

Excuse me if Im not ready to unmask

Have smartphones destroyed a generation

in uencers dictate popular ways to act, dress, ect