SOCIAL

INTERACTION

CHAPTER
5
After studying this chapter, you should
be able to do the following:
 Know the major types of social interaction.
 Understand the influence of contexts and norms
in social interaction.
 Understand the concepts of status and role.
 Know the difference between role strain and role
conflict.
 Know what Ethnomethodology is.
 Explain Dramaturgy’s view of social interaction
 SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social interaction is a central concept to

understanding the nature of social life.

 According to Weber in order to take

other’s actions into account requires
“verstehen” or sympathetic understanding.
 SOCIAL INTERACTION

 A main goal of sociology is to explain

social action (Anything people are
conscious of doing because of other
people).

 Social Interaction is two or more people

taking one another into account in building
up their actions
Three elements that define the
CONTEXT
of a social interaction
 NORMS
 What makes human beings act predictably
in certain situations?
 The presence of norms – rules about what
we should and should not do in a situation
All groups and subgroups have norms
 DEF - Norms are specific rules of
behavior, agreed upon and shared, that
prescribe limits of acceptable behavior.
 Often they are not written, over even
consciously reflected upon.
 ROLE PLAYING
 The statuses we inhabit and the roles we play
can have a profound influence on both our
attitudes and our behavior.

 Playing a new social role often feels awkward at

first, and we may feel we are just acting or
pretending to be something that we are not.

 When we are unsure of role expectations we try

to get cues (hints) from the behavior of those
around us.
 Two methods of social interaction,
nonverbal and spoken
nonverbal interaction
 Waving hand  Yawn
 OTHER EXAMPLES OF NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION
- SCOWL
- SHAKING A FIST
- NODDING HEAD UP AND DOWN
- CROSSING ARMS ACROSS CHEST
- RAISING EYEBROWS

- What do each of these mean???

4 TYPES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION
Exchange
DEF: When people do something for each
other with the express purpose of
receiving a reward or return, they are
involved in an exchange interaction.
Cooperation
 DEF: A cooperative interaction occurs
when people act together to promote
common interests or achieve shared goals
 TYPES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION
Conflict
Conflicts arise when people or groups have
incompatible values or when the rewards
or resources available to a society or its
members are limited.
Competition
 Competition is a form of conflict in which
individuals or groups confine their conflict
within agreed-upon rules.
 4 TYPES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION
Conflict always involves an attempt to gain
or use power.
Conflict is not always negative.

One Problem with conflict is that it:

 often leads to unhappiness and violence
which causes many people to view it
negatively
Elements of Social Interaction

Statuses

Roles Roles Sets Role Strains

 STATUS
Statuses - DEF - Socially defined positions
that people occupy
Master Status – DEF – The status that
dominates in the pattern of your life
Statuses can pertain to
 Religion
 Education
 Ethnicity
 Occupation
 Volunteer work, hobbies and other things
 ASCRIBED VS ACHIEVED STATUS

Ascribed statuses Achieved statuses

 DEF: Conferred upon  DEF: Occupied as a
us by our background result of the individual’s
our placement in them actions.
is not due to our
actions • Parent
 Sex • Occupation
 Ethnicity • Group Member
 Birth order • Education Level
 STATUS AND ROLES
 Each status may include a number of
roles, and each role will be appropriate to
a specific social context.

 DEF: Roles are the culturally defined

rules for proper behavior that are
associated with every status.

 Any one person may occupy numerous
statuses, each with multiple roles
(expectations of behavior) attached to
them
 STATUS AND ROLES
DEF - Role Sets
 All the roles attached to a single status are
known collectively as a role set .

 An individual’s role behaviors depend on the

statuses of the other people with whom he or
she is interacting.
 STATUS AND ROLES
For example:
 STATUS: SERVICE EMPLOYEE

 ROLES: (CUSTOMER) SERVICER

 WORKER (TO BOSS)
 TRAINER (TO NEW
 WORKER)
 ROLE STRAIN
DEF - Role Strain, When a single role has
conflicting demands, individuals who play
that role experience role strain

EX: FACTORY WORKER

- TURN OUT QUALITY PRODUCT
- KEEP THE PRODUCTION LINE
MOVING QUICKLY
 ROLE CONFLICT
 DEF: When someone has more than one
status at a time and who is unable to
enact the roles of one status without
violating those of another status
 EX: ELKS CLUB MEMBER AND
POLICEMAN
 Find out that the club has broken laws
and duty to the job (law) conflicts with
expectations of the club members (support
the good of group).
 DRAMATURGY - GOFFMAN
A Theatrical Metaphor for social interaction
 In order to create an impression, people play
roles, and their performance is judged by others
who are alert to any slips that might contradict
the role being asserted.
 These interactions are governed by planned
behavior designed to enable an individual to
present a particular image to others. In everyday
interaction this is to meet the expectations of the
role, not to fool or deceive others.
 DRAMATURGY
 THEATRE  REAL LIFE

 ACTORS  PERSONS
 PLAYING PARTS  PERFORMING ROLES
 ON A STAGE  IN SOCIAL SETTINGS
 BEFORE AN  BEFORE A GROUP OF
AUDIENCE OTHERS
 GOFFMAN
 Impression Management – This is the tendency
to put the “best foot forward” in social situations

 Front Stage – Is where presentations of self (or

teams) occurs

 Back Stage – I private areas for rehearsal of

public presentations

 Role Distance – Placing distance between one’s

self and ones self as part of a role
 GOFFMAN
 Civil Inattention – (studied nonobservance) –
acting as if you did not see something
 This smoothes out disturbances in public
places
 It deemphasizes the breading of the civil
code of behavior and allows normal interaction
to continue
 Primary goal of all participants is to interact
without damage to any person or the public as a
whole
 ETHNOMETHODOLOGY
Garfinkel
 DEF: The study of the sets of rules
(norms) used to initiate behavior, respond
to behavior, and modify behavior in social
settings. Social construction of reality.
 Method - observe social settings up close

 see how things are done

 understand how meaning is
 built up by the participants.
 ETHNOMETHODOLOGY
Ethnomethodologists believe:

 There are unwritten rules for social

behavior that are shared, but not always
consciously known to the participants
 If these are broken, communication is
impaired or impossible

 All social interactions are equally

important to understanding society
 Breeching – Disrupting the taken for granted
world
 Counseling – Provided random answers to
subjects questions

 Queing – Scatter a line at a counter through

a distraction and observe it reforming.

 BOTH SHOWED THAT PEOPLE NATURALLY

IMPOSE ORDER ON SITUATIONS