SocialConclusion

Interactions

Chapter 4
Social Interactions

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 What is Your Identity?

Who Am I?
• Your Physical Appearance
• Your DNA
Male • Your Ethnicity and Group
• Your Cultural Values

• Your Status and Role

• Your Personality
Female

• Your Personal Experience

• Your Personal Knowledge The Existential
• Your Personal Aspirations Self

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Social Interactions

Theory
• Understand how Status and Role determine our
identity
•Understand the concept of Dramaturgical Analysis as
a method we should act in society
•Understand important ideas in Non-Verbal
Communications
•Understand the idea of social space

Application
Personal Philosophy – How do we develop self using
status and role?
In Social Life – How do we interact better with others?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

What is Status?
A social position that a person holds. Everyday usage status is
equal with the term “prestige”. But for Sociology, status is part of
our social identity and helps define our relationship to others.

doctor receptionist chef hostess engineer manager policeman nurse

Occupation of a person is good example of status

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Status Set
Refers to all the statuses a person
holds at a given time.
 
A teenage girl may be a daughter to
her parents, a sister to her brother, a
student at her school,and a secretary
in her chess club
 
Over a lifetime, people gain and lose
dozens of statuses.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Ascribed and Achieved Status

An ascribed status is a social position a person receives at birth or
akes on involuntarily later in life. Examples of ascribed statuses include
eing a daughter, a Malaysian, a teenager, or a widower.

An achieved status refers to a social position a person takes on

oluntarily that reflects personal ability and effort. Achieved statuses in
he US include honors student, athlete, nurse, scientist and thief.

Master Status is status that has special importance for social identity,
often shaping a person’s entire life. For most people, a job is a master
tatus because it reveals a great deal about a person’s social background
education, and income.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Master Status
 
In a few cases, name is a master status; being in the
Bush or Kennedy family attracts attention and creates
opportunities.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Status and Role

Role

Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status. A person

holds a status and performs a role. Status of student - Role of attending
classes and completing assignments.
 
Role Set refers to number of roles attached to a single status.
 
A global perspective shows that the roles people use to define
their lives differ from society to society.

In low-income countries, people spend fewer years as students, and

family roles are often very important to social identity.

In high-income nations, people spend more years as students, and family

roles are typically less important to social identity.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Role of Women: Global Perspective

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Student Activism: In many parts of the

world, students are change agents

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Role conflict is conflict among the roles connected to two or

more statuses.
 
Example: people put off having children in order to stay on
the “fast track” for career success. [Lecturer or Friend]
 
Role strain refers to tension among the roles connected to
a single status. [Study or Join Clubs]

A college professor may enjoy being friendly with students.

At the same time, however, the professor must maintain the
personal distance to avoid jealousy

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Status and Role

Role Exit
 
Role exit, the process by which people disengage from
important social roles.
 
According to Ebaugh (1988), the process begins as people
come to doubt their ability to continue in a certain role. As
they imagine alternative roles, they ultimately reach a tipping
point when they decide to pursue a new life. Even as they
are moving on, however, a past role can continue to
influence their lives.
 
What is your example of Exit Role?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Dramaturgical Analysis

How should you act in the society?

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts

- William Shakespeare

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Dramaturgical Analysis

Dramaturgical Analysis

Erving Goffman coined the term dramaturgical analysis, the

study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance.
 
Dramaturgical analysis offers a fresh look at the concepts of
status and role. A status is like a part in a play, and a role
serves as a script, supplying dialogue and action for the
characters.
 
Goffman described each individual’s “performance” as the
presentation of self, a person’s efforts to create specific
impressions in the minds of others.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Dramaturgical Analysis

Performances

As we present ourselves in everyday situations, we reveal

Information to others both consciously and unconsciously.

Our performance includes

a.how we dress (in theatrical terms, our costume)
b.the objects we carry (props)
c.our tone of voice and gestures (our demeanor)
d. content of conversation based on our status and role

We vary our performance according to where we are (the set).

We may joke loudly in a restaurant, but lower our voice when
entering a church or a temple. People design settings, such as
homes or offices, to bring about desired reactions in others.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Non-Verbal Communications

Non-Verbal Communication
 
Communication using body movements, gestures, and facial expressions
rather than speech.
 
Facial expressions are the most important type of body language.
Smiling, for instance, shows pleasure, although we distinguish different
types of smile

Eye contact - generally, we use eye contact to invite social interaction.

Someone across the room “catches our eye,” inviting conversation.
Avoiding eyes is a sign of discouraging communication.

Hand gestures – convey meanings such as an insult, a request for a ride,

an invitation for someone to join us, or a demand that others stop in their
tracks.

[See Video for 3 Examples]

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Non-Verbal Communications

Body Language and Deception

 
Nonverbal communication offers clues to deception similar with a
lie detector
 
Detecting dishonest performances is difficult because no single
bodily gesture tells us for sure that someone is lying.
 
Few people can lie without some slip-up, raising the suspicions
of a careful observer. The key to detecting lies is to view the
whole performance with an eye for inconsistencies.

David Matsumoto et al (2011) - Liars produced significantly more

nonverbal behaviors that were inconsistent with the context or
the content of what was said than truth tellers.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Non-Verbal Communications

Performances: Gender Differences

Because women are socialized to respond to others,

they tend to be more sensitive than men to nonverbal
communication.

According to C Farris, women “read” men better than

men “read” women. Gender is also one of the key
elements in the presentation of self

Monika Gulabovska and Peter Leeson (2014)

The ability of women to be Better Decoders is linked
with emotional intelligence

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Non-Verbal Communications

Demeanor

Demeanor—the way we act and carry ourselves—is a clue

to social power.

1. Powerful people enjoy more freedom in how they act.

2. Powerful people can interrupt others; less powerful

people are expected to show respect through silence

3. Women is expected to be more polite and more careful

In their demeanor

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Non-Verbal Communications

Staring, Smiling, and Touching

In conversations, women hold eye contact more than men.

1. When men stare at women, they are claiming social

dominance and defining women as sexual objects.
2. Smiling can also be a sign of trying to please someone
or submission.
3. In a male-dominated world, women smile more than men

Finally, mutual touching suggests intimacy and caring.

Touching is generally something men do to women but there
is a cultural context to this.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Social Space

Use of Space

The more power you have, the more space you use. Men typically
command more space than women, whether pacing back and forth
before an audience or casually sitting on a bench.

Our culture measured femininity by how little space women

occupy, and masculinity by how much territory a man controls

Personal space refers to the surrounding area over which a person

makes some claim to privacy.

Men often intrude into women’s personal space. If a woman moves

into a man’s personal space, however, he is likely to take it as a sign
of sexual interest.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

Social Space

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

Social Interactions

Source Sorokawski et al 2017

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Social Interactions

Oxford University’s Robin Dunbar, “We were a bit surprised at how reluctant men were [to be touched]
compared to women.”  SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Can Touch

Finnish

French
Russian
Italian

British
Cannot Touch

Juulia T. Suvilehto et al (2015)

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Social Interactions

Video Clip
Gestures Across Culture

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

Social Interactions

THE END

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang