sociology

Social structure and social interaction are two processes that are used in defining sociology. Even though they are different in their natures they are very similar in how they work within the definition of sociology and how its shapes our society.
Social structure is defined as the “patterned of relationships between people that persists over time” (Pearson, 2010). The social structure of society is shaped by how people interact with each other but by also how interactions happen within any social setting that refers to a typical patten of groups. It overrides the way people perceive their personal feelings and the desires that they may have. The way that people act in public such as their workplace or in a public setting such as restaurant may vary if they are alone due to that it could become socially unacceptable for people to yell and scream in public if they were excited about a promotion or good news than if they were to receive that news while within their home environment. The components of social structure are spread equally over culture, social class, roles, groups and the institutions where people may work. The behaviours that are used within the different systems of society are learned behaviours that can depend on different factors such as changes in globalisation, local cultures and shifts in social classes.
Using social structure to help shape our society can be important because without it then people may not have interpersonal relationships with other people such as people they work with but possibly also they may not be able to maintain personal relationships with their friends and family members. The country that we lived in would struggle with globalisation with the economy becoming a major issue due to it would either grow or would stay at a stand -still without it. The economy responds to the growth of modernity of globalisation. As important as social structure is, at times it is not always important part of society because social structure is always changing at a rapid rate with society’s values and beliefs changing and new technology being introduced all the time.
The process of socialisation is used when describing social interaction. It is used when society is discussing the shaping of individual personalities, their characteristics and their social identity (Plummer, Sociology the basics, 2011). It could be said that the way society is as part of modernity process of individualism, society’s friends, families and the media could play a bigger part in shaping the way people see the society that they live in than the use of social structure.
Ulrich Beck introduced the term “individualism” as a way to describe the way in which the changes had occurred between families, community relationships and thinking had changed from post modernity pre industrial times to the more modern times of a modern era, whereas Goffman wanted to go deeper and to find out why social interactions were more co- operative and orderly (Germov & Poole , Doing public Sociology, 2011).