Lecture 5 - Social Roles, Interaction and Deviance
SOCI 002 – LECTURE 5 REVIEW NOTES
SOCIAL ROLES, INTERACTION, AND DEVIANCE (Chapter 5* + 6)
SOCIAL INTERACTION:
Erving Goffman: dramaturgical approach: approaching sociological research as if everyday life were taking place on the stage of a theatre, with a FRONT STAGE (public) and BACK STAGE (personal/private). Also important to understand is impression management.
How do you manage your image publicly? (public vs. private, professional vs. with friends)
SOCIAL STATUS * Status: “…social position that an individual occupies. It contributes to the individual’s social identity by imposing responsibilities and expectations that establish the individual’s relationships to others” (p. 126). * Status can be achieved or ascribed. Sometimes these are blurry concepts. Q: Do you think sexual orientation is achieved or ascribed? Do you think people’s perception of sexual orientation of being ascribed or achieved can impact a homosexual person’s life? * Social Mobility- aspects of status that impacts one’s position in society. For example, your economic status, your race, your gender, your physical/mental ability… * Passing – This is the act of trying to pass as something else so that your social mobility is not impacted negatively. Your text explains this in terms of people from certain races “passing” as white. * In 1945 Everette C. Hughes introduced the concept of Master Status – This is the identity that is most dominant in determining your societal status (key: society determines this about you). * Howard Becker expanded further on Master Status by introducing labeling theory: dictates that the labels people are given in society can have a real impact on how they act to uphold the label.
STATUS HIERARCHY * Status consistency – when all things line up and you acquire the predictable position, and inconsistency is when you don’t – e.g. Michaëlle Jean (former Governor General) – middle class, divorced, from Haiti, female,
SOCIAL ROLES, INTERACTION, AND DEVIANCE (Chapter 5* + 6)
SOCIAL INTERACTION:
Erving Goffman: dramaturgical approach: approaching sociological research as if everyday life were taking place on the stage of a theatre, with a FRONT STAGE (public) and BACK STAGE (personal/private). Also important to understand is impression management.
How do you manage your image publicly? (public vs. private, professional vs. with friends)
SOCIAL STATUS * Status: “…social position that an individual occupies. It contributes to the individual’s social identity by imposing responsibilities and expectations that establish the individual’s relationships to others” (p. 126). * Status can be achieved or ascribed. Sometimes these are blurry concepts. Q: Do you think sexual orientation is achieved or ascribed? Do you think people’s perception of sexual orientation of being ascribed or achieved can impact a homosexual person’s life? * Social Mobility- aspects of status that impacts one’s position in society. For example, your economic status, your race, your gender, your physical/mental ability… * Passing – This is the act of trying to pass as something else so that your social mobility is not impacted negatively. Your text explains this in terms of people from certain races “passing” as white. * In 1945 Everette C. Hughes introduced the concept of Master Status – This is the identity that is most dominant in determining your societal status (key: society determines this about you). * Howard Becker expanded further on Master Status by introducing labeling theory: dictates that the labels people are given in society can have a real impact on how they act to uphold the label.
STATUS HIERARCHY * Status consistency – when all things line up and you acquire the predictable position, and inconsistency is when you don’t – e.g. Michaëlle Jean (former Governor General) – middle class, divorced, from Haiti, female,