Crash Course: Social Interaction & Performance
What is a status inconsistency?
A mismatch or contradiction between statuses.
What is status?
A position that a person occupies in a society or social group. It's part of their identity, and it defines their relationships with other people.
What is impression management?
A process where people need to carefully control the information others receive about them. It's a matter of what Goffman referred to as props and nonverbal communication.
What is a status' role set?
All of the roles attached to a single status.
What is a persons status set?
All the statuses held by a single person. That status can tell us a lot about a person, because statuses exist in a hierarchy, with some statuses being more valued than others.
What are examples of social statuses?
Gender, race, and sexual orientation, being a father, or a child, or a citizen.
What is role conflict?
When the roles attached to different statuses create clashing demands.
What is a role strain?
When the roles within a single status create contradiction.
What is a role exit?
Whether it's because of conflict, strain, or other reasons, people just disengage from a certain role.
How does reality become socially constructed?
You, and everyone around you, uses assumptions and experiences to define what's real. By interacting with the people around you, and expecting certain behaviors in the context of roles, you actually create the social reality that shapes those interactions that you're having.
What is the dramaturgical analysis of social interaction?
An approach pioneered by Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman. It understands social interaction as if it were a play performed on stage for an audience. By Goffman's thinking, people literally perform roles for each other, and the point of social interaction is always -- at least partly -- to maintain a successful interaction that's in line with expectations.
What is a role?
If status is a social position, then they are the sets of privileges that go with that status. So a person holds a status, but they perform a role. They're guidelines, expectations that we have for ourselves and that others place on us. We may or may not internalize those expectations, but even if we do, our behavior still isn't completely controlled.
What is achieved status?
Status that is earned, accomplished, or obtained with at least some effort on the person's part.
Why do statuses come bundled with roles in the first place?
The answer is complicated, but part of it is that, well, reality itself is socially constructed. One good way of thinking about this is known as the Thomas Theorem, developed by early 20th century American sociologists William Thomas and Dorothy Thomas. It states, "If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." In other words, statuses and roles matter because we say they do.
What is frontal and back stage?
The most fundamental distinction, between what's part of the performance and what isn't -- in other words, what the audience sees, and what they don't. Frontstage is where the audience is and where the performance happens, while backstage is where the performer can drop the performance and prepare.
What is social interaction?
The process by which people act and react in relation to others.
What is social structure?
The relationships among people and groups. And this structure gives direction to, and sets limits on, our behavior.
What is a master status?
The status others are most likely to use to identify you.
What are sign vehicles?
Things we use to convey impressions to people we interact with. For example, props and nonverbal communication.
What are ascribed statuses?
Those in which a person has no choice; they're either assigned at birth or assigned involuntarily later in life.