SOC final
What are two key dimensions/or approaches (as in American behaviorism and French structuralism) of exchange theorizing as we discussed in class? Identify each dimension/approach and explain the difference between the two perspectives (as in George Homan behavioristic exchange vs. Levi Strauss's structural exchange). Further why do we call a behavioristic perspective a micro-dimension of human exchange?
Exchange theory of George C. Homans - behavioristic perspective • Drawing upon Skinnerian behaviorism, Homans conceptualizes human behavior as exchange of rewards (and punishments) among interacting individuals • Critical and Levi-Strauss's exchange structural functionalism. Homans emphasizes face-to-face interaction by focusing on direct exchanges among individuals, which he calls elementary social behavior
Understand Thomas theorem "the definition of the situation"
• "If men define the situation as real, they are real in their consequences" • In other words, we act on the basis of the meanings we ascribe to the situations or stimuli that we confront. Thus, reality itself is created through the definition of the situation.
Understand and explain Blumer's statement that "it is the social process in group life that creates and upholds the rules, not the rules that create and uphold group life", and further explain the conceptual difference between symbolic interactionism and functionalism.
• "It is the social process in group life that creates and upholds the rules, not the rules that create and uphold group life." That joint actions, and the institutions they sustain, take on repetitive and stable forms is a function not of an organization's "inner dynamics" or "system requirements," but of the recurring use of schemes of interpretation and definition
Understand the general theme of Richard Emerson's exchange network theory in terms of "negotiated exchange" and "reciprocal exchange."
• All involved actors exchange in networks can take on two forms: o Negotiated exchange - negotiating and bargaining over the distribution of resources o Reciprocal exchange - providing sources (instead of negotiating) with the expectation that these rewards will be reciprocated.
Identify the four intellectual sources of exchange theorizing
• British utilitarianism • French Structuralism • American Behaviorism • General Conflict Theorizing
Hochschild's "Commodification of Feelings".
• When our natural capacity to engage in emotion work is sold for a wage and bought to serve the profit motive, our feelings become engineered to further corporate and organization interests. Thus emotion work becomes rationalized to better serve instrumental purposes • Women are more susceptible to the commodification of their emotive experiences
Understand Garfinkel's theory of ethnomethodology. What is the main theme of ethnomethodology?
-Ethnomethodology means folkways. According to Garfinkle, people interact with one another in a taken-for-granted world, but when they are forced to question the taken-for-granted nature of their conventionally assigned meanings, they become upset. They realize intuitively that if things are recognized as arbitrary, there is nowhere to stop. Everything can crumble if we refuse to accept the conventional interpretations. • Therefore, social reality is flimsy. Paradoxically its strength comes mainly from its flimsiness. These constructions remain in place because we do not question them.
What are the major similarity and difference between Goffman and Mead/Blumer in terms of their respective views on self?
-Mead has intellectual influence on Goffman in terms of the interconnectedness between the self & society: notion 1: "we see ourselves as an object, as others see us" notion 2: "the individual self is essentially a social construct that is rooted in our perceptions of how others will interpret & respond to our behavior
In phenomenology theorizing, understand Alfred Schultz's concept of "Stock of Knowledge at hand" and explain how our social reality is perceived to be flimsy from this perspective?
-Our world/reality is flimsy and taken-for-granted as people interact with each other based on "stock of knowledge at hand"
Understand Erving Goffman's dramaturgical approach of "the presentation of self in everyday life" and explain how "self" is presented in terms of interaction between "performer" and "audience" on "front stage" and "back stage". Use concrete real-life examples to illustrate your understanding.
-The presentation of self in everyday life - social life is built upon staging and performance • Front stage - an "institutionalized setting" where an actor takes on an established role and attempt to meet with "stereotyped expectation" from the audience (here the performer must be in character). In front of strangers • Back stage - in contrast to the front stage, the back region of performance normally unobserved by, and restricted from, members of the audience (here the performer can relax and step out of character). By yourself or with close friends
In what major areas can we find the convergence of poststructuralism with post-modernism in terms of their shared skepticism about and criticism against conventional theoretical paradigms of modernism?
• Critical of truth, knowledge and science. Being skeptical that scientific research findings simply represent the reality. Being critical that the language of science provides a direct window through which we can view reality • Critique of language, meaning, and signs. Being critical that structure of linguistics can be constraining force for human free spirit and that the meanings of signs become 1-D in interpretation
What are the main areas of poststructuralist critique of structuralism
• Critique of Truth, knowledge power, and identity
Ralph H. Turner's role-making theory
• Different from Park's theory, interaction, according to Turner, is not just role-playing, but rather a joint in reciprocal process of role-taking and role making. • People seek to continuously adjust responses and verify roles in accordance with newly emitted gestures and cues within the folk norm of consistency. Thus the process of role verification involves a constant effort of revising the identification of the other's role whenever inconsistent cues are emitted in interaction.
Understand Hochschild's sociology of emotions
• Draws from two theoretical traditions: 1 - "organismic model" (Darwin and Freud) in which biological factors are said to shape human emotions which are instinctual; 2 - the "interaction model" (mead, Blumer, and Goffman) that stresses the role of social processes in shaping emotions. • Emotions are not simply given and experienced, but they are created • Her theory is an extension on symbolic interactionist theory
Understand the concept of "distribution justice" in George Homan's exchange.
• Each party to the exchange must perceive that they are not paying too high a cost relative to the rewards they are gaining. • Individuals develop such sense of distributive justice through the history of their past experiences that determines his or her present expectations regarding rewards and costs.
Understand the concepts of "intrinsic reward" and "extrinsic reward" in Peter Blau's exchange theory.
• Extrinsic rewards o Associating with others serves as a means to a further end (a salesperson is nice because he wants to make a commission, not because he values the relationship he has with any particularly customer. • Intrinsic rewards o Those things we find pleasurable in and of themselves, not because they provide the means for obtaining other benefits (e.g. love, friendship, family, commitment)
Sheldon Stryker's theory of self and a hierarchy of identities.
• His theory is centered on specifying the reciprocal relationship between self and society (which is central theme in Mead's theory) • An identity is part of one's self. The number of identities a person possesses corresponds to the number of role relationships he/she participates in • Self is organized according to a hierarchy of identities, and in varying situations, the identity that had the more salience or importance for the individual influences his or her behavior • Identity salience often involves commitment e.g. "He is committed to being a member of that group"
Cooley's "looking-glass self"
• How you see yourself based on how others see you
Explain the meaning of the following statement in two different theoretical perspectives on individuals' exchange: "Structures are created by exchange are not so much economic as cultural in that they symbolize patterns of relations among actors." "It is the exchange which counts and not the things exchanged."
• Human cognitive categories reflect the structure of society • Structures are created by exchange are not so much economic as cultural in that they symbolized patterns of relations among actors. • "it is the exchange which counts and not the things exchange." Exchange must be viewed by its functions for integrating the larger social structure. • Culture can be viewed as systems of symbols that regulate actions and interactions.
Identify the major tenets of general symbolic interactionist theorizing
• Humans as symbol creators and users (language and communication) • Humans using symbols to communicate with one another • Humans interacting by taking the role of the other • With role-taking comes the ability to imaginatively rehearse (in the mind) the consequences of various alternative behaviors, to inhibit those that would be inappropriate, and finally to emit those that would facilitate cooperation. • Cooley's "looking glass self" and Thomas Theorem "Definition of situation"
Goffman's "impression management."
• Impression management refers to the verbal and nonverbal practices individuals employ in an attempt to present an acceptable image of his or her self to others. People always attempt to present their self in the way other want to see them
Understand the themes of Robert Park's role-playing theory
• Individuals are seen as playing roles associated with positions in larger social networks. Role is thus linked to structural positions in society • Individual's vocations are as well as the recognition by community define their positions in society • Role conflict and role strain derived from statuses associated with normative expectations that affect the individuals' role behavior.
Understand Goffman's interaction order in terms of "demeanor and deference"
• Rituals that structure social life • A person's demeanor (conduct, dress) and the deference (honor, dignity, respect) constitute and interaction rituals • The self is in part a ceremonial (ritual) thing, a sacred object which must be treated by proper ritual care and in turn must be presented in a proper light to others...as a means through which this self is established, the individual acts with proper demeanor which in contact with others and is treated by others with deference
what are the common themes of postructuralism?
• The fragmentation of meaning • The localization of politics • The decline of the idea of truth • The de-centering of the subject
Understand Ferdinand de Saussure's theory of Semiotics or Semiology in terms of "signifier" and "signified" regarding the study of meaning-making and sign-using behavior.
• The signifier is the pointing finger, the word, the sound-image. • The signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier. It need not be a "real object" but is some referent to which the signifier refers • The meaning of a sign needs both the signifier and the signified as created by an interpreter. A signifier without a signified is noise. A signified without a signifier is impossible.
