Sociology 205- Chapter 5

Encounter

A meeting between two or more people in a situation of face-to-face interaction. Encounters are strung out across the course of the day.

Conversation analysis

A methodology that examines all facets of a conversation for meaning- from the smallest filler words (such as um and ah) to the precise timing of interchanges (including pauses, interruptions, and overlap)

Compulsion of Proximity

People's need to interact with others in their presence

Impression Management

Preparing for the presentation of one's social role

Response Cries

Seemingly involuntary exclamations individuals make when, for example, they are taken by surprise, drop something inadvertently, or want to express pleasure.

Ethnomethodology

The study of the "ethnomethods"- folk or lay methods- that people use to make sense of what others do and particularly of what they say.

Interactional Vandalism

The deliberate subversion of the tacit rules of conversation.

Regionalization

The division of social life into different regional settings or zones.

Roles

The expected behaviors of people occupying particular social positions. The idea of social role originally comes from the theater, referring to the parts that actors play in a stage production. In every society, individuals play a number of social roles.

Personal Space

The physical space individuals maintain between themselves and others.

Social Interaction

The process by which we act and react to those around us.

Status

The social honor or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life- patterns of behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or negative. Pariah status groups are regarded with disdain or treated as outcasts by the majority of the population.

Social Position

The social identity an individual has in a given group or society. Social positions may be general in nature (those associated with gender roles) or more specific (occupational positions).

Time-Space

When and where events occur.

Back Region

Areas apart from front-region performance, as specified by Erving Goffman, in which individuals are able to relax and behave informally

Nonverbal Communication

Communication between individuals based on facial expression or bodily gesture rather than on language.

Focused Interaction

Interaction between individuals engaged in a common activity or in direct conversation with one another.

Unfocused Interaction

Interaction occurring among people present in a particular setting but not engaged in direct face-to-face communication.

Adopting Roles

Example of woman going to the gynecologist, the patient, nurse, and doctor all adopt a role and act or respond differently according to which role they are in.

Audience Segregation

In each of their roles, a person will act somewhat differently, and they try to keep what they do in each role distinct from what they do in their other roles.

Front Region

Settings of social activity in which people seek to put on a definite "performance" for others

Clock Time

Time as measured by the clock, in terms of hours, minutes, and seconds. Before the invention of clocks, time reckoning was based on events in the natural world, such as the rising and setting of the sun.