Sociology Chapter 4

Total institution

an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same single authority. (page 131)

Generalized other

an internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings—regardless of whether we've encountered those people or places before. (page 123

Symbolic interactionism

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions. (page 138)

Status

a recognizable social position that an individual occupies. (page 132)

Achieved status

a status into which one enters; voluntary status. (page 133)

Ascribed status

a status into which one is born; involuntary status. (page 133)

Status set

all the statuses one holds simultaneously. (page 133)

Ethnomethodology

literally "the methods of the people"; this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a shared social order. (page 143)

Master status

one status within a set that stands out or overrides all others. (page 133)

I

one's sense of agency, action, or power. (page 121)

Gender roles

sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as male or female. (page 133

Other

someone or something outside of oneself. (page 122)

Role

the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status. (page 132)

Face

the esteem in which an individual is held by others. (page 141)

Role strain

the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status. (page 132)

Self

the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person. (page 121)

Socialization

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society. (page 118)

Resocialization

the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately, through an intense social process that may take place in a total institution. (page 131)

Me

the self as perceived as an object by the "I"; the self as one imagines others perceive one. (page 121)

Role conflict

the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses. (page 133)

Dramaturgical theory

the view (advanced by Erving Goffman) of social life as essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets. (page 139)