Sociological Film Analysis

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

MACROSOCIOLOGY AND MICROSOCIOLOGY

 Microsociology and Macrosociology are levels of analysis. They look at society from different vantage points.  Sociologists who study the effect of social life on society use two

approaches, macrosociology (focusing on broad features of social structure) and microsociology (concentrating on small-scale, face-to-face social interactions). Functionalists and conflict theorists tend to use the macrosociological approach.  Symbolic interactionists are more likely to use the microsociological

approach. Although most sociologists specialize in one approach or the other, both approaches are necessary for a complete understanding of social life.

MACROSOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

 Using the macrosociological approach, functionalists and conflict theorists examine the more expansive aspects of social structure. It refers to a society’s framework, consisting of the various relationships between people and groups that direct and set limits on human behavior.  The major components of social structure include culture, social class,

social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. Social structure guides people’s behaviors. A person’s location in the social structure (his or her social class, social status, the roles he or she plays, and the culture, groups, and social institutions to which he or she belongs) underlies his or her perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. People develop these perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors from their place in the social structure, and they act accordingly.

Components of Social Structure

 Culture refers to a group’s language, beliefs, values, behaviors, and gestures. It includes the material objects used by a group. It determines what kind of people we will become.  Social class is based on income, education, and occupational

prestige. Large numbers of people who have similar amounts of income and education and who work at jobs that are roughly comparable in prestige make up a social class.  Social status refers to the positions that an individual occupies. A

status may carry a great deal of prestige (judge or astronaut) or very little (gas station attendant or cook at a fast-food restaurant).

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 Statuses provide guidelines for how we are to act and feel.  Status set refers to all the statuses or positions that an individual

occupies.  Ascribed statuses are positions an individual either inherits at birth or

receives involuntarily later in life. Examples include race, sex, and social class of parents.  Achieved statuses are positions that are earned, accomplished, or

involve at least some effort or activity on the individual’s part. Examples include becoming a college president or a bank robber.

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 Status symbols are signs that people who want others to recognize that they occupy a certain status use. For example, a wearing wedding ring, driving a fancy car, living in an expensive home, and so on.  A master status—such as being male or female—cuts across the other

statuses that an individual occupies.  Status inconsistency is a contradiction or mismatch between statuses

such as ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others. A disability can become a master status for some. This condition can override other statuses and determines others’ perception of this person.

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 Roles are the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status. The individual occupies a status but plays a role. Roles are an essential component of culture because they lay out what is expected of people, and, as individuals perform their roles, those roles mesh together to form the society.  A group consists of people who regularly and consciously interact with

one another and typically share similar values, norms, and expectations. When we belong to a group, we give up to others at least some control over our lives. The control depends on the relationship and amount of interaction we have with that group.

Social Institutions  Social institutions are society’s standard ways of meeting its basic needs.  The family, religion, the law, politics, economics, education, science,

medicine, and the military all are social institutions.  The functionalists and conflict theorists differ in how they see social

institutions.  Functionalists view social institutions as established ways of meeting group

needs (or functional requisites), such as replacing members, socializing new members, producing and distributing goods and services, preserving order, and providing a sense of purpose.

 Conflict theorists look at social institutions as the primary means by which the elite maintains its privileged position.

Changes in Social Structure  Changes in social structure occur as culture changes because of evolving

values, new technologies, innovative ideas, and globalization.  Many sociologists have tried to find an answer to the question of what

holds society together.  Emile Durkheim found the key to social cohesion, the degree to which

members of a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds, in the concepts of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is a collective consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks, while organic solidarity is a collective consciousness based on the interdependence brought about by an increasingly specialized division of labor—that is, how people divide up tasks.

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 Ferdinand Tönnies analyzed how intimate community (Gemeinschaft) was being replaced by impersonal associations (Gesellschaft). Gemeinschaft is a society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness. Gesellschaft is a society dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest.  These concepts are still relevant today, helping us understand

contemporary events such as the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Microsociology: Social Interaction in Everyday Life

 The microsociological approach emphasizes face-to-face social interaction, or what people do when they are in the presence of one another.  Symbolic interactionists are interested in the symbols that people use to

define their worlds, how people look at things, and how that affects their behavior. Included within this perspective are studies of stereotypes, personal space, and touching.

 Stereotypes are used in everyday life. First impressions are shaped by the assumptions one person makes about another person’s sex, race, age, and physical appearance. Such assumptions affect one’s ideas about the person and how one acts toward that person. Stereotypes tend to be self-fulfilling—that is, they bring out the very kinds of behavior that fit the stereotype. They even have an impact on what we accomplish. People can also resist stereotypes and change outcomes.

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 Personal space refers to the physical space that surrounds us and that we claim as our own. The amount of personal space varies from one culture to another. Anthropologist Edward Hall found that Americans use four different distance zones: (1) intimate distance (about 18 inches from the body) for lovemaking, wrestling, comforting, and protecting; (2) personal distance (from 18 inches to 4 feet) for friends, acquaintances, and ordinary conversations; (3) social distance (from 4 feet to 12 feet) for impersonal or formal relationships such as job interviews; and (4) public distance (beyond 12 feet) for even more formal relationships such as separating dignitaries and public speakers from the general public.

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 We protect our personal space by controlling eye contact.  Smiling and appropriate times to smile vary by culture. For example,

Germans view smiling as a form of flirting, whereas in the United States we expect most service workers to smile.  Body language is another way we convey messages.

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 Dramaturgy is an analysis of how we present ourselves in everyday life.  Dramaturgy is the name given to an approach pioneered by Erving

Goffman. Social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage.  Impression management is the idea that we make efforts to

manage the impressions that others receive of us.  According to Goffman, socialization prepares people for learning to

perform on the stage of everyday life. Front stage is where performances are given (wherever lines are delivered). Back stage is where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances.

Dramaturgy: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

 Role performance is the particular emphasis or interpretation that an individual gives a role, the person’s “style.” Role conflict occurs when the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectations of another role—in other words, conflict between roles. Role strain refers to conflicts that someone feels within a role.  Three types of sign-vehicles are used to communicate information about

the self: (1) social setting—where the action unfolds, which includes scenery (furnishings used to communicate messages); (2) appearance— how a person looks when he or she plays his or her role, and this includes props that decorate the person; and (3) manner—the attitudes demonstrated as an individual plays her or his roles.

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 Teamwork, when two or more players work together to make sure a performance goes off as planned, shows that we are adept players.  When a performance doesn’t come off, we engage in face-saving behavior, or

ignoring flaws in someone’s performance, which Goffman defines as tact. A face- saving technique that might be used is studied nonobservance, in which a behavior might be completely ignored so that neither person will face embarrassment.  We tend to become the roles we play. Some roles become part of our self-

concept. For some in roles such as a marriage, police work, or the military, the role can become so intertwined that leaving it can threaten a person’s identity.  Impression management also occurs with families, businesses, colleges, and

even the government.

Ethnomethodology

 Ethnomethodology involves the discovery of rules concerning our views of the world and how people ought to act.

 Ethnomethodologists try to undercover people’s background assumptions, which form the basic core of one’s reality and provide basic rules concerning our view of the world and of how people ought to act.  Harold Garfinkel founded the ethnomethodological approach. He

conducted experiments, called breaching experiments, asking subjects to pretend that they did not understand the basic rules of social life to uncover others’ reactions and break background assumptions.

Social Construction of Reality  Symbolic interactionists contend that reality is subjectively created by

people’s perceptions of “what is real.” People define their own realities and then live within those definitions. The social construction of reality refers to how people construct their views of the world.  The Thomas theorem (by sociologist W. I. Thomas and Dorothy S.

Thomas) states, “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”  Therefore, our behavior does not depend on the objective existence of

something, but on our subjective interpretation or our definition of reality.  James Henslin and Mae Biggs conducted research to show that when

physicians are performing gynecological exams, they will socially construct reality so that the vaginal exams become nonsexual.