sociology project

CHAPTER

5

SOCIAL INTERACTION, GROUPS, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

SOCIAL INTERACTION AND REALITY

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Statuses

Social Roles

Groups

Social Networks

Social Institutions

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS

Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies

Characteristics of a Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach

SOCIAL POLICY AND ORGANIZATIONS: THE STATE OF THE UNIONS WORLDWIDE

Boxes

Research Today: Disability as a Master Status

Research Today: Decision Making in the Jury Room

Taking Sociology to Work: Sarah Levy, Owner, S. Levy Foods

Research Today: Twitter Networks: From Wild Fires to Hurricanes

Sociology in the Global Community: McDonald’s and the Worldwide Bureaucratization of Society

Sociology in the Global Community: Disney World: A Postmodern Theme Park

	LEARNING OBJECTIVES			WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 5
· Explain the relationship between social reality and social interaction. · List the various types of statuses in society. · List and summarize the five elements of social structure. · Explain how ascribed status and master status can constrain achieved status. · Give examples of role conflict, role strain, and role exit. · Differentiate among the five different types of groups. · Analyze the functionalist, interactionist, and conflict views of social institutions. · Describe the pitfalls and benefits of social networks and virtual worlds. · Analyze the structure of organizations and bureaucracies. · Describe Durkheim’s, Tönnies’s, and Lenski’s approaches to classifying forms of social structure.		· Chapter-opening photo featuring female athletes. · Updated discussion of the Zimbardo Prison Experiment featuring recent criticisms. · Enhanced discussion of ascribed and achieved statuses focusing on the elderly in China. · Research Today box, “Decision Making in the Jury Room.” · Added Figure: “The Elements of Social Structure: An Overview.” · Updated figures “Labor Union by State, 2020” and “Labor Union Membership Worldwide.” · Added incident with tennis pro James Blake to the section on Master Status. · Likening of Gemeinschaft to contemporary sharing economy. · Updated and expanded Our Wired World box, “Twitter Networks: From Wildfires to Hurricanes,” with new figure.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Social interaction refers to the ways in which people respond to one another. Social structure refers to the way a society is organized into predictable relationships. Both social interaction and social structure are central to understanding how different aspects of behavior are related to one another. Our response to someone’s behavior is based on the meaning we attach to their actions. Reality is shaped by our perceptions, evaluations, and definitions. The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within a society.

Sociologists use the term status to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society. Sociologically, status does not refer to prestige. Any position, whether deemed good or bad, positive or negative, is a status. A person can hold a number of statuses at the same time. An ascribed status is assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics, generally at birth. An achieved status is attained by a person largely through their own efforts. A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position within society.

A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status. Role conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person. Role strain is a term used to describe the difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations. The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity is referred to as role exit.

A group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and consciously interact. Groups play an important part in a society’s structure. Much of our social interaction takes place within groups and is influenced by their norms and sanctions. Primary groups are small groups characterized by intimate, face-to-face interaction and socialization; secondary groups are more formal, impersonal groups in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding. An in-group can be defined as any group or category to which people feel they belong, whereas an out-group is any group or category to which people do not think they belong. Sociologists call any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior a reference group . Group growth can result in coalitions—temporary or permanent alliances geared toward a common goal.

Members of different groups make connections through a series of social relationships known as a social network . With advances in technology, we can now maintain social networks electronically; we don’t need face-to-face contact.

Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs. Functionalists view social institutions as necessary for the survival of society in meeting the basic needs of its members. Conflict theorists suggest that social institutions maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and groups within a society. Interactionists emphasize that our social behavior is conditioned by the roles and statuses that we accept, the groups to which we belong, and the institutions within which we function.

As contemporary societies have become more complex, our lives have become dominated by formal organizations—groups designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency. Formal organizations fulfill an enormous variety of personal and societal needs, shaping the lives of every one of us. Ascribed statuses such as gender, race, and ethnicity can influence how we see ourselves within formal organizations.

A bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency. Sociologists use the term bureaucratization to refer to how groups, organizations, and social movements become increasingly bureaucratic. Max Weber was the first theorist to concentrate on bureaucracy, using the concept of ideal type to construct and model specific cases. Weber argued that ideal bureaucracies always have five basic characteristics: division of labor, hierarchy of authority, written rules and regulations, impersonality, and employment based on technical qualifications. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto, that the downside of division of labor is that it fragments work into smaller and smaller tasks that can create narrow areas of expertise, which produces extreme alienation—a condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society. And although the division of labor has certainly enhanced the performance of many complex bureaucracies, in some cases, it can lead to trained incapacity; that is, workers become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems. With other issues related to Weber’s characteristics, like written rules and regulations, some workers may exhibit Robert Merton’s term (1968) of goal displacement, referring to overzealous conformity to official regulations to the point of becoming dysfunctional. Max Weber’s five characteristics of bureaucracy are apparent in McDonald’s restaurants, a fast-food organization that has had an enormous influence on modern-day culture. Sociologist George Ritzer writes about the McDonaldization of society to explain the process by which the principles of bureaucratization have increasingly shaped organizations worldwide. According to the Peter principle formulated by Laurence J. Peter, however, employees within a hierarchy tend to rise to their level of incompetence—a possible dysfunctional outcome of advancement on the basis of merit. German conflict theorist Robert Michels studied socialist parties and labor unions, organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer, and found that those organizations were becoming increasingly bureaucratic and emerging leaders had a vested interest in clinging to power. If they lost leadership posts, they’d have to return to full-time work as manual laborers. He argued that even a democratic organization can eventually reach a stage in which an oligarchy develops, an idea called the iron law of oligarchy. Sociologists also study organizational and bureaucratic culture. The classical theory of formal organizations (or scientific management approach) posits that workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards. The more recent human relations approach emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy.

Émile Durkheim developed the concepts of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity to describe the kind of consciousness that develops in societies where there is a simple or complex division of labor, respectively. Ferdinand Tönnies used the term Gemeinschaft to refer to a small, close-knit community, typical of rural life, where people have similar backgrounds and life experiences. Conversely, the Gesellschaft is an ideal type characteristic of modern urban life. Here, most people are strangers who feel little in common with one another.

In contrast to Tönnies’s perspective, Gerhard Lenski viewed societies as undergoing change according to a dominant pattern known as sociocultural evolution. His view suggests that a society’s level of technology—cultural information about the ways material resources of the environment may be used—is critical to the way it is organized. The hunting-and-gathering society, the horticultural society , and the agrarian society are three types of preindustrial societies. An industrial society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services. A postindustrial society’s economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information. A postmodern society is a technologically sophisticated society whose consumers practice hyperconsumerism, a preoccupation with buying more than we need or want, and often more than we can afford. At the macrolevel of analysis, we see society shifting to more advanced forms of technology. The social structure becomes complex and new social institutions emerge to assume some functions previously performed by family. On the microlevel of analysis, these changes affect the nature of social interactions between people. People come to rely more on social networks rather than solely on kinship ties.

LECTURE OUTLINE

Introduction

• Excerpt from “The Psychology of Imprisonment: Privation, Power, and Pathology” by Philip Zimbardo.

I. Social Interaction and Reality

• Social interaction refers to the way people respond to one another.

• Social structure refers to the way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships. The linkage of social interaction and social structure is central to sociological study. They are closely related to socialization.

• Social reality is literally constructed from our social interactions. Example: with the coronavirus pandemic, wearing medical masks/face coverings had special significance for racial and ethnic minorities, especially Black men because it frequently caused them to be viewed suspiciously and even denied entry to stores where face coverings were recommended.

• The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within society. Example: William I. Thomas’s “definition of the situation.”

II. Elements of Social Structure

A. Statuses

• Status refers to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society. A number of statuses can be held at the same time. Examples: U.S. president, son or daughter, dental technician, neighbor.

1. Ascribed and Achieved Status

• Ascribed status is generally assigned at birth without regard to a person’s unique talents or characteristics. Ascribed statuses are assigned; they are not chosen. Examples : race, gender, age.

• Achieved status comes to us largely through our own efforts. Examples: lawyer, pianist, convict, social worker.

2. Master Status

• A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position within society. Example: Arthur Ashe, who died of AIDS.

B. Social Roles

1. What Are Social Roles?

• A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status. Roles are a significant component of social structure. Example: Police are expected to protect us and apprehend criminals.

2. Role Conflict

• Role conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person. Example: newly promoted worker who carries on a relationship with their former workgroup.

• It may also occur among individuals moving into occupations that are not common among people with their ascribed status. Examples: female police officers and male preschool teachers.

3. Role Strain

• Role strain refers to a situation in which the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations. Example: alternative forms of justice among Navajo police officers

4. Role Exit

• Role exit is the process of disengaging from a role that is central to one’s self-identity.

• Ebaugh developed a four-stage model: (1) doubt, (2) search for alternatives, (3) action stage or departure, and (4) creation of a new identity. Examples: graduating from high school or college, retirement, divorce.

C. Groups

• A group consists of any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis. Examples: sports team, college sorority, hospital business office, symphony orchestra.

• Groups play a vital role in social structure.

1. Primary and Secondary Groups

• A primary group is a small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation. Primary groups play a pivotal role both in the socialization process and in the development of roles and statuses.

• A secondary group is a formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding.

• The distinction between primary and secondary groups is not always clear-cut.

2. In-Groups and Out-Groups

• An in-group is any group or category to which people feel they belong. Members typically feel distinct and superior and see themselves as better than those of an out-group. Examples: a teenage clique; an entire society.

• An out-group is a group or category to which people feel they do not belong.

3. Reference Groups

• A reference group is any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior. Example: A high school student who aspires to join a social circle of hip-hop music devotees will pattern their behavior after that group.

4. Coalitions

• A coalition is a temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal. Example : A community-based organization that has banded together to work for street and sidewalk improvements and better drainage systems.

D. Social Networks

• A social network is a series of social relationships that links a person directly to others and through them indirectly to still more people. Examples: networking for employment, exchanging news and gossip.

• Electronic social networks have gained value, especially for the unemployed.

• Whether in person or online, not everyone participates equally in social networks.

E. Social Institutions

• Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on meeting basic social needs such as replacing personnel (the family) and preserving order (the government).

1. Functionalist Perspective

• Five major tasks or functional prerequisites have been identified as follows: (1) replacing personnel, (2) teaching new recruits, (3) producing and distributing goods and services, (4) preserving order, and (5) providing and maintaining a sense of purpose. Example: Patriotism assists people in maintaining a sense of purpose.

• Any society or relatively permanent group must attempt to satisfy all these functional prerequisites for survival.

2. Conflict Perspective

• The conflict perspective does not agree with functionalists that the outcome of meeting basic needs is necessarily efficient and desirable for all members of society.

• Major institutions maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and groups within a society, while contributing to the powerlessness of others. Example: Public schools are financed largely by property taxes, so affluent areas have better equipped schools and better paid teachers.

• Social institutions have an inherently conservative nature.

• Social institutions operate in gendered and racist environments.

3. Interactionist Perspective

• Behavior is conditioned by roles and statuses that we accept, the groups to which we belong, and the institutions within which we function. Example: the impact of humor in the workplace.

III. Understanding Organizations

A. Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies

• A formal organization is a group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency. Example: the U.S. Postal Service.

• Formal organizations have a bureaucratic form and now have enormous influence over our lives and society.

• Achieved statuses can influence how we see ourselves in formal organizations.

B. Characteristics of a Bureaucracy

• A bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency. Max Weber first noted the significance of bureaucratic structure, emphasizing the basic similarity of structure and process found in the otherwise dissimilar enterprises of religion, government, education, and business.

• For analytical purposes, Weber developed the “ideal type”—a construct or model for evaluating specific cases. Weber’s ideal bureaucracy had five characteristics:

1. Division of labor

• Can produce alienation—a condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society.

• Can lead to trained incapacity—workers become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems.

2. Hierarchy of authority

• Each position is under the supervision of a higher authority.

3. Written rules and regulations

• Can create goal displacement—overzealous conformity to official regulations.

4. Impersonality

• Officials perform their duties without personal consideration to people as individuals.

5. Employment based on technical qualifications

• Laurence J. Peter developed the “Peter principle”—every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to their level of incompetence.

1. Bureaucratization as a Process

• Bureaucratization is the process by which a group, organization, or social movement becomes increasingly bureaucratic.

• Bureaucratization is not limited to Western industrial societies.

2. Oligarchy: Rule by a Few

• Theorist Robert Michels developed the iron law of oligarchy, which describes how even a democratic organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few, called an oligarchy.

C. Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

• According to the classical theory of formal organizations, or “scientific management approach,” workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.

• The development of unions caused theorists to revise the classical approach and to consider the impact of informal groups of workers. This new “human relations approach” emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy.

IV. Social Structure in Global Perspective

A. Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

• Mechanical solidarity exists in societies with a minimal division of labor. A collective consciousness develops that emphasizes group solidarity.

• Organic solidarity exists in societies with a complex division of labor. It emphasizes mutual interdependence among groups and institutions—in much the same way as organs of the body are interdependent.

B. Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

• The Gemeinschaft community is typical of rural life. Social interactions are intimate and familiar. There is a strong feeling of community; persons are not driven by self-interest but by the needs of the whole. Informal sanctions may serve to enforce social norms (since individuals are not protected by anonymity).

• The Gesellschaft is an ideal type characteristic of modern life. Most people are strangers and feel little in common with one another (see Table 5-4).

C. Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach

• Lenski views human societies as undergoing a process of change characterized by a dominant pattern known as sociocultural evolution: long-term trends in societies resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection.

• Technology is critical to the way society is organized. Lenski defined technology as “cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of an environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires.”

• As technology advances, a community evolves from a preindustrial to an industrial and finally a postindustrial society.

1. Preindustrial Societies

• Hunting-and-gathering societies rely on available foods; technology is minimal.

• Horticultural societies plant seeds and grow crops rather than subsist only on available foods.

• Agrarian societies increase crop yields, and technological innovations are more dramatic (e.g., the plow). Their social structure has more carefully defined roles than that of horticultural society.

2. Industrial Societies

• Society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.

• These societies are reliant on new inventions that facilitate agricultural and industrial production and on new sources of energy.

3. Postindustrial and Postmodern Societies

• A postindustrial society is technologically advanced. Its economic system is primarily engaged in processing and controlling information. Its main output is services.

• Postmodern society is technologically sophisticated and preoccupied with consumer goods and media images.

• Postmodern theorists take a global perspective, noting ways that culture crosses national boundaries. Examples: In the United States, people listen to reggae music from Jamaica, eat sushi and other Japanese foods, and wear clogs from Sweden. Online social networks know no national boundaries.

V. (Box) Social Policy and Organizations: The State of the Unions Worldwide

A. Looking at the Issue

• Labor unions consist of organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer.

• They have historically been restrictive and discriminatory in their practices; today in some industries, unions help keep wages competitive across races.

• Labor union strength varies wildly across countries, but it is declining worldwide for the following reasons:

1. Changes in the type of industry

2. Growth in part-time jobs

3. The legal system

4. Globalization

5. Employer offensives

B. Applying Sociology

• Compared with their early incarnations, unions have become increasingly bureaucratized under self-serving leadership.

• Recent declines in private sector union membership have been linked to a widening gap between hourly workers’ wages and managerial and executive compensation.

C. Initiating Policy

• U.S. law grants workers the right to unionize, but it is unique among industrial democracies in allowing employers to actively oppose unionization. Many elected officials are also seeking to reduce union power.

• An unusual pro-union ruling in 2015 by the National Labor Relations Board is likely to be challenged, and collective bargaining will continue to be difficult.

• In Europe, unions are powerful and are a key part of the electoral process.

• Unions’ form and substance varies greatly from country to country. Unions in China are far more likely to listen to the government than would independent unions in other countries.

KEY TERMS

Achieved status A social position that a person attains largely through their own efforts.

Agrarian society The most technologically advanced form of preindustrial society. Members engage primarily in the production of food but increase their crop yields through technological innovations such as the plow.

Alienation A condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society.

Ascribed status A social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics.

Bureaucracy A component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency.

Bureaucratization The process by which a group, organization, or social movement becomes increasingly bureaucratic.

Classical theory An approach to the study of formal organizations that views workers as being motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.

Coalition A temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal.

Formal organization A group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency.

Gemeinschaft A close-knit community, often found in rural areas, in which strong personal bonds unite members.

Gesellschaft A community, often urban, that is large and impersonal, with little commitment to the group or consensus on values.

Goal displacement Overzealous conformity to official regulations of a bureaucracy.

Group Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis.

Horticultural society A preindustrial society in which people plant seeds and crops rather than merely subsist on available foods.

Human relations approach An approach to the study of formal organizations that emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy and tends to focus on the informal structure of the organization.

Hunting- and- gathering society A preindustrial society in which people rely on whatever foods and fibers are readily available in order to survive.

Hyperconsumerism The practice of buying more than we need or want and often more than we can afford; a preoccupation of postmodern consumers.

Ideal type A construct or model for evaluating specific cases.

Industrial society A society that depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.

In- group Any group or category to which people feel they belong.

Iron law of oligarchy A principle of organizational life under which even a democratic organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few individuals.

Labor union Organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer.

Master status A status that dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position in society.

McDonaldization The process by which the principles of bureaucratization have increasingly shaped organizations worldwide.

Mechanical solidarity A collective consciousness that emphasizes group solidarity, characteristic of societies with minimal division of labor.

Organic solidarity A collective consciousness that rests on mutual interdependence, characteristic of societies with a complex division of labor.

Out- group A group or category to which people feel they do not belong.

Peter principle A principle of organizational life according to which every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to their level of incompetence.

Postindustrial society A society whose economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information.

Postmodern society A technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied with consumer goods and media images.

Primary group A small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation.

Reference group Any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.

Role conflict The situation that occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person.

Role exit The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity.

Role strain The difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations.

Scientific management approach Another name for the classical theory of formal organizations.

Secondary group A formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding.

Social institution An organized pattern of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs.

Social interaction The ways in which people respond to one another.

Social network A series of social relationships that links a person directly to others and through them indirectly to still more people.

Social role A set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.

Social structure The way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.

Sociocultural evolution Long-term social trends resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection.

Status A term used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society.

Technology Cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of the environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires.

Trained incapacity The tendency of workers in a bureaucracy to become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Describe the development of roles in the mock prison experiment.

2. Explain the ethical considerations that led to the end of Zimbardo’s prison experiments. Based on what you learned about the sociological code of ethics in Chapter 2, do you believe that it was appropriate to stop this experiment?

3. Use the concepts of social interaction and social structure to explain the events that transpired in Zimbardo’s mock prison experiment.

4. Discuss the work of Herbert Blumer and William I. Thomas with respect to social interaction and reality.

5. How do ascribed and achieved statuses serve to identify who a person is in a culture?

6. How does a master status differ from an ascribed status? An achieved status? Give an example of a master status that is ascribed and then one that is achieved. Discuss.

7. How is disability a master status?

8. Distinguish between a medical model and a civil rights model of people with disabilities.

9. Explain the kinds of dilemmas a person may face in carrying out a social role.

10. Define and present an example of role conflict.

11. Delineate role conflict, role strain, and role exit, and provide an example of each.

12. What is meant by role exit and how does it relate to the socialization process?

13. What part do groups play in a society’s social structure? Why does conflict develop between in-groups and out-groups?

14. What impact, if any, has computer technology had on group formation?

15. How might a reference group help the process of anticipatory socialization?

16. What is meant by social networks?

17. What role have electronic social networks played for the unemployed?

18. Delineate the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views of social institutions.

19. What are the five functional prerequisites that a society must satisfy if it is to survive?

20. Describe the range of roles that formal organizations play in our society.

21. Outline the five basic characteristics that Max Weber argued every ideal bureaucracy must have.

22. What does the Peter principle suggest may be a problem of employment based on technical qualifications in a bureaucracy?

23. Describe Michels’s iron law of oligarchy.

24. How does the human relations approach differ from the scientific management approach when studying organizational culture?

25. Describe the differences between organic solidarity and mechanical solidarity.

26. Distinguish between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.

27. How does Ferdinand Tönnies use ideal types?

28. Outline Gerhard Lenski’s discussion of sociocultural evolution.

29. Compare and contrast the approaches to social structure introduced by Émile Durkheim, Ferdinand Tönnies, and Gerhard Lenski.

30. What role does technology play in the sociocultural evolution approach to understanding societies?

31. What are the differences among industrial, postindustrial, and postmodern societies?

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Would you have more respect for a person who is born wealthy or a person who becomes wealthy through hard work? Address the differences associated with ascribed and achieved statuses in your answer.

2. In the United States today, which type of status do you believe is more important in shaping or determining one’s social class—ascribed or achieved? Discuss.

3. Discuss the various ways a person may experience role strain. Give examples to support your answer.

4. Describe how the impact of political terrorist attacks is likely to affect various social interactions among groups. Include your own observations of events following the 9/11 terror attacks and the war with Iraq in your answer.

5. Analyze the importance of social institutions from the three major sociological perspectives. How are the views similar and different?

6. Discuss how social life and interaction would be affected if the Internet permanently disappeared today. Use the sociocultural evolution approach to describe your predictions.