Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth
Approach, 11e
James M. Henslin
Chapter 4
Social Structure and
Social Interaction
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Sociologists use both macro and
micro levels of analysis to study
social life. Those who use
macrosociology to analyze the
homeless (or any human behavior)
focus on broad aspects of society,
such as the economy and social
classes. Sociologists who use the
microsociological approach
analyze how people interact with
one another. This photo illustrates
social structure (the disparities
between power and powerlessness
are amply evident). It also
illustrates the micro level (the
isolation of this man).
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The Macrosociological Perspective:
Social Structure
• The Sociological Significance of Social
Structure
• Culture
• Social Class
• Social Status
• Roles
• Groups
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The Macrosociological Perspective:
Social Structure Continued
• Social Institutions
• Comparing Functionalist and Conflict
Perspectives
• Changes in Social Structure
• What Holds Society Together?
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The Sociological Significance of Social
Structure
• Social Structure
– Guides our behavior
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Culture
• Our shared culture makes us similar to
one another and makes other people
seem “different”
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Social Class
• Based on income, education, and
occupational prestige
• Interests shared among people of same
social class
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Social class and social
status are significant
factors in social life.
Fundamental to what we
become, they affect our
orientations to life. Can
you see how this photo
illustrates this point?
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Social Status
• Status
– Position one occupies
– Provides guidelines for how to act and feel
• Status Sets
• Ascribed and Achieved Statuses
• Status Symbols
• Status Inconsistency
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Master statuses are those
that overshadow our other
statuses. Shown here is
Stephen Hawking, who is
severely disabled by Lou
Gehrig’s disease. For some,
his master status is that of a
person with disabilities.
Because Hawking is one of
the greatest physicists who
has ever lived, however, his
outstanding achievements
have given him another
master status, that of a world-
class physicist in the ranking
of Einstein.
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• Roles
– Behaviors, Obligations, and Privileges
Attached to a Status
• Group
– People who Interact and Share Values and
Interests
• Social Institutions
– Standard or Usual Ways a Society Meets its
Needs
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Comparing Functionalist and Conflict
Perspectives
• Functionalists • Conflict Theorists
– Replacing Members – Small Group holds
– Socializing New Majority of Wealth
Members – Preserve the Status
– Producing and Quo
Distributing Goods and
Services
– Preserving Order
– Providing a Sense of
Purpose
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Functionalist theorists have identified functional requisites for the
survival of society. One, providing a sense of purpose, is often met
through religious groups. To most people, snake handling, as in this
church service in Kingston, Georgia, is nonsensical. From a
functional perspective, however, it makes a great deal of sense.
Can you identify its sociological meanings?
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Changes in Social Structure
• Social Structure is Not Static
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What Holds Society Together?
• Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
• Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Relevant today?
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The warm, more intimate relationships of Gemeinschaft society
are apparent in the photo taken at this weekly market in
Myanmar. The more impersonal relationships of Gesellschaft
society are evident in this Internet cafe in Seattle, where
customers are ignoring one another.
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The Microsociological Perspective:
Social Interaction in Everyday Life
• Symbolic Interaction
• Dramaturgy: The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life
• Ethnomethodology: Uncovering
Background Assumptions
• Social Construction of Reality
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Symbolic Interaction
• Stereotypes in Everyday Life
• Personal Space
• Eye Contact
• Smiling
• Body Language
• Applied Body Language
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Eye contact is a fascinating aspect of everyday life. We use
fleeting eye contact for most of our interactions, such as those
with clerks or people we pass in the hall between classes.
Just as we reserve our close personal space for intimates, so,
too, we reserve soft, lingering eye contact for them.
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Dramaturgy: The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life
• Impression Management
• Stages
• Role Performance, Conflict, and Strain
• Sign-Vehicles
• Teamwork
• Becoming the Roles we Play
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Both individuals and
organizations do
impression management,
trying to communicate
messages about the self
(or organization) that best
meets their goals. At
times, these efforts fail.
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Ethnomethodology: Uncovering
Background Assumptions
• Ethnomethodology
– Exploring Background Assumptions
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The Social Construction of Reality
• Thomas Theorem
• Social Construction of Reality
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The Need for Both Macrosociology and
Microsociology
• In order to have full view of social life, we
must use both
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