SOC 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Ascribed Status, Outlast, Human Behavior
DAY 12 LECTURE: THE SELF IN CONTEXT
• Basic Sociological Assumption
o Human behavior doesn’t occur in a vacuum; it unfolds in history, groups,
affiliations, shared meanings
▪ How contexts shape/ are shaped by human activity
• Social Structure: recurring and persistent patterns of rules, practices, and relationships
that are influential, pervasive, enduring & largely invisible yet render social life
predictable, orderly and family
o Help determine what actions are appropriate/ inappropriate in any given situation
o Enables & constrains human behavior
o Social structures OUTLAST people
• Social Institution: relatively stable beliefs & routine ways of organizing behavior and
interactions often emerging around the satisfaction of certain basic human needs
o Ex. Religious Institutions (important in meaning making)
• Status: a socially defined position in a group or society that an individual occupies
• Role: the set of social expectations attached to any given status
• Culture: processes of meaning-making embedded in collectives as representative by
the practices, rituals, behaviors, activities, and artifacts that make up the experiences of
everyday life for members of the collective
• Norms: expectations for appropriate conduct, contingent upon:
o 1.) Social Situation or Setting
o 2.) Our status in that situation or setting
• Types of Norms
o 1.) Folkways: standards of behavior that are socially approve2
o 3.) Taboos: norms about what is absolutely forbidden
o 4.) Organizational Policies: formal body of rules enacted by an organization
and backed/enforced by its leaders
o 5.) Laws: a formal body of rules enacted by the state and backed by the power
of the state
▪ *Virtually taboos are written into law
• Groups : collection of people who interact in a patterned fashion; share some sets of
ideals & norms; and share a sense of unity
• Social Solidarity: the social glue that binds people together as members of group or
society
o Two Types:
1. Mechanic Solidarity: solidarity based on similarities
2. Organic Solidarity: solidarity based on differences
• Social Cohesion: the orientation of people toward their social bonds
o Depends on ascribed status vs. achieved status
▪ Ex. Ascribed Status= being an Asian-American
▪ Ex. Achieved Status= being a BFF
• Social Networks: a set of actors and the relationships between those actors
o Dense (a lot of people in network have lots of connections amongst) vs. Loose
(less connections within network)
• 57% chance of becoming overweight if friend is overweight
• 40% chance for sibling
• 37% chance for spouse
• Same sex friends make more of a difference
o MAIN IDEA: Other people can impact our sense of self
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Our status in that situation or setting: types of norms, 1. ) Folkways: standards of behavior that are socially approve2: 3. ) Taboos: norms about what is absolutely forbidden: 4. ) Organizational policies: formal body of rules enacted by an organization and backed/enforced by its leaders: 5. ) Laws: a formal body of rules enacted by the state and backed by the power of the state. Achieved status= being a bff: social networks: a set of actors and the relationships between those actors, dense (a lot of people in network have lots of connections amongst) vs. Social structure: recurring and persistent patterns of rules, practices, and relationships that are pervasive, enduring, influential, and largely invisible: yet render social life predictable, orderly, and familiar to know to do something through internalization, readings: Alder and alder, the glorified self : glorified self isn"t egotistical naturally, but is socially produced social structures: (basketball example)- media (celeb status), group (team), social status and role (coaches)
