Реферат: Social Structure Essay Research Paper Social Structure

Master Status: a status that cuts across the other statuses than an individual occupies. Being considered attractive in your culture

Role: the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status. They lay out what is expected of people. On a date, my role is to get everything paid for for me.

Thomas Theorem: William I. Thomas’ classic formulation of the definition of the situation: “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” If you think you are going to heaven after you die, you do everything in your life thinking of that.

Social Construction of Reality: the process by which people use their background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real for them.

Ideas that you should know and understand from the textbook:

? The distinction between macrosociology and mirosociology and the analytical orientation of each of the three theoretical perspectives in sociology.

? You should be able to distinguish between a status and a role and have an understanding of master status (read inserts on Christopher Reeve and Stephen Hawking.)

? You are to read and understand the social construction of reality as it is exemplified in the “Gynecological Examination” on pages 119-120.

People that you should know from this chapter:

? Ferdinand Tonnies

? Emile Durkheim

? Erving Goffman

Chapter Seven

Terms to know and understand from Lecture:

Rationalization of Society: a widespread acceptance of rationality and a social organization largely built around this idea.

Ideal Type: Max Weber: composite of characteristics based on many specific examples, purely rational model.

Quality Circles: group of approximately 12 workers, 1-2 managers who meet regularly to discuss ways to improve quality within the organization. It’s the people at the bottom that know. It’s not efficient because nothing ever happens as a result of these meetings.

Self-Managed Work Teams (Small Work Groups): small groups/teams of individuals who work together to perform their job. Loyalty increase, absenteeism decreases, and produces harder workers.

Employee Stock Ownership: employees purchase the firm’s stock at a discount or as part of their salary. When employees own the majority of the stock, the firm is more profitable and there exists less tension as opposed to the firms where employees own only a tiny amount of the stock

Corporate Day Care: facilities at work. Absenteeism decreases, shorter maternity leaves, decreased turnover (quitting and leaving your job), corporation saves money.

Ideas to know and understand from Lecture:

? The relationship between the rationalization of society and the shift from mechanical to organic solidarity, gemeinshaft to gesellshaft. (Table 7.1 pa 175 from text)

? You should understand the relationship between organization changes such as quality control circles, self-managed work teams, employee stock ownership, and corporate day care on the bureaucratic structure.

? You should know and understand what it is meant by an “Ideal Type” and the theorist that is credited with that concept.

Write definitions along with an example other than the ones given in the textbook.

Formal Organization: a secondary group designed to achieve explicit objectives. College is a formal organization that we’ve started to take for granted.

Bureaucracy: a formal organization with a hierarchy of authority; a clear division of labor; emphasis on written rules, communications, and records; and impersonality of positions. Supreme Court.

Five Characteristics of Bureaucracy

1. Clear cut levels, with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward. Everyone has a job and they have to answer to someone “higher up” than them.