Week 5 SOC 100 Notes

September 18:
● "Maybe there's two of us" (from Grease)
○ Role strain/conflict
■ Danny, sensitive boy from beach vs
■ Danny, too-cool-for-school Thunderbirds member
○ Which Danny is real/authentic?
■ For Sensitive Danny
■ Acts comfortable, normal
■ His initial instinct
■ For Thunderbird Danny
■ Feels forced
■ Very self-conscious of his words/action
■ For both
■ Conflict of acting one way w/ his friends and one way w/ his girl
■ Lacks the emotional intelligence to navigate his actions
■ Pulled btwn 2 dif options
■ Puts on his "best behavior" to the girl (w/ favorable response),
while acting goofy/laid back w/ his boys
● Dramaturgical Theory
○ Erving Goffman
○ "playing a role" = living up to the expectations of a status
■ We learn those roles via scripts
○ Social script = set of instructions for behavior to fulfill a role
■ Socialization = process by which we learn the scripts for our respective
roles
○ We are all actors in social life but our roles constantly change, depending on our
interactions
■ Front stage vs back stage
■ In our social interactions, we are always performing a role
○ Our performance is guided by/includes:
■ Scripts (tell you what to do)
■ Costumes (how to appear)
■ Sets (where to go/be)
■ Props (what we possess/use)
■ "role models" (how to act)
○ Most of the time, we "perform" our roles/display our status w/o thinking abt it
■ Ex) how to greet one another
○ We experience tension/anxiety when we're introduced into a new scenario where
we haven't learned our proper roles yet
■ Examples:
■ Meeting new group members
■ Going to a job interview
 ■ Starting @ a new job
■ Starting college, finding classes
● Other Role Performance
○ Feeling rules (Arlie Hochschild)
■ We think of emotions as "natural"/"personal"
■ But there are social rules on when/how we're allowed to show emotion,
based on social context
○ Emotional labor (Arlie Hochschild)
■ Labor (paid work) in the form of emotional performance
■ Hospitality industry is based on emotional labor
■ Any job where sacrificing your emotions is required is also a case
of emotional labor
■ Not4e: this isn't the same as uncompensated time/effort (usually women)
spent in service of interpersonal relationships/making others around you
feel comfortable
■ Ex) spending time w/ a friend after a breakup or making sure
holiday cards are sent on time
○ "Attention deprivation" (Derber)
■ Social interactions via subtle, nonverbal gestures that acknowledge or
assert status
○ "Civic inattention" (Goffman)
■ When avoiding social interaction is actually a social courtesy
● Agents of Socialization
○ "persons, groups, or institutions" that are responsible for socializing you
■ Ex) gov, friends, sports, mass media, employers, workplace, family,
school, peer groups
■ Family = most primary and initial agent of socialization
■ However, not everyone's parents have strong influences on their
kids
September 20:
● Stages of Socialization (9/20)
○ Childhood
■ Basic rules/roles
■ Examples
■ Gender roles (ex. women do chores inside/men do chores
outside)
■ Always give a helping hand
■ Don't flaunt your money
■ The idea of the "magic word" (pls,thx)
■ If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all
■ Stranger danger
■ Practice good hygiene (to avoid sickness)
■ Fight back for safety to advocate for yourself (respectfully ofc)
■ Being your parents' translators
■ Sharing is caring
■ Importance of edu (prep for future)
■ If you're older than siblings, viewed as a babysitter/parent
■ Expectations/obligations as a child (ex. Mother's day, xmas, bday)
■ Role that you're under your parents' authority
■ Be a good friend
○ Adolescence
■ More complicated social rules/roles
■ Examples)
■ Sexual morality/respectability ("no boys")
■ Don't let your relationships make you dumb
■ Know who you can trust
■ Rules of sexuality
■ Don't do drugs/alcohol
■ Long-term social ability and importance of edu
■ Driving a car (freedom/independence, but can also help
friends/family)
■ Law enforcement and public safety
■ Learn responsibility in sports teams
■ Learn more abt religion
■ Learning how to multitask
■ Invisible rules/borders btwn freshmen and seniors in hs
■ How to dress/style
■ Trends/interests thru social media
■ Language/slang gets shaped by peers
■ Transition towards adult responsibility/independence
■ "rites of passage" that mark the change from one stage to another
■ Examples)
 ■ Hs/college graduation
■ Quinceañera
■ Bar/bat mitzvah
■ Getting a driver's license
○ Adulthood
■ Workplace socialization
■ Assumption of family responsibilities (caring for kids/elders)
■ Participatory citizens (voting, community service)
■ Examples)
■ Sense of accountability
■ Responsibility of finances/budget
○ Late Adulthood
■ A newer category…why?
■ Bc human longevity has increased significantly
■ "social devaluation"
■ Retirement leaves loads of free time
■ Other ppl take you less seriously when you get to a certain age
● Social Groups
○ What makes a group a group is having a common purpose
■ Ex) rel/familial/cultural identity, tasks
○ Human beings are a social species!!!
○ Part of what it means to be in a group, you have an investment in the group
surviving (ppl generally avoid group splits)
○ Dyad = groups of 2 individuals
■ Both ppl have to be willing to compromise to continue the group's survival
○ Triad = groups of 3 individuals
■ Completely changes group dynamics
■ Third-wheel syndrome
■ Ppl become extraneous/less important in the group
■ Don't need to compromise as frequently
■ Introduce politics (try to sway ppl to what you want instead of what others
want)
● Groups
○ The larger groups get, the larger/more complicated the relationships become
■ (N x N-1) / 2
■ Dyad = 1 relationship
■ Triad = 3 relationships
■ 4 ppl = 6 relationships
■ 5 ppl = 10 relationships