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Social Interaction and Social Structure

In this chapter, you will find the following items:

Social interaction refers to the ways in which people respond to one another. Social structure refers to the way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships. This chapter examines the basic elements of social structure - statuses, social roles, groups, networks, and institutions.

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:



1. Understand how we define and reconstruct our social reality.

2. Give your own examples of ascribed, achieved, and master statuses.

3. Discuss the social roles we acquire throughout our lives.

4. Differentiate between role conflict, role strain, and role exit.

5. List the four stages of role exit identified by Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh.

6. Explain what is meant by the term social network.

7. Contrast the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views of social institutions.

8. Summarize the differences between the Gemeinschaft and the Gesellschaft community.

9. Discuss Gerhard Lenski's sociocultural evolution approach.

10. Describe the characteristics of the hunting-and-gathering society, the horticultural society, the industrial society, and the postindustrial and postmodern society.

11. Summarize the concerns about the AIDS crisis from the interactionist perspective.





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Schaefer Sociology 9eOnline Learning Center

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