Social Interactions: Elements and Self-Presentation

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Objectives

1. Elements of Social Interaction
   • Terms: status, role, group, network, organization
2. Self-Presentation and Interacting with Others
   • Verbal vs. non-verbal communication
   • Front stage vs. backstage self
   • Body language, facial expressions, visual display, scent, vocalization

Objective 1: Elements of Social Interaction

Social Interaction

• Basis of social life: helps humans reach their full potential
• Facilitated by: commonalities, shared understanding, experiences
• Develops culture

Status

• Social status: Classifies individuals
• Types of status:
  • Ascribed status: Given involuntarily, e.g., race, ethnicity, gender
  • Achieved status: Gained through effort or choices, e.g., doctor
  • Master status: Most identified with, dominant in one’s life

Roles

• Roles: Set of beliefs, values, attitudes, norms associated with a status
• Role performance: How one carries out behaviors of a role; can vary
• Role conflict: Difficulty managing multiple roles
• Role strain: Stress from different expectations within the same role

Groups

• Social group: Two or more people sharing characteristics and a sense of unity
  • Diad: Two people
  • Triad: Three people
• Types of social groups (refer to visual representation):
  • Primary groups: Close-knit, long-term, emotional (e.g., family, close friends)
  • Secondary groups: Larger, impersonal, goal-oriented, temporary (e.g., co-workers)
  • In-groups vs. Out-groups
  • Formal vs. Informal groups
  • Membership vs. Reference groups
  • Interest vs. Friendship groups
  • Temporary vs. Permanent groups
• Interaction process analysis: Technique to observe, classify, and measure group interactions
  • SYMLOG: Revised system: dominance-submission, friendliness-unfriendliness, instrumentally controlled-emotionally expressive

Networks

• Networks: Observed patterns of social relationships
  • Immediate networks: Dense, strong ties (e.g., friends)
  • Distant networks: Looser, weaker ties (e.g., acquaintances)
• Combination: Provides diverse resources through complementary networks

Organizations

• Organizations: Complex secondary groups with specific goals, structure, and culture
  • Bureaucracies: Rational systems with paid officials and strict rules
    • Criticisms: Rigid, slow to adapt
    • Law of oligarchy: Dominated by a small elite group
  • McDonaldization: Society’s shift towards efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control

Objective 2: Self-Presentation and Interacting with Others

Expressing and Detecting Emotions

• Verbal and non-verbal behaviors
• Darwin’s basic model: Universal facial expressions and behaviors
• Appraisal model: Biologically predetermined expressions modified by cognitive appraisals

Social Construction and Sociology Models

• Social construction model: Emotions based on experiences and situational context
• Display rules: Cultural expectations of emotion
• Cultural syndrome: Shared beliefs, attitudes, norms within a culture
• Gender: Influences on emotional expression and detection

Impression Management

• The three selves:
  • Authentic self: Who you really are
  • Ideal self: Who you want to be
  • Tactical self: Who you present to meet others’ expectations
• Strategies:
  • Self-disclosure
  • Managing appearances
  • Ingratiation
  • Aligning actions
  • Alter-casting
• Dramaturgical perspective: Interactive performances, front stage vs. backstage self
• George Herbert Mead: The self is composed of “Me” (socially developed) and “I” (individual impulses)

Communication

• Foundation of social interaction
• Verbal communication: Spoken, written, or signed
• Non-verbal communication: Facial expressions, tone, gestures, body language, touches, eye positioning
• Animal communication: Body language, facial expressions, visual displays, scent, vocalization
  • Human-animal interaction: Vocal commands, tone, movements, with pets and trained animals