hello everybody my name is Iman welcome back to my YouTube channel today we're going to be covering chapter nine which is titled social interactions now before we get started a lot of you have been asking for MCAT resource recommendations and I want to point you to blueprint blueprint has customizable study schedules they have access to all of the aamc resources and they even have in-depth exam analytics in addition they have both free m cat resources and paid MCAT resources some of my favorite free resources from blueprint are the MCAT question of the day their free downloadable equation sheets and the occasional free live classes that they hold I'm going to leave a link to blueprint in the description box below so if you're interested feel free to check it out with that out of the way let's discuss our two main objectives for this chapter the first objective is titled elements of social interaction here we're going to identify the meaning of social interaction terms like status role group network and organization then our second objective is titled self-presentation and interacting with others in this objective we're going to classify forms of communication as either verbal or non-verbal we're also going to learn how to distinguish between front stage steal and backstage self we're also going to I learn to identify examples of body language facial expressions visual display scent and vocalization in communication let's go ahead and begin with objective one social interaction and we want to really motivate our discussion here Society has developed out of necessity for human beings to survive and develop and social interaction is the basis of social life and it helps humans reach their full potential social interaction is facilitated by pre-existing commonalities between individuals and shared understanding or experiences and through our social interactions we develop culture with that being said we want to identify the meaning of social interaction terms such as status role groups networks and organization and we're going to go ahead and get started first with status in most human societies people do not view every individual as an equal instead we tend to create hierarchical structures with inequalities of things like material Goods social opportunities social appearance and skills some people are rich and some are poor some are talented in sports While others are not some some are smart some are less smart Etc some are admired by others most are liked and some are even disliked or stigmatized social statuses are positions in society that are essentially used to classify individuals now there are three key types of statuses we have ascribed achieved and master an ascribed status is one that is given involuntarily usually at Birth due to factors like race ethnicity gender and family background an achieved status is a status that is gained as a result of one's efforts or choices such as being a doctor then we have master so a person they can hold multiple statuses at the same time this is collectively known as one's status St status set I'm sorry but one's Master status this is the status by which a person is most identified and this status is typically the most important status the individual holds and it affects all aspects of that person's life so for example when you take the MCAT and pass and go on to medical school and graduate being a doctor is one of those master statuses that really defines you now with that in mind something else that we want to talk about is roles each status is associated with roles or sets of beliefs values attitudes and Norms that Define expectations for those who hold the status now role performance is the carrying out of behaviors associated with a given role individuals can vary in how successful they are at performing a role now throughout our lives we assume a multitude of statuses each encompassing a diverse array of roles and we often find ourselves kind of juggling several roles simultaneously now given the intricate dynamics of our ascribed statuses those are the ones that we're born with and our Achi achieved statuses which are earned through personal effort and choices it's really inevitable that we encounter conflicts and challenges in attempting to fill the roles of each status these complexities can give rise to role conflict where meeting the demands of various roles really becomes challenging we can also experience role strain we are fulfilling different expect ations within the same role can be extremely taxing now our Master status this is the one that defines us most prominently and it very much influences a lot of aspects of Our Lives this master status can further complicate these interactions this idea of role conflict and role strain and it can add a layer of complexity to our daily existence now something else we can talk about is groups this is another major component of social interaction and in sociology terms a group which is also known as a social group it consists of two or more people who share any number of similar characteristics as well as a sense of unity now the simplest of social groups is called a diad for two people followed by a Triad for three people and as group size increases the group trades intimacy for stability social groups are more complex than a group of individuals who just happen to be in the same physical space now we really Center most of our lives around social groups social groups also meet many of the needs we have as humans these groups provide an opportunity to belong and to be accepted and they offer us protection safety and support we also learn ear in a living practice religion Etc in groups now groups can also be a source of conflict including things like discrimination oppression War these conflicts Sprout from the relationships within and between groups now what you see here in this figure is a visual representation of the different types of social groups and how they can be classified so let's go over a couple of the ones listed here and kind of just talk about them a little bit all right so here we have one example primary and secondary groups primary groups are usually small close-knit and they involve more face-to-face interaction and deeper emotional connections they often include family and close friends and are characterized by long-term relationships to contrast this secondary groups are larger they're more impersonal and they often are kind of goal oriented relationships in secondary groups they tend to be more temporary less emotionally attached they include things like co-workers or professional organizations there's also in and out groups ingroups are social groups to which an individual feels like they really belong me members in this kind of ingroup they share a sense of identity outgroups on the other hand are social groups to which an individual feels like they do not really belong they can be they can have and hold feelings of opposition or rivalry or hostility between the members here then we also have formal and informal groups formal groups are established with a defined structure specific goals they often have rules and roles now they can also include things like business corporations government agen agencies and certain structured clubs informal groups on the other hand these form naturally and they might not have a defined structure or official roles and rules they are often based on personal relationships things like shared interest or social activities play a role here then we can also talk about membership and reference groups membership groups are groups that individuals are actually a part of like a club or an organization that they belong to reference groups are groups that individuals kind of use as a standard for self assessment whether or not they are actual members so for example a person might use a professional organization in their field as a reference group for behavior and attitudes even if they're not a original member of that Professional Organization then there's interest and friendship groups interest groups are formed around a shared interest or activity such as a book club or a sports team friendship groups are formed on the basis of personal relationships and they are not necessarily formed around a specific interest or goal then last we're going to talk talk about temporary and permanent groups temporary groups are formed for a short period of time to achieve a specific goal after which the group disbands and then permanent groups are longstanding and they continue to exist indefinitely often with the goal of maintaining the group over time now understanding these classifications can be really crucial for social navigation for recognizing group dynamics and understanding one's place within various social contacts now you notice that a lot of these kinds of groups that we defined there's a lot of overlap and that's okay these groups they can influence behavior social identity and individual decision making now on the same note we can also talk about something called interaction process analysis this is a technique for observing classifying and measuring the interactions within small groups in the 1970s it it was revised to the system for multiple level observation of groups kind of um simplified and written shortly as SYM log now this is based on the belief that there are three fundamental dimensions of interaction we have dominance versus submission friendliness versus unfriendliness and instrumentally instrumentally controlled versus emotionally expressive with that we get to move into a discussion on networks the term network is used to describe the observable pattern of social relationships among individuals or groups patterns of relationships they can be determined by mapping the interactions between individual units individuals in networks they face the demands and expectations of other members constraining what they're able to do they may also have access to resources through the people they know in their Network now immediate networks are dense with strong ties whereas distant networks are looser and they contain weaker ties immediate networks may have and may be composed of friends whereas distant networks may include acquaintances now the combination of immediate and distant networks really provides the most benefit to individuals because it is augmented if the network works complementary and it usually does and that provides different kinds of resources to the individual now the last thing that we want to discuss in our first objective is organizations organizations are complex secondary groups that are set up to achieve specific goals they are characterized by having a structure and a culture now we have all been members of multiple organizations like schools companies music groups social teams fraternities and sororities political organizations community action committees and the list can go on in other words organizations are large they're structured groups and they are created to achieve goals efficiently they originated really in the industrial revolution formal organizations were designed during this time for efficiency with clear goals regulated member activities and a hierarchy of roles society's backbone is very much in its institutions which have evolved from as small as family units in prehistoric times to bureaucracies in Modern urban settings now a bureaucracy is a rational system of political organization Administration discipline and control and bureaucracies with their paid officials and strict rules are efficient for managing large administrations but they're often criticized for being rigid and slow to adapt now the law of oligarchy suggests that all organizations even Democratic ones they tend to become dominated by a small Elite group and the centralization happens as some members naturally take on leadership roles and the organization needs a dedicated core for daily operations and specialized tasks so bureaucracies are definitely criticized for that reason this formation of a small Elite group that dominates something else I want to Define is mcdonaldization this describes the shifts towards efficiency predictability calcul calculability and control in society that extends Beyond things like fast food chains into various sectors like news media and corporate decisionmaking and it really emphasizes uh profit and marketing Trends now with that we're going to go ahead and move into our second objective this objective is called self-presentation and intera inter acting with others now to motivate this objective we want to start by talking about dramaturgical perspective which was described by sociologist Irving gofman he said every interaction we have with other people is a theatrical performance in which we consciously or unconsciously use the scene we use our costume and we use that role that we perform to influence the ways others think or feel whether about us or extending outside of us now any part of a good performance very much deals with emotions and this is our segue into our conversation about expressing and detecting emotions expressed emotions include both verbal and non-verbal behaviors that communicate internal state we can express emotions with or without conscious awareness now the basic model of emotional expression was first established by Charles Darwin Darwin stated that emotional expression involves a number of components those are facial expressions behaviors postures vocal changes and even physiological changes Darwin claimed that expression is very much consistent with his theory on Evolution and it should be similar across cultures now since Darwin many researchers have found that a number of basic human emotions are indeed universally experienced and that their corresponding facial expressions are universally recognized the appraisal model is closely related here and it accepts that there are biologically predetermined Expressions once an emotion is experienced but that there is a cognitive anti-ant to emotional expression now here we can ask how are emotions shaped by social context and culture and so let's cover different models and ideas that attempt to really answer this question we have first the social construction model this assumes that there is no biological basis for emotions instead emotions are based on experiences and the situational context alone it also suggests that certain emotions can only exist within social encounters and that emotions are expressed differently and thus play different roles across cultures now in this model one must be familiar with social norms for a certain emotion to perform the cores responding emotional behaviors in a given social situation now culture provides the foundation to understand and interpret behaviors stud Studies have suggested that cultural differences can lead to very different social consequences when emotions are expressed cultural expectations of emotion are often referred to as display rules something else to talk about here and mention is cultural syndrome this this is a shared set of beliefs attitudes Norms values behaviors among members of the same culture that are organized around a central theme cultural syndrome influences the rules for expressing or suppressing emotions and it can very much even influence the ways emotions are experienced for example happiness is generally considered a positive emotion across cultures however in countries with more individualistic cultural syndromes like the US happiness is viewed as infinite attainable and internally experienced but in contrast in countries with a more collectivist cultural syndrome like Japan happiness is a very rational emotion and it's generally applied to Collective experiences more than to to individual successes or experiences now gender also plays a really important role in emotional expression research on the expression of emotion in the United States has shown that women are expected to express anger in public less often than men and they're usually viewed you know differently when they are angry in public as opposed to men while men of course are expected to repress the expression of sadness in a lot of cultures that is viewed as sometimes a weakness now research also supports the conclusion that women are better at detecting subtle differences in emotional Expressions than men do so again gender very much plays an important role in emotional expression now what I want to do is discuss impression management impression management refers to our attempts to influence how others perceive us this is done by regulating or controlling information we present about ourselves in social interactions impression management is often used synonymously with self-presentation now when we're describing impression management theorists describe three selves there's the authentic self the ideal self and the Tactical self now the authentic self s it describes who the person actually is it includes both positive and negative attributes the ideal self this refers to who we would like to be under optimal circumstances and then the Tactical self refers to who we Market ourselves to be when we adhere to others expectations of us now people use a number of impression management strategies when in the presence of others and what we want to do next is go over a couple of them as listed on this table there is self-disclosure which is giving information about oneself to establish an identity so for example disclosing that you are maybe a Premed student that is self disclosure then there's managing appear appearances this is using props appearance emotional expression or associations with others to create a positive image so for for example wearing a white coat keeping calm while dealing with difficult patients mentioning associations with important researchers during an interview those are all examples of managing appearances then there's ingratiation this is using flattery or conforming to expectations to win someone over please forgive me if I mispronounced mispronounced this word an example of this is blindly agreeing to someone else's opinion compliment m menting a friend before asking a favor these are all examples of this strategy next is aligning actions this is making questionable Behavior acceptable through excuses so you might make some justifications for missing deadlines or blaming blaming a bad grade on too little sleep or any other excuse then there's alter casting this is imposing an identity onto another person so an example um in in this course and if you're using the Kaplan books is that they will often say that as a good MCAT student you should do this and that and this is Kaplan pretty much assigning you the role of a good MCAT student which I know that you are so these are just a couple of strategies that fall under impression management now to this we want to remind ourselves that Irvin gofman he described impression management through this metaphor or of a theatrical performance right to describe how individuals create images of themselves in various situations and essentially quote unquote acted out in this analogy gofman relates a person's attempt to manage the impressions of others to an actor's performance in a play another Theory comes from George Herbert me who described the self in two parts called the me and the I the part of self that's developed through interaction with soci Society is the Me by contrast the I is the individual's own impulses now the next thing we want to move into is communication communication is the ability to convey information by speech writing signals or behavior it is the foundation of social interaction and it's often used to elicit changes or generate action or create understanding even share a point of view or inform someone effective communic a really occurs when the desired message is received by the recipient and in communication we can talk about verbal or non-verbal communication verbal communication is the transmission of information through the use of words whether that be spoken written or signed it is tied to non-verbal communication and it's often dependent on non-verbal cues for the receiver to really understand the sender's full meaning now face-to-face conversations are very much rich with nonverbal communication whether it be intentionally or unintentionally some examples of verbal communication are facial expressions tone of voice gestures body position and movement touches and even eye positioning nonverbal cues they serve a number of functions in communication they help in really delivering the message as they can include expressions of emotion um conveying uh conveying attitudes and even personality traits and facilitating that verbal communication that's already happening nonverbal communication is often dictated a lot by culture as well now humans are not the only ones who communicate we can also talk about animal signals and communication animal communication is defined as any Behavior of one animal that affects the behavior of another non-human animals communicate with one another in order to convey in information such as emotion intent status health and even the location of resources they communicate with one another through a variety of non-verbal means and this kind of includes their body language their facial expressions visual displays sometimes they'll use sense and even vocalization the use of body language is is is very common actually across a number of species body language can dictate that and animals may be frightened or maybe they're feeling aggressive or maybe they're relaxed or even embarrassed now while humans possess far finer motor control of the muscles of facial expressions still many animals do use facial expressions to indicate similar emotions to body language in addition animals may use visual displays for communication this is really common for like sex discrimination and birds females are often less colorful than males because it permits them a greater degree of camouflage and also helps them protect their young however it also serves as communication between Birds because then sex is readily Apparent from the bird's appearance alone many animals also use sense to communicate both intra specific speically so that means between members of the same species and Inter specifically so between members of different species phermones are a common example and they're given off by members of a species to usually attract a mate in addition sense can be used to mark an animal's territory or as a method of Defense lastly animals also communicate through vocalization and different animals have different levels of sopic sophistication for that now in addition to interacting in the wild humans also use both verbal and non-verbal communication when interacting with domes domesticated animals or pets um dog owners may use vocal commands to tell their pets to come or to stay or sit or be quiet additionally just the tone uh of voice can also be a good means of communicating with a pet either that you're feeling Joy or maybe anger and it communicates that information to pets back and forth for both all right for human and pets sometimes a pet May whimper or something to communicate emotion as well and the pet can also pick up on the human emotion especially after being in close proximity to their owner for a while now Communications between humans and animals is not confined strictly to pets actually um one of the most famous examples of uh animal communication is Coco a gorilla who was actually able to communicate with humans through the use of American Sign Language and their vocabulary actually had a thousand plus words so they were really able to use ASL to communicate which is amazing I think with that we've essentially covered all of the main objectives in this chapter it's a pretty short chapter but in the following video we're going to jump right into a practice problem set I hope this was helpful let me know if you have any questions comments concerns down below feel free to check out blueprint as well and at least just take advantage of their free MCAT resources they really are truly great other than that good luck happy studying and have a beautiful beautiful day future doctors