[Music] Introduction to Sociology Third Edition an Open Stacks textbook this free Audi book is a public service of Los Angeles Harbor College register for in-person and online courses today by visiting www.lahc.edu you can find this Audi book anywhere you listen to podcasts including Spotify YouTube Apple podcasts and more chapter 4 society and social [Music] interaction introduction it was a school day Anda woke up at 5:15 a.m. checked her phone and began a few chores her aunt had gone to work but had left a pile of vegetables for be cut for dinner after taking care care of that enia gathered and organized the laundry then woke up her younger cousin and sister she led them in prayers gave them breakfast and dressed for school Ania was running late so she didn't have time to record a full video instead she took a few pictures and posted a good morning clip updated her status on another platform and went to check on the younger girls 20 minutes later enia was fixing her sister's uniform and calling to her cousin to hurry along she loaded them up with their school bags and one sack of laundry each the three girls walked the 2 km to the bus station dropping the laundry at the cleaner on the way the ride to school took about 30 minutes Ania had grown up about 60 km away where her parents still lived she usually saw them on weekends she had previously attended a boarding school but those had become dangerous due to kidnappings or other trouble ania's new school was not quite as good as the old one but she was still learning she did particularly well in math and economics after school and the bus ride back enia sent her sister and her cousin to the house while she stayed in town with some friends the girls sat at the picnic tables near the basketball courts where groups of other teenagers and some adults usually came to play she didn't talk to any of the boys there but she had met several of them at her uncle's store the girls recorded a few videos together started on their homework and after about an hour headed home to help with dinner how does ania's day compare with yours how does it compare to the days of teenagers you know enia interacts with her family and friends based on individual relationships and personalities but societal norms and acceptable behaviors shape those interactions someone from outside of her community might feel that her society's expectations are too challenging While others may feel they are too lenient but annia may disagree with both perspectives she might have taken those societal expectations as her [Music] own 4.1 types of societies learning objectives by the end of this section you should be able to describe the difference between pre-industrial industrial and post-industrial societies explain the role of environment on pre-industrial societies interpret the ways that technology impacts societal development in sociological terms Society refers to a group of people who live in a definable community and share the same cultural components on a broader scale Society consists of the people and institutions around us our shared beliefs and our cultural ideas typically many societies also share a political Authority consider China and the United States both are technologically advanced have dense networks of transportation and Communications rely on foreign trading partners for large portions of their economies focus on education as a way to advance their citizens and have large and expensive militaries both countries have citizens that may be largely satisfied with their governments and ways of life while still holding some degree of distrust or discontent regarding their leaders and both have a rural versus Urban disparity that can cause tension and economic inequality among the population an individual family or even a whole office full of people in one of the countries may look and act very similarly to families or offices in the other country but what is different in China a far greater percentage of people may be involved in manufacturing than America many of China's cities didn't evolve from ports Transit centers or river confluences hundreds of years ago but are newly created Urban centers inhabited by recent transplants from other locations while citizens in the US can openly Express their dissatisfaction with their government through social activism in person or especially online Twitter Facebook and YouTube are banned in China and the Press is controlled by the government their appearance might be very similar but the two countries are very different societies sociologist ghard Linsky Jr 1924 to 2015 defined Societies in terms of their technological sophistication as a society advances so does its use of Technology societies with rudimentary technology depend on the fluctuations of their environments while industrialized societies have more control over the impact of their surroundings and thus develop different cultural features this distinction is so important that sociologists generally classify societies along a spectrum of their level of industrialization from pre-industrial to Industrial to post-industrial pre-industrial societies before the Industrial Revolution and the widespread use of machines societies were small Rural and dependent largely on local resources economic production was limited to the amount of Labor a human being could provide and there were few specialized occupations the very first occupation was that of hunter gatherer hunter gatherer hunter gatherer societies demonstrate the strongest dependence on the environment of the various types of pre-industrial societies as the basic structure of human society until about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago these groups were based around kinship or tribes hunter gatherers relied on their surroundings for survival they hunted wild animals and foraged for uncultivated plants for food when resources became scarce the group moved to a new area to find sustenance meaning they were nomadic these societies were common until several hundred years ago but today only a few hundred remain in existence such as indigenous Australian tribes sometimes referred to as Aborigines or the bambuti a group of pygmy hunter gatherers residing in the Democratic Republic of Congo hunter gatherer groups are quickly disappearing as the world's population explodes pastoral changing conditions and adaptations LED some societies to rely on the domestication of animals where circumstances permitted roughly 7,500 years ago human societies began to recognize their ability to tame and breed animals and to grow and cultivate their own plants pastoral societies such as the Masai villagers rely on the domestication of animals as a resource for survival unlike earlier hunter gatherers who depended entirely on existing resources to stay alive pastoral groups were able to breed livestock for food clothing and transportation and they created a surplus of goods hering or pastoral societies remained nomadic because they were forced to follow their animals to Fresh feeding grounds around the time that pastoral societies emerged specialized occupations began to develop and societies commenced trading with local groups Horticultural around the same time that pastoral societies were on the rise another type of society developed based on the newly developed capacity for people to grow and cultivate plants previously the depletion of a Region's crops or water supply forced pastoral societies to relocate in search of food sources for their livestock Horticultural societies formed in areas where rainfall and other conditions allow owed them to grow stable crops they were similar to hunter gatherers in that they largely depended on the environment for survival but since they didn't have to abandon their location to follow resources they were able to start permanent settlements this created more stability and more material goods and became the basis for the first revolution in human survival agricultural while pastoral and Horticultural Society ities used small temporary tools such as digging sticks or hose agricultural societies relied on permanent tools for survival around 3,000 BCE an explosion of new technology known as the Agricultural Revolution made farming possible and profitable Farmers learned to rotate the types of crops grown on their fields and to reuse waste products such as manure as fertilizer which led to better harvests and bigger surpluses of food new tools for digging and harvesting were made of metal and this made them more effective and longer lasting human settlements grew into towns and cities and particularly Bountiful regions became centers of trade and commerce this is also the age in which people had the time and comfort to engage in more contemplative and thoughtful activities such as music poetry and philosophy this period became referred to as the dawn of Civilization by some because of the development of leisure and Humanities crafts people were able to support themselves through the production of creative decorative or thought-provoking aesthetic objects and writings as resources became more plentiful social classes became more divisive those who had more resources could afford Better Living and developed into a class of nobility difference in social standing between men and women increased As Cities expanded ownership and preservation of resources became a pressing concern feudal the 9th century gave rise to feudal societies these societies contained a strict hierarchical system of power based around land ownership and protection the nobility known as Lords placed vassals in charge of pieces of land in return for the resources that the land provided vassals promised to fight for their Lords these individual pieces of land known as fums were cultivated by the lower class in return for maintaining the land peasants were guaranteed a place to live and protection from outside enemies power was handed down through Family Lines with peasant families serving Lords for generations and generations ultimately the social and economic system of feudalism failed and was replaced by capitalism and the technological advances of the industrial era sociology in the real world where societies meet the worst and the best when cultures meet technology can help hinder and even destroy the Exxon Valdez oil spillage in Alaska nearly destroyed the local inhabitants entire way of life oil spills in the Nigerian Delta have forced many of the ogoni tribe from their land and forced removal has meant that over 100,000 jooni have sought refuge in the country of Benin University of Michigan and the massive deep waterer Horizon oil spill of 2010 Drew great attention as it occurred in the United States environmental disasters continue as Western technology and its need for energy expands into less developed peripheral regions of the globe of course not all technology is bad we take electric light for granted in the United States Europe and the rest of the developed World such light extends the day and allows us to work read and travel at night it makes us safer and more productive but regions in India Africa and elsewhere are not so fortunate meeting the challenge one particular organization Barefoot College located in District IMR Rajasthan India works with numerous less developed Nations to bring solar electricity Water Solutions and education the focus for the Solar projects is the village Elders the elders agree to select two grandmothers to be trained as solar engineers and choose a village vill committee composed of men and women to help operate the solar program the program has brought light to over 450,000 people in 1,5 villages the environmental rewards include a large reduction in the use of kerosene and in carbon dioxide emissions the fact that the villagers are operating the projects themselves helps minimize their sense of dependence industrial society in the 18th century Europe EXP experienced a dramatic rise in technological invention ushering in an era known as the Industrial Revolution what made this period remarkable was the number of new inventions that influenced people's daily lives within a generation tasks that had until this point required months of Labor became achievable in a matter of days before the Industrial Revolution work was largely person or animal-based and relied on human workers or horses to power Mills and drive pumps in 1782 James Watt and Matthew Bolton created a steam engine that could do the work of 12 horses by itself steam power began appearing everywhere instead of paying Artisans to painstakingly spin wool and weave it into cloth people turned to textile mills that produced fabric quickly at a better price and often with better quality rather than planting and harvesting Fields by hand farmers were able to purchase mechanical Cedars and threshing machines that caused agricultural productivity to soar products such as paper and glass became available to the average person and the quality and accessibility of education and Health Care soared gas lights allowed increased visibility in the dark and towns and cities developed a nightlife one of the results of in increased productivity and Technology was the rise of urban centers workers flocked to factories for jobs and the populations of cities became increasingly diverse the new generation became less preoccupied with maintaining family land and traditions and more focused on acquiring wealth and achieving upward Mobility for themselves and their families people wanted their children and their children's children to continue to rise to the top and as capitalism increased so did social Mobility it was during the 18th and 19th centuries of the Industrial Revolution that sociology was born life was changing quickly and the long-established traditions of the Agricultural eras did not apply to life in the larger cities masses of people were moving to New environments and often found themselves faced with horrendous conditions of Filth overcrowding and poverty social scientists emerged to study the relationship between the individual members of society and society as a whole it was during this time that power moved from the hands of the aristocracy and old money to business savvy newcomers who amassed Fortunes in their lifetimes families such as the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts became the new Power Players and used their influence in business to control aspects of government as well eventually concerns over the exploitation of workers led to the formation of labor unions and laws that set mandatory conditions for employees although the introduction of new technology at the end of the 19th century ended the Industrial Age much of our social structure and social ideas like family childhood and time standardization have a basis in industrial society post-industrial Society Information Society sometimes known as post-industrial or digital societies are a recent development unlike industrial societies that are rooted in the production of material Goods information societies are based on the production of information and services digital technology is the steam engine of information societies and computer Moguls such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are its John D Rockefellers and Cornelius Vanderbilts since the economy of information societies is driven by knowledge and not Material Goods power lies with those in charge of storing and distributing information members of a post-industrial society are likely to be employed as sellers of services software programmers or Business Consultants for example instead of producers of goods social classes are divided by access to education since without technical skills people in an information Society lack the means for [Music] Success 4.2 theoretical perspectives on society learning objectives by the end of this section you should be able to describe durkheim's functionalist view of society summarize the conflict theorist view of society explain Marx's concepts of class and alienation identify how symbolic interactionists understand Society while many sociologists have contributed to research on society and social interaction three thinkers formed the base of modern-day perspectives Emil durkheim Carl Marx and Max vber developed different theoretical approaches to help us understand the way societies function Emil durkheim and functionalism as a functionalist Emil durkheim's perspective on society stress the necessary interconnectivity of all of its elements to durkheim society was greater than the sum of its parts he asserted that individual Behavior was not the same as collective behavior and that studying Collective Behavior was quite different from studying an individual's actions durkheim called the communal beliefs morals and attitudes of a society the collective conscience in his quest to understand what causes individuals to act in similar and predictable ways he wrote If I do not submit to the conventions of society if in my dress I do not conform to the Customs observed in my country and in my class the ridicule I provoke the social isolation in which I am kept produce although in an attenuated form the same effects as punishment durkheim also believed that social integration or the strength of ties that people have to their social groups was a key factor in social life following the ideas of compt and Spencer durkheim Likens Society to a living organism in which each organ plays a necessary role in keeping the being alive even the socially deviant members of society are necessary durkheim argued as punishments for deviant affirm established cultural values and norms that is punishment of a crime reaffirms our moral Consciousness in 1893 durkheim wrote a crime is a crime because we condemn it an act offends the common Consciousness not because it is Criminal but it is Criminal because it offends that Consciousness durkheim called these elements of society social facts by this he meant that social forces were to be considered real and existed outside the IND individual as an observer of his social world durkheim was not entirely satisfied with the direction of society in his day his primary concern was that the cultural glue that held Society together was failing and people were becoming more divided in his book the division of labor in society 1893 durkheim argued that as Society grew more complex social order made the transition from mechanical to organic pre-industrial societies durkheim explained were held together by mechanical solidarity a type of social order maintained by the collective conscience of a culture societies with mechanical solidarity act in a mechanical fashion things are done mostly because they have always been done that way this type of thinking was common in pre-industrial societies where strong bonds of kinship and a low division of labor created shared morals and values among people such as hunter gatherer groups when people tend to do the same type of work durkheim argued they tend to think and act alike in industrial societies mechanical solidarity is replaced with Organic solidarity which is social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences in capitalist societies durkheim wrote division of labor becomes so specialized that everyone is doing different things instead of punishing members of a society for failure to assimilate to common values organic solidarity allows people with differing values to coexist laws exist as formalized morals and are based on restitution rather than revenge while the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity is in the long run advantageous for a society durkheim noted that it can be a time of chaos and normlessness one of the outcomes of the transition is something he called social animy animy literally without law is a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm Collective Consciousness Collective Norms are weakened people while more interdependent to accomplish complex tasks are also alienated from each other enemy is experienced in times of social uncertainty such as war or a great upturn or downturn in the economy as societies reach an advanced stage of organic solidarity they avoid anemy by redeveloping a set of shared Norms according to durkheim once a society achieves organic solidarity it has finished its development Carl Marx and conflict theory Carl Marx 1818 to 1883 is certainly among the most significant social thinkers in recent history while there are many critics of his work it is still widely respected and influential for Marx society's constructions were predicated upon the idea of base and super structure this term refers to the idea that a society's economic character forms its base upon which rests the culture and social instit tions the super structure for Marks it is the base economy that determines what a society will be like additionally Mark saw conflict in society as the primary means of change economically he saw conflict existing between the owners of the means of production the Bourgeois and the laborers called the proletariat Marx maintained that these conflicts appeared consistently throughout history during times of social Revolution these revolutions or class antagonisms as he called them were a result of one class dominating another most recently with the end of feudalism a new revolutionary class he called the bisi dominated the proletariat laborers the bisi were revolutionary in the sense that they represented a radical change in the structure of society in Marx's words society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps into two great classes directly facing each other Bourgeois and proletariat in the mid 19th century as industrialization was booming industrial employers the owners of the means of production in Marx's terms became more and more exploitative toward the working class the large manufacturers of Steel were particular L ruthless and their facilities became popularly dubbed satanic Mills based on a poem by William Blake Marx's colleague and friend Frederick Engles wrote the condition of the working class in England in 1844 which described in detail the horrid conditions such is the old town of Manchester and on rereading my description I am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated it is far from black enough to convey a true impression of the filth ruin and uninhabitable the Defiance of all considerations of cleanliness ventilation and health which characterize the construction of this single District containing at least 20 to 30,000 inhabitants and such a district exists in the heart of the Second City of England the first manufacturing city of the world add to that the long hours the use of child labor and exposure to extreme conditions of heat cold and toxic chemical and it is no wonder that Marx and Engles referred to capitalism which is a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products such as land oil factories ships Etc are owned by individual people in companies rather than by the government as the dictatorship of the Bourgeois for Marx what we do defines who we are in historical terms in spite of the precis nature of one class dominating another some element of humanity existed there was at least some connection between the worker and the product augmented by the natural conditions of seasons and the rise and fall of the sun such as we see in an Agricultural Society but with the Bourgeois Revolution and the rise of industry and capitalism the worker now worked for wages alone his relationship to his efforts was no longer of a human nature but based based on artificial conditions Marx described modern society in terms of alienation alienation refers to the condition in which the individual is isolated and divorced from his or her Society work or the sense of self Marx defined four specific types of alienation alienation from the product of one's labor an industrial worker does not have the opportunity to relate to the product he labors on in instead of training for years as a watch maker an unskilled worker can get a job at a watch Factory pressing buttons to seal pieces together the worker does not care if he is making watches or cars simply that the job exists in the same way a worker may not even know or care what product to which he is contributing a worker on a Ford assembly line may spend all day installing Windows on car doors without ever seeing the rest of the car a caner work worker can spend a lifetime cleaning fish without ever knowing what product they are used for alienation from the process of one's labor a worker does not control the conditions of her job because she does not own the means of production if a person is hired to work in a fast food restaurant she is expected to make the food the way she is taught all ingredients must be combined in a particular order and in a particular quantity there is no room for creativity or change an employee at Burger King cannot decide to change the spices used on the fries in the same way that an employee on a Ford assembly line cannot decide to place a car's headlights in a different position everything is decided by The bisi Who then dictate orders to the laborers alienation from others workers compete rather than cooperate employees VI for time slots bonuses and job security even when a worker clocks out at night and goes home the competition does not end as Marx commented in The Communist Manifesto 1848 no sooner is the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer so far at an end that he receives his wages in cash than he is set upon by the other portion of the bis the landlord the shopkeeper the pond broker alien from oneself a final outcome of industrialization is a loss of connectivity between a worker and her occupation because there is nothing that ties a worker to her labor there is no longer a sense of self instead of being able to take pride in an identity such as being a watchmaker automobile Builder or Chef a person is simply a cog in the machine taken as a whole then alienation in modern society means that an individual has no control over his life even in feudal societies a person controlled the manner of his labor as to when and how it was carried out but why then does the modern working class not rise up and rebel indeed Marx predicted that this would be the ultimate outcome and collapse of capitalism another idea that markx developed is the concept of false consciousness false consciousness is a condition in which the beliefs ideals or ideology of a person are not in the person's own best interest in fact it is the ideology of the dominant class here the Bourgeois capitalists that is imposed upon the proletariat ideas such as the emphasis of competition over cooperation or of hard work being its own reward clearly benefit the owners of Industry therefore workers are less likely to to question their place in society and assume individual responsibility for existing conditions in order for society to overcome false consciousness Marx proposed that it be replaced with class Consciousness the awareness of one's rank in society instead of existing as a class in itself the proletariat must become a class for itself in order to produce social change marks and Ingles 1848 meaning that instead of just being an inert strata of society the class could become an advocate for social improvements only once Society entered this state of political Consciousness would it be ready for a social Revolution Max wber and symbolic interactionism while Carl Marx may be one of the best known thinkers of the 19th century Max wber is certainly one of the greatest influences in the field of Sociology like the other social think aners discussed here he was concerned with the important changes taking place in Western Society with the Advent of industrialization and like Marx and durkheim he feared that industrialization would have negative effects on individuals vaper's primary focus on the structure of society lay in the elements of class status and power similar to Marx vber saw class as economically determined Society believed was split between owners and laborers status on the other hand was based on non-economic factors such as education kinship and religion both status and class determined an individual's power or influence over ideas unlike Marx vber believed that these ideas formed the base of society V's analysis of modern society centered on the concept of rationalization a rational Society Society is one built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition to vber capitalism is entirely rational although this leads to efficiency and merit-based success it can have negative effects when taken to the extreme in some Modern societies this is seen when rigid routines and strict design lead to a mechanized work environment and a focus on producing identical products in every location another example of the extreme conditions of rationality can be found in Charlie chaplain's classic film modern times 1936 chaplain's character performs a routine task to the point where he cannot stop his motions even while away from the job Indeed today we even have a recognized medical condition that results from such tasks known as repetitive stress syndrome Weber was also unlike his predecessor in that he was more interested in how individuals experienced societal divisions than in the divisions themselves the symbolic interactionism Theory the third of the three most recognized theories of sociology is based on vaper's early ideas that emphasize the Viewpoint of the individual and how that individual relates to Society for vber the culmination of industrialization rationalization and the like results in what he referred to as the iron cage in which the individual is trapped by institutions and bureaucracy this leads to a sense of disenchantment of the world a phrase Weber used to describe the final condition of humanity indeed a dark prediction but one that has at least to some degree been born out girth and Mills 1918 in a rationalized modern society we have supermarkets instead of family-owned stores we have chain restaurants instead of local eateries Superstores that offer a multitude of merchandise have replaced independent businesses that focused on one product line such as Hardware groceries automotive repair or clothing shopping malls offer retail stores restaurants fitness centers even Condominiums this change may be rational but is it universally desirable big picture the Protestant work ethic in a series of essays in 1904 Max vber presented the idea of the Protestant work ethic a new attitude toward work based on the calvinist principle of predestination in the 16th century Europe was shaken by the Protestant Revolution religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin argued against the Catholic Church's belief in Salvation through obedience while Catholic leaders emphasized the importance of religious dogma and Performing Good Deeds as a gateway to to Heaven Protestants believed that inner Grace or faith in God was enough to achieve salvation John Calvin in particular popularized the Christian concept of predestination the idea that all events including salvation have already been decided by God because followers were never sure whether they had been chosen to enter Heaven or Hell they looked for signs in their everyday lives if a person was hardworking and successful he was likely to be one of the chosen if a person was lazy or simply indifferent he was likely to be one of the Damned Weber argued that this mentality encouraged people to work hard for personal gain after all why should one help the unfortunate if they were already damned over time the Protestant work ethics spread and became the foundation for [Music] capitalism 4.3 social constructions of reality learning objectives by the end of this section you should be able to interpret the sociological concept of reality as a social construct Define roles and describe their places in people's daily interactions explain how individuals present themselves and perceive themselves in a social context until now we've primarily discussed the differences between societies rather than discuss their problems and configurations we now explore how Society came to be and how sociologists view social interaction in 1966 sociologists Peter berer and Thomas Luckman wrote a book called the social construction of reality in it they argued that Society is created by humans and human interaction which they call habitualization habitualization describes how any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern which can then be performed again in the future in the same manner and with the same economical effort not only do we construct our own Society but we also accept it as it is because others have created it before us Society is in fact habit for example your school exists as a school and not just as a building because you and others agree that it is a school if your school is older than you are it was created by the agreement of others before you in a sense it exists by consensus both prior and current this is an example of the process of institutionalization the act of implanting a convention or Norm into society bear in mind that the institution while socially constructed is still quite real another way of looking at this concept is through wi Thomas's notable Thomas theorem which states if men Define situations as real they are real in their consequences that is people's behavior can be determined by their subjective construction of reality rather than by objective reality for example a teenager who has repeatedly given a label overachiever player bum might live up to the term even though it initially wasn't a part of his character like Berger and Luckman in their description of habitualization Tomas states that our moral codes and social norms are created by successive definitions of the situation this concept is defined by sociologist Robert K Merton as a self-fulfilling prophecy Merton explains that with a self-fulfilling prophecy even a false idea can become true if it is acted upon one example he gives is of a bank run say for some reason a number of people false L fear that their bank is soon to be bankrupt because of this false notion people run to their bank and demand all of their cash at once as Banks rarely if ever have that much money on hand the bank does indeed run out of money fulfilling the customer's prophecy here reality is constructed by an idea symbolic interactionists offer another lens through which to analyze the social construction of reality with a theoretical perspective focused on the symbols like language gestures and artifacts that people use to interact this approach is interested in how people interpret those symbols in Daily interactions interactionists also recognize that language and Body Language reflect our values one has only to learn a foreign tongue to know that not every English word can be easily translated into another language the same is true for gesture while Americans might recognize a thumbs up as meaning great in Germany it would mean one and in Japan it would mean five thus our construction of reality is influenced by our symbolic interactions roles and status as you can imagine people employ many types of behaviors in day-to-day life roles are patterns of behavior that we recognize in each other that are representative of a person's social status currently while reading this text you are playing the role of a student however you also play other roles in your life such as daughter neighbor or employee these various roles are each associated with a different status sociologists use the term status to describe the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to their Rank and role in in society some statuses are ascribed those you do not select such as son elderly person or female others called achieved statuses are obtained by choice such as a high school dropout self-made millionaire or nurse as a daughter or son you occupy a different status than as a neighbor or employee one person can be associated with a multitude of roles and statuses even a single status such as student has a complex role set or array of roles attached to it it is important to note that status refers to the rank in social hierarchy while role is the behavior expected of a person holding a certain status if too much is required of a single role individuals can experience role strain consider the duties of a parent cooking cleaning driving problem solving acting as a source of moral guidance the list goes on similarly a person can experience role conflict when one or more roles are contradictory a parent who also has a full-time career can experience role conflict on a daily basis when there is a deadline at the office but a sick child needs to be picked up from school which comes first when you are working toward a promotion but your children want you to come to their school play which do you choose being a college student can can conflict with being an employee being an athlete or even being a friend our roles in life have a great effect on our decisions and who we become presentation of self of course it is impossible to look inside a person's head and study what role they are playing all we can observe is behavior or role performance role performance is how a person expresses his or her role sociologist Irving gothman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage calling his theory dramaturgy gofman believed that we use impression management to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived each situation is a new scene and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present think about the way you behave around your co-workers versus the way you behave around your GR grandparents versus the way you behave with a blind date even if you're not consciously trying to alter your personality your grandparents co-workers and date probably see different sides of you as in a play the setting matters as well if you have a group of friends over to your house for dinner you are playing the role of a host it is agreed upon that you will provide food and seating and probably be stuck with a lot of the cleanup at the end end of the night similarly your friends are playing the roles of guests and they are expected to respect your property and any rules you may set forth for instance don't leave the door open or the cat will get out in any scene there needs to be a shared reality between players in this case if you view yourself as a guest and others view you as a host there are likely to be problems impression management is a critical component of symbolic interactionism for example a judge in a courtroom has many props to create an impression of fairness gravity and control like their robe and gavel those entering the courtroom are expected to adhere to the scene being set just imagine the impression that can be made by how a person dresses this is the reason that attorneys frequently select the hairstyle and apparel for Witnesses and defendants in courtroom proc proceedings goffman's dramaturgy ideas expand on the ideas of Charles kolie and the Looking Glass self according to kie we base our image on what we think other people see we imagine how we must appear to others then react to this speculation we Dawn certain clothes prepare our hair in a particular manner wear makeup use cologne and the like all with the notion that our presentation of ourselves is going to affect how others perceive us we expect a certain reaction and if Lucky we get the one we desire and feel good about it but more than that believe that our sense of self is based upon this idea we imagine how we look to others draw conclusions based upon their reactions to us and then we develop our personal sense of self in other words people's reactions to us are like a mirror in which we are reflected this has been Introduction to Sociology Third Edition from Open Stacks Open Stacks textbooks and this free audio book are covered under a Creative Commons license the full text is available at www.ops.org this project was made possible by the Los Angeles Harbor College Foundation Los Angeles Harbor College is a public Community College and your gateway to an affordable and outstanding college education you can register for in-person and online courses today by visiting www.lahc.edu whether you are just starting your college Journey nearing graduation or planning to transfer to a university LC can help you achieve your educational goals you can find this Audi book anywhere you listen to podcasts including Spotify YouTube Apple podcasts and more instructors can also 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