Social Structure & Interaction

1. Ascribing statuses in society will give each person a role. This will give people a path
on how they should live their lives whether it be treating others, jobs, morals, goals, etc.
For example in some cultures people are born with one goal or job that their parents give
to them. Its tradition in India for people to have arranged marriages. This shows that
people are fixated around that goal in life. For achieved statuses, these are gained through
his or her lifetime with the amount of work and commitment. A great example of this
would be the American dream. Everyone wants to be rich, famous, have a nice family,
with a nice car, and a pet. Its not easy to gain when you start with nothing. Its up to that
person to work hard in life to gain all that. In the end will it be worth it when they look
back at what they have accomplished. A reference group is a group of individuals, such as
a foundation or company, that another group or a person compares themselves towards.
This can be used as a point of reference or a goal set. These groups are shown or
experienced in society when an individual joins their group. The group helps each
individual feel more secure. Instead of being alone in the world, where someone can feel
lonely and that they dont matter, they can join a group of people with the same goal set.
Together that can achieve certain statuses or feel better about themselves because they
are making a difference together. - Allen Chau
2. Social role is a set of expectation given to an individual in society. An example of
social role would be someone who works at Target or any other stores. Their expectation
is to help customers, service, and maybe organize/clean up stock. Role exit is when you
are disengaging your identity to become another identity. I would not have the same
behavior at home and at work. When Im at home, Im more relax. I am able to be lazy
and do anything I please. However, when Im at work I am focused and not breaking any
rules. A person can violate their role, by not being what is expected. With socialization
process, we learn values and attitudes from various of cultures. We are constantly doing
the process over and over every time we role exit. Primary groups are small groups
characterized by face to face conversations. Secondary groups are more formal, where
there are little to no intimacy. Primary group can be friends talking to each other over
lunch. And secondary group is like a business convention or banquet. - Vivian Tran
3. The in and out group is a basic way of classifying groups and cliques of people who
tend to stick together with one another easily, or people who stick out like sore thumbs in
an audience. One way of remembering the two phrases is the in group being easily able to
fit in, where as the out group are like outcasts. The in group is connected to the primary
group by the connections they have together in terms of bonds, experiences, similar
perspectives, etc. One example given by the book when describing the primary group
were teammates, because together they all strive to win the game and work hard with
each other during practices to build a reputation for themselves. The out group is
connected to the secondary groups because they do not share much similarity in terms of
beliefs and social skills. The example provided by the book was depicting how the
school jock doesnt associate much with the science geeks because their ultimate
goals in life are clearly in opposite paths and do not intersect much at all, thus putting
them into the out/secondary group category. - Bergenia Yu
4. The five functional prerequisites that a society must satisfy if it is to survive include
families, education, religion, government, and economy. Families guarantee the worlds
existence as they provide new generations each year. Not only do they produce children

they also teach social reproduction, teaching their children a culture for survival. Families
also offer love and safety for their members. Education is a doorway to teach formal and
public culture norms to become members of a larger society. Education not only teaches
academic concepts but it also allows one to learn how to interact with others beyond their
family. Religion is described as glue that grips together by creating a strong identity with
common principles and practices, answering essential inquiries about meaning, and
applying both individual and shared regulation. Government aids in sustaining internal
stability and order by the use of regulations, policy, and punishment. Government also
plays a vital role in creating secure friendships with other civilizations through the use of
diplomacy. Economy controls manufacture, circulation, and consumption of every
good/service offered.
Mechanical solidarity is a social unity grounded on joint experiences, wisdom, and
abilities in which things operate like they have always have been. Societies that utilize
mechanical solidarity basically function like a machine and have little to no change over
time. Individuals undertake the same tasks each day. These skills are learned from
previous generations like their parents or grandparents. Each generation is basically a
split image of the previous. Organic solidarity is a social unity grounded on shared
independence in the setting of intense distribution of labor. The numerous elements that
piece together a society understand that they need each other and must work together like
organs do in the human body. Each person is in charge of performing a fundamental
function and none are capable of living alone. Destiny Escamilla