Social Interaction in Everyday Life

1. Social Interaction in Everyday Life

2. Social Structure • Status • Role

3. Status • Ascribed status • Received at birth or involuntarily assumed • Achieved status • Voluntary • Master status • Special importance for your identity • Status set

4. Role • Behavior expected on someone who holds a particular status • Role conflict • Employee and husband • Role strain • Supervisor and friend • Role exit

5. The social construction of reality • People creatively shape reality through interaction • Thomas theorem • “Situations that are defined as real become real in their consequences” • “Definition of the Situation”

6. Dramaturgical Analysis • Erving Goffman • Sees society as a theatrical performance • Presentation of self • Efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others • Performance • Costumes, props, tone of voice, etc.

7. Getting the humor in a joke • Audience must inferentially complete the joke in their minds • Audience must understand the two realities involved, and appreciate their difference