Lecture 6: Social Interaction

• Textbook:
• Chapter 5: Social Interaction and Everyday Life

• Required Reading:
• “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional
contagion through social networks”
 Social Interaction
• Social interaction: The process by which we act and react
to those around us
• Microsociology: The study of social interaction
• Seemingly trivial aspects of everyday social behavior are
important to sociologists
• We can learn a great deal about ourselves as social
beings and larger social institutions by studying ordinary
routines
• All large-scale social systems depends on social
interaction we engage in daily
How Do We Manage Impressions in Daily Life?
• Erving Goffman compared social life to theater
• People are actors who play their social roles on stage
• We are sensitive to how we are viewed by others 
• Impression management: Strategies to compel others to
react to us in the way we wish
• We usually engage in impression management without
conscious attention, although sometimes it is a
calculated action
How Do We Manage Impressions in Daily Life?
• Impression management:
• Every person possesses a self that is fragile and
vulnerable to embarrassment
• People are attuned to what others think of them and
how they are being viewed
• In social interaction people collaborate with each
other to make sure that the encounter ends without
embarrassment for anyone
• “Saving face”: the rules of cooperation and
politeness
Impression Management & Social Media
Facebook Emotional Contagion Experiment
 Facebook Emotional Contagion Experiment
• Almost 700K Facebook users were randomly selected
• For 1 week (January 11-18, 2012), FB manipulated the
emotional content of these people’s news feed:
• For some people, friends’ positive emotional posts were
reduced
• For other, people friends’ negative emotional posts were
reduced
• Results:
• When positive content was reduced, people produced
fewer positive posts and more negative posts
• When negative content was reduced, the opposite
pattern occurred
• Emotions expressed by our Facebook friends influence our
own emotions - massive-scale contagion via social networks
Facebook Emotional Contagion
 Facebook Emotional Contagion Experiment
• Editorial Expression of Concern:
• “As a private company Facebook was under no
obligation to conform to the provisions of the [the US
Department of Health and Human Services Policy for the
Protection of Human Research Subjects]. It is
nevertheless a matter of concern that the collection of
the data by Facebook may have involved practices that
were not fully consistent with the principles of
obtaining informed consent and allowing participants
to opt out.”
Facebook Emotional Contagion
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/10/08/446984691/beyond-the-
like-button-facebook-comes-to-our-emotional-rescue
 Ethnomethodology
• Ethnomethodology = The study of how people make sense
of what others say and do in everyday interaction
• “Ethnomethods” = Routine ways by which people sustain
meaningful exchanges with one another
• Harold Garfinkel
• “Background expectancies” are taken for granted rules
that govern our ordinary conversations
• We apply them automatically and become aware of
them only when they are disrupted
 Ethnomethodology
• A: “Have a nice day!”
• Garfinkel’s student: “Nice day in what sense exactly?
Which part of the day do you mean?”

• A: “How are you?”

• Garfinkel’s student: “How am I in regard to what? My
health, my finances, my school, my work?”
• A: “Look! I was just trying to be polite. Frankly, I don’t
give damn how you are.”
 Ethnomethodology
• Why do people get upset when minor conventions of talk
are not followed?
• Stability and meaningfulness of our daily social lives
depends on the sharing of unstated cultural
assumptions about what is said and why
• Seemingly unimportant conventions of talk are
fundamental to social life, and their breach is very
serious
 Ethnomethodology:
Examples of “Rule Breaking”

• Mr. Bean “At The Restaurant”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHlhosC9IJ0
• Mr. Bean “First-Class Flight”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE6PvNohffc
 What is Gender?
• Sex:
• Biological differences distinguishing males and
females
• Gender:
• Social norms and expectations that define
behaviors as appropriate for men and women
• Socially formed traits of masculinity and
femininity
 Theories of Gender
• Biological
• Social and psychological:
• Gender socialization
• Structural functionalism
• Social construction
• Gender stratification
• Intersectionality
 Biological Approach
• Gender differences in behavior are affected by
biological factors, including genetics, hormones, and
brain physiology
• For example:
• Testosterone is linked to aggression and risk-
taking
• Estrogen may protect women against heart
disease by reducing levels of “bad” cholesterol
(low-density lipoprotein)
• In contrast, testosterone increases low-density
lipoprotein
 Social and Psychological Theories
• Biological factors are not sufficient to explain behavior
because physiological processes are inextricable from
social contexts and norms
• Gender differences in behavior reflect social and
cultural forces more than biological endowments
 Gender Socialization
• Learning of gender roles through family, schools, peers,
media, and everyday life
• During socialization children internalize social norms and
expectations corresponding to their sex
• Children are guided by positive and negative sanctions to
reward or restrain certain behaviors
• For example:
• Positive sanctions for complying with masculinity:
“What a brave boy you are!”)
• Negative sanctions for violating these expectations:
“Boys don’t play with dolls. What are you, a sissy?”
Gender Socialization
Gender Socialization
Gender Socialization
 Structural Functionalism
• Talcott Parsons:
• Socializing agents help maintain the continuation of the
existing social order by overseeing gender socialization of
new generations
• Stable, supportive families are the key to successful
socialization
 Structural Functionalism
• Talcott Parsons:
• Families operate most efficiently with a clear-cut division of
labor:
• Women carry out expressive roles (providing comfort,
care, and emotional support for children and husbands)
• Men carry out instrumental roles (most importantly,
breadwinning)
 Structural Functionalism
• Talcott Parsons:
• This division of labor, springing from biological sex
differences, ensures solidarity and stability of the family
 Social Construction: Doing Gender
• Gender is more than learning to act like a girl or boy
• We all “do gender” in our daily interactions with others
(West and Zimmerman, 1987)
• Recall impression management
• In every interaction, we present ourselves as male or
female through behaviors, fashion, hairstyle, tone of voice,
and countless other means
• This process of “doing gender” underscores how gender
is “socially constructed” in interaction
• A social constructionist perspective to gender suggests
that gender is not what people are, but what they do
 “Doing Gender”

Journalist Norah Vincent spent 18 months disguised as a Essentials of Sociology, Fourth Edition
man, and chronicled her experiences in a 2006 book. Copyright © 2013, W.W. Norton & Company
 “Doing Gender”
• Norah Vincent “Self-Made Men: One Woman’s Year
Disguised as a Man”
• Reveals how gender is performed in everyday life

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip7kP_dd6LU
 “Social Constructions of Masculinity”
• Men in the United States suffer more severe chronic
conditions, have higher death rates, and die younger
than women
• Men’s life expectancy 76 years
• Women’s life expectancy 81 years
 “Constructions of Masculinity”
• Health-related beliefs and behaviors: Men more likely
than women to adopt beliefs and behaviors that
increase their risks, and are less likely to engage in
behaviors that promote health and longevity
• Men’s risky behaviors are resources for “doing” or
constructing masculinity => “constructions of
masculinity”
 “Constructions of Masculinity”
• Health-related beliefs and behaviors used to demonstrate
masculinity and power:
– Denial of weakness or vulnerability
– Emotional and physical control
– Appearance of being strong and robust
– Dismissal of any need for help
– Display of aggressive behavior and physical
dominance
 “Constructions of Masculinity”
• Men construct masculinity when they
– refuse to take sick leave from work
– insist that they need little sleep
– say that drinking does not impair their driving
– engage in risky behaviors, such as driving
dangerously or performing risky sports
– choose certain foods, clothing, etc.
 Gender Stratification Theory
• Gender differences in status, power, and other
socially valued resources
• Gender Inequality:
• Inequality between men and women in terms of
power, wealth, income, status, and other socially
valued resources
• Women are employed in less prestigious, lower-
paying jobs than men
• Women are more likely to experience poverty and
economic hardship than men
• Women have higher total workload combining paid
work with housework and childcare responsibilities
 Social Explanations for Gender Stratification

• How stereotypes impair women’s careers in science

• http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/05/1314788111.
abstract
 How stereotypes impair women’s careers in science
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/05/1314788111.abstract
Gender Composition of Orchestras
https://news.ncsu.edu/2014/12/macnell-gender-2014/
https://news.ncsu.edu/2014/12/macnell-gender-2014/
 Intersectionality
• Gender, class, and race jointly affect the experiences of
women and men
• There is no single, unified gender identity and
experience shared by everyone
• Instead, many different standpoints are equally valid.
Women—rich and poor, black and white, immigrant and
native-born—may share similar biological
characteristics, yet their social experiences are vastly
different
Death rates
 Stratification, Class, and Inequality
• Textbook, Chapter 8:
• Pp. 162-168, 171-182 (lecture)
 Social Stratification
• Social Stratification:
• Inequalities among individuals and groups in
modern societies
• Differences in wealth and power

• Forms of stratification:
• Class
• Gender, race, ethnicity, age
 Social Stratification
• Class:
• Large group of people who occupy a similar
economic position
• Life chances: Opportunities for achieving
economic prosperity
• Disadvantaged background – less chance of
ending up wealthy
• The best chance of being wealthy is to start off
as wealthy
 Class Systems
• How is social class defined in the US?
• Income
• Wealth
• Education
• Occupation
 Class Systems
• Income:
• Payment from wages and salaries
• Income inequality in 2009:
• Top 5% of households received 21.7% of the total
income
• Top 20% of households received 50.3% of the
total income
• Bottom 20% of households received only 3.4% of
the total income
 Class Systems
• Wealth
• All assets individuals own: cash, savings and
checking accounts, investments in stocks and
bonds, real estate, etc.
 Class Systems
• Education:
• Importance of education increased in the past 20
years
• Growing demand for educated workers in
technology- and information-based economy
• College graduates earn on average 20K more a year
than people who did not graduate from college
• Inequality among college graduates:
• Undergraduate degrees that require numerical competencies
(engineering and computers) earn more than education and
liberal arts
• Undergraduate degrees:
• Highest annual salary: 120K petroleum engineering
• Lowest annual salary: 29K counseling psychology
 Class Systems
• Occupation:
Occupation Rank (1 = most prestigious; 16 = least
prestigious)
Accountant _________________________________
Cab driver _________________________________
Carpenter _________________________________
Classical musician _________________________________
Electrical engineer _________________________________
Garbage collector _________________________________
Journalist _________________________________
Physician _________________________________
Police officer _________________________________
Real estate agent _________________________________
Registered nurse _________________________________
Secretary _________________________________
Shoe shiner _________________________________
Social worker _________________________________
Sociologist _________________________________
Waiter or waitress _________________________________
 Class Systems
• Occupation:
1. Physician
2. Electrical engineer
3. Sociologist
4. Accountant
5. Registered nurse
6. Classical musician
7. Police officer
8. Journalist
9. Social worker
10. Secretary
11. Real estate agent
12. Carpenter
13. Cab driver
14. Waiter or waitress
15. Garbage collector
16. Shoe shiner
U.S. Class Structure
• Upper class
• Middle class
• Working class
• Lower class
• Underclass
 U.S. Class Structure
• Upper class
• The very wealthiest Americans (about 5%)
• Households earning more than 300K
• 5.22 mln millionaires in the U.S.
• 400 richest Americans are worth more than 1.37
trillion dollars
• 1,000,000,000,000 (one million millions)
 U.S. Class Structure
“Old-money” families: Rockefellers and Vanderbilts
U.S. Class Structure
New wealth
Forbes 400 2018
Forbes 400 2018
 U.S. Class Structure
• Middle class
• Primarily white-collar (non-manual) jobs
• Upper middle class
• Lower middle class
 U.S. Class Structure
• Upper Middle class
• Highly educated professionals
• Doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, mid-level
corporate managers, small business owners
• Lower middle class:
• Trained office workers (secretaries, bookkeepers),
nurses, school teachers, salespeople, police
officers, firefighters, etc.
• 40% of American households
 U.S. Class Structure
• Working class:
• 20% of American households
• Blue-collar (manual) occupations
• Factory workers, mechanics, clerical aides,
sales clerks, restaurant and hotel workers)
 U.S. Class Structure
• Lower class:
• Work part-time or do not work
• 15% of American households
• “Underclass”
• “Beneath” the class system
• Grown rapidly over the past 25 years
• Unskilled and unemployed men, young single mothers
and their children on welfare, homeless
• Includes many African Americans trapped for
generations in a cycle of poverty
• Extremely poor neighborhoods with drugs, gangs,
and violence
• Very difficult lives with little realistic hope of ever
making it out of poverty
The people who are at the greatest risk of becoming
homeless are those who work in jobs that have low wages,
live in poverty, and also struggle with personal troubles such Essentials of Sociology, Fourth Edition
as mental illness, alcoholism, and family problems. Copyright © 2013, W.W. Norton & Company
 Social Mobility
• Social mobility:
• Upward or downward movement of people
between social classes as a result of changing
education, occupation, or income
• Intra-generational mobility: Movement up or down
the social ladder within the course of a person’s
career
• Inter-generational mobility: Movement up or down
the social ladder from one generation to another
 Social Mobility
• Upward mobility:
• Improving one’s social standing compared to one’s
parents
• Upward mobility is a relatively common phenomenon,
especially given recent increases in education
Social Mobility
 Social Mobility
• Downward mobility:
• Worsening social standing compared to one’s
parents or to one’s earlier career
• Less common than upward mobility
• About 20% of U.S. men are downwardly mobile
inter-generationally
• Downward intra-generational mobility is often
associated with psychological problems
• Video
• Recession and corporate restructuring
• In the late 1980s and early 1990s and again in the
late 2000s middle-aged men in corporate America
lost jobs
 Class Systems
• Does class inequality decline in the U.S.?
• Inequality peaked before World War II
• Declined through the 1950s
• Economic prosperity
• GI Bill
• Government health insurance, welfare
• Remained roughly stable through 1970s
• Increased since 1970s
• Slightly declined or stabilized in late 2000s
 Inequality
• Summary of trends in inequality:
• Inequality declined after WWII and reached the
lowest level in the 1960s and early 1970s
• The gap between the rich and the poor has been
growing since mid-1970s (although evidence of
slight decline or stabilization in the last couple of
years)
• The income share of the richest 20% of the
population is now 50% of the total country income
• The income share of the poorest 20% is now 3%
of the country income
 What Is Poverty?
• Absolute poverty: Not having enough to eat,
undernourishment and malnutrition
• Relative poverty: Being poor as compared to the
standards of living of the majority
• Measuring poverty in the U.S.:
• Poverty line: Income equal to the cost of a
nutritionally adequate diet  3
Poverty Thresholds for 2018 by Family Size and Number
of Children Under 18 Years
 Poverty US Census Report, 2017
• In 2017, there were 39.7 million people in poverty
 Working Poor
• Working poor:
• People who work but whose earnings are not high
enough to lift them above poverty
• The minimum wage is $7.25 per hour
• About 25% of those living in poverty are working
• 7.6 million individuals were among the “working
poor” in 2016, according to data from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics
 Differentials in Poverty

• Race/ethnicity
• Gender
• Age
 Race and Poverty

• The poverty rate in 2017:

• Hispanic 18.3 percent
• Non-Hispanic White 8.7 percent
• Black 21.2 percent
• Asian 10.0 percent
Race and Earnings
Race and Wealth
 Race and Inequality
• Because of racial discrimination, African Americans have
always experienced higher rates of unemployment than
Whites, more sporadic employment, and lower wages
• Racial discrimination also impeded the accumulation of
wealth by African Americans
• Part of racial disparity in wealth is due to differences in
home ownership
– Because of racial discrimination in access to housing
and in lending practices, fewer older Africans
Americans own their homes compared to Whites
Age, Gender and Poverty
 Gender and Poverty
• Feminization of Poverty
• Increasing proportion of the poor are women
• Women are disadvantaged economically by the
growing rates of divorce and single parenthood
• Difficult for low-income poorly educated women to
raise children by themselves while also holding a job
that would raise them out of poverty
 Gender and Poverty
• Feminization of Poverty
Poverty Among Older Americans
Poverty Among Older Americans
 Poverty Among Older Americans
• Reasons for persistent poverty among older women,
especially unmarried and minority women
– Women’s lower earnings and intermittent labor force
participation
– Because Social Security benefits are based on life-time
earnings, women’s own Social Security benefits are
lower than those of men
– Women’s lower likelihood of receiving private pensions
• About 33% of older men receive a private pension,
but only 18% of women
• Among those who receive a pension, men’s pensions
are nearly twice the size of women’s
– High end-of-life medical expenses and funeral bills that
can overwhelm their already low income and savings