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Chapter 4: Interaction and Social Structure
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Chapter four addresses human interaction and the way in which
it accumulates to form social institutions. Social interaction
is affected by social order and culture. One way to analyze
social interaction is to study how people define situations.
A negotiated order arises between people in which both parties'
expectations impose limits on their interaction. Symbolic interactionism
and the dramaturgical approach stress role-playing and offer
two other ways to interpret social interaction. Social exchange
theorists think mutual reciprocation is the basis for social
interaction. Ethnomethodology is the name given to revealing
peoples' unconscious expectations by acting contrary to them.
Many ethnomethodological experiments have been performed.
People's interactions lead them to form social networks,
which sociologists study. Some people rise to power in the
social structure, and degrees of social status attach themselves
to a people as well. Some kinds of social status are ascribed,
such as gender, and others are achieved, such as being a teacher.
Peoples' interactions accumulate to grander and grander scales,
until they have formed social institutions. Social institutions
fulfill certain basic societal needs. Among other things,
they provide a society with continuity and stability.
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