Sunday, September 23, 2018

Friday September 7th 2018


Today in class Li-Chin talked more about the three big Sociological Theories Structural-Functional Theory, Social Conflict Theory and Symbolic interaction Theory.
Li-Chin introduced dramaturgical theory to us in class today. Eriving Goffman wrote “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”. Goffman states that we have a “Front Stage” and a “Back Stage”. Front Stage is not an improvisation but rather a carefully crafted representation of the self to others-it is a manipulation of the audience by the actor. Back stage is where we go to practice the techniques of impression management; the actor relaxes here and the front is dropped. Goffman said that we are “social con-artist”.
Structural-Functional sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Some individuals that were involved in the development of this approach include Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer. Structural-Function is guided by social structures and each social structure has social functions or consequences for the operation of society as a whole. Robert Merton introduced three concepts related to social function-Manifest functions: the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern. Latent functions: largely unrecognized and unintended consequences. Social dysfunctions: undesirable consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society.
Social conflict sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change. Key individuals within this practice are Karl Marx, Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams, and WEB DuBois. An important type of conflict is gender-conflict which is a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between males and females. Another type of social-conflict is race-conflict which is a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic groups.
Symbolic-interaction is a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals. Symbolic-interactionism has a micro-level orientation which focuses on patterns of social interaction in specific settings.


This video shows how do sociologists study and understand social interaction? Today we’ll explain the language sociologists use to discuss how we interact with the social world. What are statuses and roles? How are they different? How do you acquire them? We’ll talk about why these things matter by exploring the socially constructed nature of reality. We’ll also discuss the theory of dramaturgical analysis and how we can understand social interaction as in terms of theatrical performance
One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to be more consciously aware of what I post on Facebook and what effect it may have.
One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be to promote or post things on Facebook that could have a negative on society such as fake news.
Society could affect me in a positive way if the news presented more positive stories.
Society could influence me in a negative way if the new stayed on track with its fear based stories.

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