Week 5 — Social Interaction, Groups & Organizations

Why this matters

A new hire learning the unwritten rules of a restaurant floor and a job seeker deciding whom to tell about the search both meet this week's ideas.

In plain language

You act one way at a job interview, another way at a family dinner, and another way in a group chat with old friends. This week explains why. Every setting hands you a status (a position, such as employee or cousin) and a role (the behavior people expect from that position). You will see how groups pull your judgment toward theirs, and how the people you barely know can open doors your closest friends cannot. Finally, you will look at large organizations (groups built on purpose to reach a goal, like a hospital or a retail chain) and the rules that run them.

• Already covered: Week 1 gave you the three perspectives. Week 2 showed how to read a study four ways. Week 3 showed what a culture is made of, and Week 4 showed how you become a self.
• This week: how people build a shared reality in interaction, the statuses and roles they play, the groups that hold them, and the organizations that run on rules.
• How they connect: Week 4 built the self; this week follows that self into everyday encounters, groups, and workplaces, reading two real studies with Week 2's four questions.
• Where we're going next: Week 6, Deviance, Crime & Social Control, asks what happens when people break the rules of the groups you meet here, and who decides what counts as breaking them.

Focus

Why do you act differently in different rooms, and how do groups and organizations shape what you do?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] sort statuses and tell role conflict from role strain
• [ ] find the front stage and back stage in a setting
• [ ] read Asch's and Granovetter's results four ways
• [ ] name the traits of bureaucracy and McDonaldization

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 5 (about 40 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
3. Do the Sociology in Action Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: explain why 37 of Asch's 50 participants going along at least once does not mean most people always conform.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if you get stuck.

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