The elements of social structure

Defining social structures

• Social structures can be thought of as the boundaries of social life that we each confront when we make choices about our individual and collective behaviors.
• Social structures both enable and constrain our actions.

The main elements of social structure

• Statuses
• Roles
• Groups
• Networks
• Institutions

Defining status

• Status is a person/group’s socially determined positions within a large group or society
• Important distinction between ascribed and achieved status
  • Ascribed status is usually assigned to an individual by society at birth and difficult if not impossible to change. Examples: race; sex/gender
  • Achieved status is a status that results from the efforts and achievements of a person. Examples: occupation; educational attainment; marriage status

How and why does status matter?

• In small groups, discuss the ways that an individual’s social status has an important impact on their “life chances”

  • We can define life chances as our ability to acquire material goods/resources and desirable life experiences.

• Occupying a high status improves the individual’s life chances, while occupying a lower status diminishes one’s life chances.
• For this reason, sociologists (beginning with Max Weber) often think of social status as structural resources that can be used to facilitate access to social rewards

Another small-group discussion

• As a group, explain the relationship between statuses and roles.

  • Can you come up with an original example of someone experiencing “role conflict” because of the different statuses that they hold?

Groups, networks, and institutions

• Groups: two or more people with similar values and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis
• Networks: a series of social relationships that link a person directly to other individuals and indirectly to even more people
• Institutions: the central domains of social life that guide our behaviors and meet our basic social needs