SOC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Erving Goffman, Ascribed Status, Thomas Theorem

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1100
• Professor: Deanna Behnke- Cook

Document Summary

Social interaction: the process by which people act and react in relation to others. Through interaction, we create reality in which we live. Social structure: any relatively stable pattern of social behaviour. A social position an individual hold is known as a status. Status set: all the statuses held at one time (teenage girl, daughter to her parents, sister to her brother, student and a goalie on her hockey team) Ascribed status: a social position a person recieves at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life (race, class and age group) Achieved status: a social position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects ability and effort (an honour student or an olympic athlete) Master status: a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping an individual"s entire life (such as occupation, a recognizable family name, gender for women, negative sense = disease or disability) A master status can be achieved status or ascribed status.