Social Interaction

Social interaction is the foundation of society. Without social interaction there would be no group
life. Social groups are the product of social interaction. It is the real foundation of all social
processes.

Interaction in sociology
It is a social process between two or more than two persons.
It is always reciprocal in nature. It can be called a stimulus-response condition among the
individuals. It is like a bandied ball against a wall.
When two persons talk with each other or respond to each other on telephone or internet, develop
correspondence through letter, there is an interaction. A mother suckling milk to her child, there
is interaction between mother and her child. A doctor attends a patient, a customer buys a thing
from a shopkeeper and a passenger gets ticket from the booking clerk.
It means interaction is social relationship among the individuals. It. is a sort of action and reaction
position among the people.
Within society, social interaction is behavior between two or more people that is given meaning
by them. Social interaction is how people relate to each other and form a social bond.

Definition of Social Interaction

Dawson and Gettyes define Social Interaction as "it is a process by which men interpenetrate the
minds of each other".

According to Merrill, "Social-interaction is the general process whereby two or more persons are
in a meaningful contact, as a result of which their behavior is modified however slightly."

According to Corkiness. "Social interaction is such a process which influences the overt behavior
or state of mind of the individuals."

Social interaction is an event which changes the behavior and attitude of the interacting persons.
It is a social relationship among at least two persons. It changes the societal conditions of lives of
the people. Interaction is the soul of social life and relationship. It produces group which is the
foundation stone of society.

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Elements of Social Interaction
The following are the elements of social interaction:

1.Two or more than two persons

2.Reciprocal relationship among them
3.Influence on the event, behavior, brain of the persons.
These three conditions interrelate the people among themselves and convert them into social
groups.

Types of Social Interaction

According to Young and Mack there are two types of social interaction between people and
societies.

Direct or Physical Interaction:

It involves physical action among the individuals. Shaking hands, hugs, beating, biting, thrashing,
pulling, pushing, killing, scratching, boxing, wrestling, kissing etc. are the examples of direct
interaction. Two teams playing match and a war between the forces of two countries are also
examples of this interaction. This Types influences other by physical action in different ways.
Symbolic Interaction:
There are different types of relationships between people. It involves the use of language and
symbols. It means communication through a common language is symbolic process. Human
beings convey their ideas through language and it is completed by reciprocal response. All cultures
develop, expand and change only through language and symbolic interaction. Without language
no culture can exist. There is no culture in animals due to the fact that there is no common language
among them. Through language man stores its previous experiences and transmits them to the
following generation with a change.
Man uses instruments to facilitate this. Telephone, wireless, telegraph, postal system, rail, road,
sea and air services all are various means of communication and transportation. Gestures are also
types of the symbolic interaction. Deaf and dumb convey their ideas through voice, and gestures
of hands and eyes.

What are the Types of Social Interaction in a Society

It is found in various forms among human societies

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1. Between individual and individual:
It is the interaction between at least two persons. Interaction between the doctor and the
patient, the mother and the child, the customer and the shopkeeper are the various examples in
this case.
2. Between individual and group:
This type of interaction operates between one person and more. Examples: A teacher teaching
his class a speaker addressing the audience, and Imam Masjid leading prayers are its common
examples.
3. Between group and group:
This is found between two groups of people like two teams playing match, two forces fighting
against each other, two delegates discussing an issue.
4. Between individuals and culture:
This form is found when the people listen to radio, see television, read newspaper enjoy
pictures and observe exhibitions. Radio, T.V. cinema, newspapers, books, exhibitions, theatre,
drama, circus, fairs and other socio-cultural activities are included in the culture of a society.
People have social interaction and social relationship with these media of mass communication
and get social change in their life. The people change these media as they require on the other
hand. In this way reciprocal process between the people and the culture goes on.

Social Interaction Processes

Social interaction usually takes place in the forms of
 cooperation
 competition
 conflict
 accommodation and
 Assimilation
These forms of social interaction are called “social processes”.
Social processes are the ways in which individuals and groups interact, adjust, readjust and
establish relationships and pattern of behavior which are again modified through social
interactions.

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As Ginsberg says, “Social processes mean the various modes of interaction between individuals
or groups”

According to Horton and Hunt, “The term social process refers to the repetitive form of behaviors
which are commonly found in social life”.

1. Cooperation

 The basic form of human contact in society is co-operation.

 Cooperation is the process in which people work together to achieve shared goals.

 Cooperation is a social process that gets things done; no group can complete its tasks or
achieve its goals without cooperation from its members.

 We find co-operation in almost every aspect of our life.

 In a baseball game, for example, a team will work together (cooperation) while attempting
to achieve a victory (a goal that only one team can attain). Customer cooperates with
shopkeeper, for business purpose, patient with doctor, the students with teacher, mother
with child etc.

2. Competition

 Competition is a process by which two or more people attempt to achieve a goal that only
one can attain.

 Horton & Hunt explains that competition is struggle for possession for rewards which are
limited in supply, goods, status, power, and love.

 Most sociologists view competition as a positive thing - one that can motivate people to
achieve goals. However, competition can also lead to psychological stress, a lack of
cooperation in social relationships, inequality and even conflict.

 Examples : Elections, Exams , jobs , business, jobs, exams, CSS, PCS, sports, better living
conditions, cheaper rates, sales and marketing competition etc. Coke& Pepsi, KFC &
McDonalds. Banks, Samsung, Nokia & Q Mobile.

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3. Conflict
 Conflict is a social process in which individuals or groups seek their ends by directly
challenging the antagonist by violence or threat of violence.
 Conflict involves disagreement and disharmony, which results due to differences in
ideology, living standard, and other social factors. It is a universal phenomenon, an ever-
present reality, taking place both at micro and macro levels.
 Conflict involves clash of interest between individuals in a social group like in a family or
between groups or societies.
 It results due to power imbalance, due to unfair distribution of resources. Here, it produces
social class and stratification.
 Conflict may be between males and females, youngster and older generation; between
different religious, ethnic and, political groups.
o Examples : fighting, killing, beating , quarreling
o Litigation on disputes is found in courts
o War, family disputes, sectarian conflicts, Revolutions,
4. Accommodation
 The suspension of rivalry between the parties for temporary or permanent period is called
accommodation.
 People may decide to consciously avoid the source of conflict thereby arriving at an
agreement to live accepting one another, co-exist at relative peace, avoiding overt conflict.
 Accommodation is a social process whereby people try to accept one another, avoiding the
sources of conflict to live in peaceful coexistence.
 It is a conscious adjustment and compromise among conflicting groups so that they can
live with one another without overt conflict.
o Truce: Problem remains unsolved & fighting parties stop hostility.
o Compromise : on mill owner –labor, India Pakistan on Trade,
o Arbitration: conflict is resolved by mediator efforts of third party. UN, USA,
Pakistan among Arab countries fights,
o Toleration:
5. Assimilation
 Assimilation is the fusion or blending of two previously distinct groups into one.

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  Assimilation is a social process whereby a group of individuals learns and accepts the
values, norms, of another group and becomes sometimes virtually identical with the
dominant groups.
 Assimilation involves the acceptance or the internalizing of the larger or dominant group's
culture, values and life styles by the smaller or minority group.
 In this age of globalization there are westernization processes, whereby peoples of the
Third World are taking up the values, notions and practices of the Industrialized West.
o Assimilation of two cultural groups, Pakistan-India migration
o Rural people migrated to urban areas assimilate in urban.
o Food, dressing and marriage patterns, religious celebrations etc.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Social structure is the complex framework of societal institutions (such as the economy, politics,
and religion) and the social practices (such as rules and social roles) that make up a society and
that organize and establish limits on people’s behavior. The structure is essential for the survival
of society and for the well-being of individuals because it provides a social web of social
relationships that connects each of us to the larger society. Many homeless people have lost this
vital linkage. As a result, they often experience a loss of personal dignity and a sense of moral
worth because of their “homeless” condition.
Social structure refers to the patterns of social relationships and social institutions that make up
society. Structure is a social institution that is relatively stable over time and that meets the needs
of society by performing functions.
Status
Status is a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations,
rights, and duties. In a sociological sense, the term status does not refer only to high-level positions
in society. Although many people equate the term status with high levels of prestige, sociologists
use it to refer to all socially defined positions— high rank and low rank. Statuses exist
independently of the specific people occupying them.
Status Set:
Typically, a person occupies many statuses simultaneously. The combination of statuses composes
a status set, which is the complete set of statuses occupied by a person at a given time. A person
may occupy different statuses in different institutions simultaneously e.g. a person may be a bank

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president (in the economic institution), voter (in the political institution), church member (in the
religious institution), and treasurer of the any school (in the education institution). Each status may
be associated with a different level of prestige.
Types of Status
Ascribes Status:
 It refers to a social position or rank a person receives at birth or takes on involuntarily later
in life. Examples include: sex, ancestry, caste and age.
 A social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life based on attributes
over which the individual has little or no control, such as race/ethnicity, age, and gender.
 Ascribed statuses have a significant influence on the achieved statuses we occupy.
Race/ethnicity, gender, and age affect each person’s opportunity to acquire certain
achieved statuses. Those who are privileged by their positive ascribed statuses are more
likely to achieve the more prestigious positions in a society. Those who are disadvantaged
by their ascribed statuses may more easily acquire negative achieved statuses.
 Ascribed status is more stable and permanent in nature.
 More respect in the traditional societies to persons is given due to their ascribed status.
Achieved Status:
 It refers to a social position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects personal ability and
effort. Following are the examples of achieved status, teacher, doctor, student, popularity
etc.
 A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or
direct effort.
 It is unstable and changeable in nature.
 In modern societies achieved status is given more importance.
Master Status:
It refers to a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire
life or it is the most important status that a person occupies. It dominates all of the individual’s
other statuses and is the overriding ingredient in determining a person’s general social position.
Being poor or rich is a master status that influences many other areas of life, including health,
education, and life opportunities. Historically, the most common master statuses for women have
related to positions in the family, such as daughter, wife, and mother. For men, occupation has

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usually been the most important status, although occupation is increasingly a master status for
many women as well.
Elements/ Characteristics of Status
 Determined by Cultural Situation
 Division of Society
 Prestige
 Status carries certain role
 Part of whole of Society
 Determined in Relevance to Society

Role
 A role is the behavior others expect from a person associated with a particular status.
Statuses are occupied; roles are acted or “played.” The status of police officer carries with
it many expectations; this is the role of police officer. Police officers are expected to uphold
the law, pursue suspected criminals, assist victims of crimes, and fill out forms for reports,
and so on.
 Role expectation is a group’s or society’s definition of the way that a specific role ought to
be played. By contrast, role performance is how a person actually plays the role. Role
performance does not always match role expectation. Some statuses have role expectations
that are highly specific, such as that of surgeon or college professor. Other statuses, such
as friend or significant other, have less-structured expectations.
Role Set
 A person may occupy several statuses and roles at one time. A person’s role set includes
all the roles occupied by the person at a given time.
 For example a women holds four statuses, each status linked to a different role set. First,
as a professor, she interacts with students (the teacher role) and with other academics (the
colleague role). Second, in her work as a researcher, she gathers and analyzes data (the
fieldwork role) that she uses in her publications (the author role). Third, the woman
occupies the status of “wife, “with a marital role toward her husband, with whom she shares
household duties (domestic role). Fourth, she holds the status of “mother,” with routine
responsibilities for her children (the maternal role).

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 Related Concepts
Role Conflict:

 Role conflict is experienced when we occupy two or more roles with contradictory
expectations.

 Role conflict occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or
more statuses held at the same time due to which we may feel pulled in different directions.

 Individuals play different roles in different institutions simultaneously, when these roles
come in contradiction with one another, this is known as role conflict.

Reasons of Role Conflict:

 Overwhelming work load

 Weak socialization

 New social values

 Materialistic attitude

Consequences of Role Conflict:

 Tension/Depression

 Sleeplessness

 Health issues

 Social problems

 Relationship

Coping Measures to Deal with Role Conflict:

 Compartmentalizing

 Delegating to others

 Reducing responsibilities

 Avoiding unnecessary interruptions

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  Organization

Role Strain:

 Role strain refers to the tension experienced when there are contradictory expectations
within one role.

 It is a condition that occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a
person occupies.

 For example, many married women may experience more role strain than married men
because of work overload, marital inequality with their spouse, exclusive parenting
responsibilities, unclear expectations, and lack of emotional support.

(Note: Reasons, consequences, coping measures of the role conflict and the role strain are the
same).

Role Exit:

Role exit is the process of leaving a role that we will no longer occupy.

Theories of social interaction

Social Construction of reality

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann presented this theory in 1966. Other main contributors of
‘social construction of reality’ include Hastorf, Cantril, Baumeister and Bushman. According to
this theory “we see the facts we want to see”. It is the process by which people creatively shape
reality through social interaction. Some sociological theorists have argued convincingly that there
is little actual reality beyond that produced by the process of social interaction itself. This is the
principle of the social construction of reality, the idea that our perception of ‘what is real’ is
determined by the subjective meaning that we attribute to an experience, a principle central to
symbolic interaction theory. Hence, there is no objective “reality” in itself. Things do not have
their own intrinsic meaning. We subjectively impose meaning on things.
Considerable evidence exists that people do just that; they force meaning on something when doing
so allows them to see or perceive what they want to perceive—even if that perception seems to
someone else to be contrary to actual fact. They then come to believe that what they perceived is

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indeed “fact.” our perceptions of reality are determined by what is called the definition of the
situation: We observe the context in which we find ourselves and then adjust our attitudes and
perceptions accordingly. Sociological theorist W. I. Thomas embodies this idea in his well-known
dictum that situations defined as real are real in their consequences. The definition of the situation
is a principle that can also affect a “factual”. Understanding the social construction of reality helps
one see many aspects of society in a new light. Race and gender are significant influences on social
experience because people believe them to be so. Indeed, society is constructed based on certain
assumptions about the significance of race and gender. These assumptions have guided the
formation of social institutions, including what work people do, how families are organized, and
how power is exercised.

Ethnomethodology

Sociologist Harold Garfinkel (1967) initiated this approach and coined the term
ethnomethodology. To better understand this term, consider the word’s three basic components.
Ethno means “folk” or “people”; method means how people do something; ology means “the study
of.” Putting them together, then, ethno–method–ology means “the study of how people do things.”
What things? Ethnomethodology is the study of how people use commonsense understandings to
make sense of life. According to this theory our interactions are guided by rules that we follow.
Sometimes these rules are non-obvious and subtle. These rules are the norms of social interaction.
Again, what holds society together? Society cannot hold together without norms, but what rules
do we follow? How do we know what these rules or norms are? An approach in sociology called
ethnomethodology is a clever technique for finding out.
Ethnomethodology is a clever technique for studying human interaction by deliberately disrupting
social norms and observing how individuals attempt to restore normalcy. The idea is that to study
such norms, one must first break them, because the subsequent behavior of the people involved
will reveal just what the norms were in the first place.
Ethnomethodology is based on the premise that human interaction takes place within a consensus,
and interaction is not possible without this consensus. The consensus is part of what holds society
together. According to Garfinkel, this consensus will be revealed by people’s background
expectancies, namely, the norms for behavior that they carry with them into situations of
interaction. It is presumed that these expectancies are to a great degree shared, and thus studying

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norms by deliberately violating them will reveal the norms that most people bring with them into
interaction. The ethno methodologist argues that you cannot simply walk up to someone and ask
what norms the person has and uses, because most people will not be able to articulate them. We
are not wholly conscious of what norms we use even though they are shared. Ethnomethodology
is designed to “uncover” those norms.
In Sum Ethno methodologists explore background assumptions, the taken-for-granted ideas about
the world that underlie our behavior. Most of these assumptions, or basic rules of social life, are
unstated. We learn them as we learn our culture, and it is risky to violate them. Deeply embedded
in our minds, they give us basic directions for living everyday life. Garfinkel was critical of
mainstream sociology for not recognizing the ongoing ways in which people create reality and
produce their own world.

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