| A | B |
|---|
| social interaction | the process by which people act and react in relation to others |
| status | a social position that an individual occupies |
| ascribed status | a social position a person recieves at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life |
| master status | a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person's entire life |
| achieved status | a social position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects personal ability and effort |
| presentation of self | Goffman's term for an individual's efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others |
| dramaturgical analysis | Goffman's term for the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance |
| nonverbal communication | communication using body movements, gestures, and facial expressions rather than speech |
| Thomas theorem | the assertion that situations defined as real are real in their consequences |
| social construction of reality | the process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction |
| primary group | a small social group whose members share personal and enduring relationships |
| social group | two or more people who identify and interact with one another |
| secondary group | a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity |
| dyad | a social group with two members |
| triad | a social group with three members |
| netword | a web of weak social ties |
| oligarchy | the rule of many by few |
| rationality | deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient means to accomplish a particular task |
| rationalization | Max Weber's term for the change from tradition to rationality as the dominant mode of human thought |
| bureaucracy | an organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently |
