Social Institutions Overview

Map of the Word.

Once upon a time, thousands and thousands of years ago, humans gathered together and developed civilizations Map of the World. . One can speculate that they did so to protect themselves. As the formation of these ancient civilizations predates historical records, this is only a guess. What can be documented is that seven main culture hearths emerged around the world at various times. Separated by physical distance and the element of time, these culture hearths still developed a commonality that has endured through the history of mankind- the creation of social institutions. Even now, despite man's differences, every culture on the planet has established social institutions. We are members of families; we are taught and we learn; we believe in something (and, yes, belief in nothing is still a belief); we buy and sell things; we are led by someone, and we take care of ourselves and others. We do these things in different ways- but we ALL do them. These are our Social Institutions- family, education, religion, economy, government, health, and welfare.

Essential Questions

What are social institutions? How is a social institution determined?
How are social institutions similar or different across cultural divides?
What role do social institutions play in our social structure?
What causes change within social institutions?

Key Terms

Achieved Status - a status that is either earned or chosen
Ascribed Status - an assigned status that is neither earned nor chosen but given at birth
Authority - power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive
Cohabitation - the sharing of a household by an unmarried couple
Denomination - religious group based usually on a different local or ideological departure from a larger major religion but still a practitioner of the larger major religion's basic doctrine
Economy - the social institution that organizes a society's production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
Education - the social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values
Endogamy - marriage between people of the same social category
Exogamy - marriage between people of different social categories
Faith - belief based on conviction rather than scientific evidence
Family - a social institution found in all societies that unite people in cooperative groups to care for one another
Formal Groups - groups that form to achieve specific goals and are characterized by a formal division of labor, a hierarchy of authority, a system of rules and procedures, record-keeping of work and activities, and often promotion based on merit and qualifications
Fundamentalism - a conservative religious doctrine that opposes intellectualism and worldly accommodations in favor of restoring traditional, otherworldly religion
Government - a formal organization that directs the political life of a society
Group - people who interact with one another and think of themselves as belonging together
Groupthink - self-deceptive thinking that is based on conformity of group beliefs and created by group pressure to conform
Health - a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being
In-Group - a social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty
Informal Groups = groups that occur naturally in response to a shared interest or goal and lack the formal structure
Kinship - a social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption
Marriage - a legal relationship under which a couple establishes their decision to live together through legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
Marxist Political-Economy Model - an analysis that explains politics in terms of the operation of a society's economic system
Master Status - a status that affects other aspects of life and goes along with roles
Matrilocality - a cultural residential pattern that encourages a nuclear family to live near the wife's extended family
Neolocality - cultural residential pattern that encourages a nuclear family to live apart from either husband or wife's extended families
Out-Group - a social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition
Patrilocality - cultural residential pattern that encourages a nuclear family to live near the husband's extended family
Pluralist Model - an analysis of politics that sees power as spread among many competing interest groups
Politics - the social institution that distributes power and sets a course of action for a society
Power-Elite Model - an analysis of politics that sees power as concentrated among the rich
Power - the ability to control the behavior of others
Primary Group - a group of emotionally close people, know one another well and seek one another's company
Primary Relationships - interactions that are intimate, personal, caring, and fulfilling
Reference Group - a group used for self-evaluation and the formulation of attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms
Religion - a social institution involving beliefs and practices based on recognizing the sacred
Religiosity - the importance of religion in a person's life
Right - a behavior that individuals can expect from others
Ritual - formal, ceremonial behavior
Role Conflict - a condition in which the performance of a role in one status interferes with the performance of a role in another status
Role Performance - the actual behavior of an individual in a role
Role Set - a number of roles attached to a single status
Role Strain - a condition in which the roles of a single status are inconsistent or conflicting
Roles - behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status
Sacred - set apart as extraordinary, inspiring awe and reverence
Schooling - formal instruction under the directions of specially trained teachers
Secondary Group - a group of people who have gathered together for a function or task
Secondary Relationships - impersonal interactions involving limited parts of personalities
Sect - a type of religious organization that stands apart from the larger society
Secularization - the decline of religiosity in a culture
Social Category - a collection of people who share a similar status but do not necessarily interact
Social Control - the techniques and strategies for regulating human thoughts and behavior in any environment or society
Social Epidemiology - the study of how health and disease are distributed throughout a society's population
Social Institutions - the major spheres of social life, or social subsystems, organized to meet human needs; examples include family, education, religion, government, economy, health, and welfare (the social subsystems found within all societies)
Social Interaction - the process by which people act and react in relation to others
Social Structure - stable patterns of social relationships in a group (part of social structure is the status a person has within a society and the role that is performed as part of that status)
Social-Exchange Analysis Approach - a theoretical approach to sociology that emphasizes how social interaction is used to promote an individual's self-interests
Status Set - all of the statuses that a person occupies at a particular time
Status - a social position a person holds
Welfare - the good fortune, health, happiness, prosperity of a person, group, or organization

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