Chapter 5 : Social Interaction and Everyday Life

Social Interaction

  Many apparently trivial aspects of our day-to-day behavior turn out on close examination to be both complex and important aspects of social interaction . An example is the gaze-looking at other people. In most interactions, eye contact is fairly fleeting. To stare at another person could be taken as a sign of hostility-or on some occasions, of love. The study of social interaction is a fundamental area in sociology, illuminating many aspects of social life.

Nonverbal Communication

  Many different expressions are conveyed by the human face. It is widely held that basic aspects of the facial expressions of emotion are innate. Cross-cultural studies demonstrate quite close similarities between members of different cultures both in facial expression and in the interpretation of emotions registered on the human face.

Ethnomethodology

  The study of ordinary talk and conversation has come to be called ethnomethodology , a term first coined by Harold Garfinkel. Ethnomethodology is the analysis of the ways in which we actively- although usually in a taken-for-granted way-make sense of what others mean by what they say and do.

Face, Body, and Speech in Interaction

  Unfocused interaction is the mutual awareness individuals have of one another in large gatherings when not directly in conversation together. Focused interaction , which can be divided up into distinct encounters , or episodes of interaction, is when two or more individuals are directly attending to what the other or others are saying and doing.

  Social interaction can often be illuminatingly studied by applying the dramaturgical model-studying social interaction as if those involved were actors on a stage, having a set and props. As in the theater, in the various contexts of social life there tend to be clear distinctions between front regions (the stage itself) and back regions , where the actors prepare themselves for the performance and relax afterward.

Interaction in Time and Space

  All social interaction is situated in time and space. We can analyze how our daily lives are "zoned" in both time and space combined by looking at how activities occur during definite durations and at the same time involve spatial movement.

  Some mechanisms of social interaction may be universal, but many are not. The !Kung of southern Africa, for example, live in small mobile bands, where there is little privacy and thus little opportunity to create front and back regions.

Indirect Interaction

  Modern societies are characterized largely by indirect interpersonal transactions (such as making bank deposits), which lack any copresence. This leads to what has been called the compulsion of proximity , the tendency to want to meet in person whenever possible, perhaps because this makes it easier to gather information about how others think and feel, and to accomplish impression management .

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