Overview
Chapters 4 Social Structure and 5 Power
Make a list of all of your statuses (student, worker, friend, etc.) and label whether these are ascribed or achieved statuses.
What status symbols do they carry?
- Do you perform differently with different status expectations or roles? Is there role conflict?
- Make a list of famous people who fall into Weber’s three types of legitimate authority (traditional, rational-legal, and charismatic) and illegitimate authority.
- How successful have these leaders been? Why? What would happen if they tried to use a different type of authority?
- Discuss the ways in which various institutions constrain the behavior of individuals. How do religious, economic, political, educational, and other institutions try to influence how we behave? 7. How do we try to change or work against institutional expectations? How have the expectations of institutions changed over time?