Social Structures

            In this paper I will analyze the social structure of Fuddruckers, which is an organization that I am a hostess for. I will read the article, "High School Hockey and Soccer as Gendered Social Structure", from the text Sociology: a down-to-earth approach. This will help me gain a better understanding of what a social structure is, and will help me write this paper. This paper will talk about the concepts of roles and statuses related to Fuddruckers. I will look at the values, attitudes, behaviors and norms that accompany the different roles and statuses. I will discuss how the organization socializes new members, preserves order, and provides a sense of purpose by looking at them from the functional perspective. Finally I will summarize my analysis.
             In order to discuss the concepts of roles, statuses, values, attitudes, behaviors, and norms, one must first understand and be able to define them. Henslin, et all, (2001) indicates that roles are " the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status-(p. 102), which he indicates to be a "social ranking; the position that someone occupies in society or a social group"(p.462). There are three types of statuses, which include ascribed status, achieved status, and master status. Henslin, et al, (2001) describe these to include " ascribed status is involuntary achieved status is voluntary a master status is one that cuts across the other statuses you hold"(p.101-102). Henslin, et al, (2001) describes norms to be "the expectations or rules of behavior that develop out of values" (p.459). The New Webster's Dictionary (1992) describes that values are something of worth, importance, or precise signification (p. 243). The New Webster's Dictionary (1992) also indicates that attitudes include positioning, a way of thinking or a way of behaving (p. 17), and behaviors include actions, activities, manors or conduct (p. 21). .
             According to the definition of what a status and a role are, there are several different statuses within Fuddruckers, and each of these statuses has distinct roles.