Check the Red Feather Dictionary of Critical Sociology for more about these concepts

Key Characters:  Linus...the Head of the Larabee Family and Business....he never laughs nor plays.
David...younger brother and subordinate sib in the Larabee family....he remains a child forever...almost forever
Sabrina...daughter to the chauffer; she is fixated on David and his whole-hearted pursuit of pleasure.
A sort of Cinderella icon, Sabrina becomes her own woman and strong enough to transcend class,
gender and age privileges of the Larabees.
Ms. Larabee...a small character in the original film with Bogart and Audrey Hepburn, she is up-graded
while the father-figure is removed from the story line...to better fit Freudian theory, I tend to think.
Elizabeth Tyson...children's doctor and fiancee to David...she has no real substance in the movie
other than as motive for Linus to manage Sabrina.
Mr/Ms Tyson...some comic relief but little else...the Tyson company serves as source of motive for most
Linus stagings and managings.

KEY TERMS:

Sociology of Fraud:  Symbolic interaction is used to create authentic social relationships and to 'reify' social occasions as defined...sometimes S.I. is used
to create the artful and exploitative impression of authentic social relationship; see also mystification.

Look for the use of clothing, words, body talk and other symbol sets and how they create authentic or fraudulent relationships between David, Sabrina, Linus and other characters in the play.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: A prophecy of a social relationship is never, never self-fulfilling--it takes a lot of work to create social facts...and there is much room for failure and fraud on the way.

Mind, Self and Society.  A basic assumption in Symbolic Interaction theory is that, with interactively rich and informationally relevant symbolic discourse, there can be InterSubjective UNDERSTANDING between two or more people within a given social occasion.

Watch for social occasions in which symbols are understood differently by the main characters in the movie.

Mystification:  Mystification: A process of information control by which a person or class cannot identify self-interests. The marxian position is that whoever controls the means of production controls the means to produce ideological culture: art, literature, drama, religion and will use this control to mystify its opposition.

In the movie, look for the use of symbols to create dramaturgical impressions which mystify and dis-empower those at the bottom of status hierarchies: employees,  women, minorities or competitors for scarce goods or services.

Alienation Liberal definitions of alienation have to do with feelings; socialist definitions have more to do with relations and positions in a social order. In Marx, a variety of terms are used to capture the flavor and variety implicit in the process of alienation: "Trennung" (divorce or separation), "Spaltung" (division or cleavage), "Absonderung" (separation or withdrawal), "Verderben" (spoiled, corrupt), "sich selbst verlieren" (lost to oneself), "auf sich zuruckziehen" (withdrawn into oneself), "ausserlich machen" (externalized), "alle Gattungsbande zerreissen" (ties with others disintegrated.

In the movie, watch for situations in which those with high status, power or wealth control the behavior of those who do not; the relationship between Linus and David, David and Sabrina, Sabrina and Linus is marked by alienation of social power; that between Sabrina and her father is, on the other hand empowering.

False Consciousness: The inability to identify and act on one's own human interests. Marx' assumption was that the class controlling the means of production controlled the production of ideas. The ruling class produce ideas which justify its own existence.

In the movie, most characters can identity their own class and gender interests: Sabrina has great trouble doing this in both her relationships with David, then with Linus.

reification: Almost all social reality is constructed by intending persons.  The first step in such construction is a 'definition of the situation.' The second step requires performances to match the prophecy as defined...this match reifies or makes-real, the social fact under construction.

In the movie, watch for social occasions defined one way and embodied another way...the key scene occurs when Sabrina tells Linus 'I am so happy; you have made me so happy...'  The sociology of fraud in the reification part of the construction process is revealed by Linus...

Moral Development:  Gilligan and Kohlberg have two very different models of moral development...Gilligan sets human beings above principles; Kohlberg sets principles as the highest guide to moral behavior. 

In the movie, which character seems to embody Kohlberg's idea of a moral person and which person embodies, more, Gilligan's model of moral development...think about David, Linus, Sabrina and Fairchild, Sabrina's father.

Structures of inequality:  CLASS, GENDER, Age...these three structures of inequality give all power to Linus and David with great disadvantage to Sabrina.

In the movie, watch for situations in which class, gender and age combine to empower Linus in his fraudulent seduction of Sabrina.

Symbol Sets: Voice, Clothing, Body talk, Behavior...each symbol set can be used to create social facts or to mystify them. 

Watch for the ways in which Linus changes clothing to change his image; in which Linus talks differently in order to mystify Sabrina; in which Linus' body talk creates the dramaturgical impression of genuine romantic interest in Sabrina.

Reality Quotient   ...of social occasion, of social actors, of social facts generally.

All social facts have a fractal reality quotient...if we do a very good job, the reality quotient of a given role-set, social occasion or social process is close enough to the prophecy made that we can 'count' the occasion as a class, a marriage, a poker game, a church service or a party...but, as Goffman noted, there are many 'forms of away' which detract from the reality quotient.  Some are physical, some psychological and some sociological...

In the movie, try to gauge the changing reality quotient of the social relationship between David and Sabrina or Sabrina and Linus.

Social Construction of Reality;  Again, symbolic interaction is used to define a social fact and to develop it as a 'real' thing...behavior, as a symbol set, is crucial to the construction.

In the movie, watch David, Linus and Sabrina for the match between prophecy and behavior...and oddly, it is David who is the more authentic...he seldom promises what he does not intent...at least with Sabrina and other women he has lead down the path to the Solarium.

Non-person: Goffman's concept of the nonperson is particularly useful in analysing this movie...a 'non-person' exists physically and psychologically but not sociologically...at the parties, the servants are non-persons, on the p[ane, the attendant is a non-person and then there is Sabrina.   The movie is a testament to the changing 'person-hood' of Sabrina...watch that happen.

And, too, there is a scene in which Sabrina's father, to his advantage, is treated as a non-person...watch for it.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT: All social reality requires the management of impressions...most of the time, the impressions given off by others in a social occasions are appropriate to the definition of the situation.

In the movie, Linus tries to create several impressions...all false...in his interaction with Sabrina...watch for three of them...'the lonely man,' 'the man-in-love,' and the 'ordinary guy.'  

And try to figure out why David wants help from Linus for the management of impression for Elizabeth Tyson?    He doesn't need help with other women or with Sabrina...why Elizabeth??

SOCIAL IDENTITY....Socialization and social role allocations give us a set of social identities...when and where does Sabrina get her self identity?  How deep is Fairchild's commitment to his social identity as 'chauffeur.'...as 'father.?'

Dramaturgical Analysis: the use of elements from theater to sort out the structure of face engagements...props, costumes, scripts, rehearsals, performances, audiences, editors as well as front-stage and back-stage are useful concepts in understanding behavior in church, school, shop and work.

In the movie, the mid-line between 'make-believe' and 'for-real' is often blurred as it is not in theatrical performances or in most of real life...what advantage does a fraudulent dramaturgy bring to Linus...watch for it in the scene with Sabrina when he transcends his business persona and tells Sabrina what is really going on.

Class status:  Marxian class analysis uses the concepts of bourgeoisie, petite bourgeoisie, proletariat with which to help us understand differences in social power and economic power...

Be able to identity the class position of the main characters in the play; Linus, David, Ms. Larabee, Sabrina, Fairchild and the staff.

Social control tactics: There are four sets of social control tactics available to shape and re-shape the behavior of persons by those who have:
    social power, which comes out of social-role relationships and social status
    economic power, which comes out of financial resources
    physical power, which comes out of the fist, club or gun
    and moral power...which comes out of shared values.

Watch How Linus uses different combinations to control both David and Sabrina.

Freudian theory.  Who ever directed the film, used a lot of Freud.  David is pure Id...with very few ego controls...Linus is almost all super-ego with an inability to act on his own libido...Sabrina is far too dependent upon her father...her investment in David is enactment of the Electra Complex...she won't channel her libido into mature men...that would separate her from her father...

The contrast between Paris and the Larabee Mansion denotes the contrast between alienated sexuality and mature sexuality...sexuality defined as pursuit of the pleasure principle...Only David pursues the pleasure principle at the Larabee Mansion and then in pre-genital sorts of ways.

David is fixated at the stage of anal expulsion...note that Linus picks up after him...David's car is pure phallus...David's pursuit of women a substitute for the forbidden impulse to please/possess his mother...Linus is fixated at the pre-genital stage...he does what his father did...and little else...Oedipal fear and Oedipal hate lurks behind the Linus character...lots of Freud in the movie.

Many of these terms can be found in the Red Feather Dictionary at:

     http://www.tryoung.com/dict3rd.htm