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

Key Characters: 

ANDY SHEPARD		THE PRESIDENT
SIDNEY WADE		LOBBYIST FOR THE GLOBAL DEFENSE COUNCIL
LUCY				DAUGHTER TO ANDY
A.J. McINERY		CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE PRESIDENT
LEWIS ROTHSCHILD	ADVISER TO PRESIDENT
LEON KODAK		POLLSTER FOR THE PRESIDENT
ROBIN McCall		PRESS OFFICER FOR THE PRESIDENT
SUSAN				LOBBYIST (displaced by Sidney)
OFFICER AT GATE	Go Get 'em, Sidney Allen Wade
Leo Solomon		Boss at GDC
Janet			Intern at the Whitehouse.

KEY TERMS:

SELF SYSTEM:  All those Social and Non-Social components which organize the behavior of a person.  Andy's self system was by far the most complex...he was father, CEO of the USA, Commander in Chief of the Army, Lover to Sidney, boss to many staff people and

SOCIAL IDENTITY:  A component of the self system which comes from a Status-Role.  All social roles have an associated social identity in the self system.

Lewis viewed himself as 'Advisor' to the President almost all the time except for the remarkable break when he refused to stay in social harness and insisted on the larger role expectation to criticize Andy as 'his' president since Lewis helped elecct him.

MASTER STATUS: That Social Identity which is the most important in the self system.  Andy's social identity as President was, by far, the most overwhelming social identity of any self system of any character in the movie...note the florist clerk fainting and the Press giving so much attention to Andy's private life...

Note also Lucy's mockery of that Master Identity when she played a disrespectful version of 'Hail to the Chief' after Andy told her she might have to answer questions from her civics book.

STATUS=POSITION=PLACE= ROLE in a social life world...who had high and who had low status in the movie?

STATUS-ROLE  = A set of Behaviors expected of one in a social life world: who conformed most to expectations?

Interactionists point out that MIND, SELF AND SOCIETY are 'twin-born'.  this 'twin-bornness,' is always a variable; few of us are 'up-tight' to the sociology of it all 100% of the time...and often role conflicts require we switch back and forth...while uninteresting role engagements find us going 'away' as Goffman put it. 

So, looking at the movie, make a judgement about  which character most fully embodied that 'twin-born' proposition.

Lewis was 'up-tight' to his social role far more than others...note that Andy told him to hit himself over the head; that since he, Andy was president, he could change his own speech...

Susan was up-tight as well but she had a small...but crucial role...so pick Lewis as the one.

Sidney was very much involved in her role as lobbyiest in the Oval Room but when Andy called her to ask her for a date at the State Dinner, she dropped that role like a ton of lead...

ROLE SET: All those status roles in a given group or occasion: who was in which role-set?

STATUS HONOR : the ranking by respect and esteem of a given status-role this does not refer to the respect and esteem of a person.

ASCRIBED STATUS:   Status-roles acquired at birth or soon after: only Lucy has an ascribed role in the movie.

ACHIEVED STATUS:   Those status-roles earned by work or other merit...including the role as President's Girl-Friend
    in this movie.

ROLE CONFLICT:   contradictory expectations between two or more SOCIAL IDENTITIES in one's SELF SYSTEM.   Which
set of role-others had role-conflict?

ROLE DIS-ENGAGEMENT: There are two levels of dis-engagement: one for a given social occasion and a permanent one from a STATUS-ROLE.

FORMS OF POWER:   SOCIAL, MORAL, ECONOMIC AND PHYSICAL--see previous lectures...What kind of power was exercised between:
    Andy and Lucy = social power of father-daughter role-set...sometimes called traditional power

     Andy and A.J. =  social power or often called legal-rational power

    Andy and Sidney = none at first, they were in conflict...later social power of the couple role-set
        Sidney had more social power over Andy since she could sway votes; Andy had only Status prestige to use to
        control Sidney at first...both power relations are seen in the Oval Office encounter.
        Note that Sidney earned more than did Andy...hence economic power was of little consideration...except
        that Andy could help her in her career by using, illegitimately, the power of the presidency on her behalf.

Sidney and her boss: Economic power, Leo Solomon could fire Sidney..she would lose her salary.

Senator  Rumson and Andy:  Andy controlled funds for projects in Rumson's state, hence Andy had some indirect
    social power over Rumson...then too, Andy used the media to increase his own social power/prestige with public

Rumson had only the power of the media to reduce Andy's social power/status honor and legal-rational power of the
    Presidency...or, if he sat on a key committee and Chaired it, he would have legal-rational power of a bureaucracy.

Susan and Sidney: very little power advantage of either: Susan had an edge on technical knowledge which translates
    into the  legal-rational power of a bureaucracy...
Sidney had a big edge on Susan in terms of Sidney's deft use of the media to sway public opinion...more about P.O.   later.

DRAMATURGICAL Presentations:    Which character is most concerned with her/his presentation of self to the President early in the movie...look at Lewis, Sidney, Susan in particular.

Sidney was very concerned after the 'mockery of a president' remark in the meeting with A.J....and after the 'nice ass' comment on the phone....so choose Sidney unless a special scene is mentioned.

Robin, A.J. and Lewis were concerned with presentation of Andy as president in the media as was Leon.  Andy was far too insensitive in the movie to such presentation of self problems.

GEMEINSCHAFT = FOLK SOCIETY...WHICH SCENES EMBODIES THE KIND OF ENCOUNTER MARKED BY FRIENDLY EXCHANGE BETWEEN LONG TIME FRIENDS...Long-term, broad forms of interaction...intimate relationships,
    primary groups and a strong tie between self and society mark Gemeinschaft/folk community.  Very simple
    Division of Labor

GESELLSCHAFT = IMPERSONAL MASS SOCIETY...WHICH RELATIONSHIP USED TO BE A WARM GEMEINSCHAFT FRIENDSHIP BUT IS NOW MORE FORMAL?
    Impersonal, formal, short-take role encounters, narrow focus of interaction, secondary organizations such as the
    Whitehouse bureaucracy denotes Gesellschaft/society interactions...complex division of labor.

FLOODING OUT = losing one's emotional balance in a social role.  Which character flooded out when Sidney slept over in the Whitehouse.?  Which one flooded out trying to convince Congresspeople to vote for the Crime Bill?

ROLE CONFLICT = Conflicting Expectations between persons in a role-set.  What was the role conflict of:
Andy and Sidney = President v.  lover for Andy: Lobbyiest v. Lover for Sidney.

Andy and Senator Rumson: control over federal funds, programs and policies...liberal/conservative conflict...but all
    within the logic of capitalism/free market economics.

Andy and his Daughter: Andy's role of President intruded on his role as father; Lucy had two sorts of conflicts...first,
she had taken over some of her mother's responsibilities...and second, at school, people treated her as daughter-of-the-Presdent rather than student...her response to social studies is key to that later conflict.

Andy and A.J.: friend v. boss role conflict...Andy wanted A.J. to be a friend when off duty;  A.J. responded to the Status of the Office of the President and resisted.

Note that Andy had little economic power personally...most of his power with unknown others came from the same status honor of the Presidency which A.J. respected.

Under Construction: More to come tomorrow

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

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