Theories of Social Interaction (SOC401) Chapter 20 Notes from
Inside Social Life
Authored by Spencer E. Cahill
In this article, The Structure of Social Relationships, Carl Couch
is attempting to explain why particular kinds of relationship tend to be
repeated generation after generation. Couch seems to rest his theories on
the fact that the role of daughter or son make no sense without mother or
father, which forces these roles to exist, and allows them to propagate
down through history. Couch defines social relationships as the roles
people play such as "father" or "son" which are rather enduring, while
social encounters are the day-to-day social interaction of people.
Couch also notes that tensions tend to arise when people disagree on
how certain social relationships are supposed to exist in reference to
each other. We tend to base many of our actions on these relationship
and expect certain things from people in certain roles. Our social
atmosphere is disrupted when people in these roles do not act as expected
or we mis-identify the role which a person is playing.