Social Groups

What is a group?

•  aggregate: people who temporarily share the same physical space but don’t identify with one another

•  category: people who have some status in common (share similar characteristics)

•  social group: two or more people who identify and interact with one another

Primary and Secondary Groups

•  primary group: small social group whose members share personal and enduring relationships

–  intimate, long-term, face to face association and cooperation

•  secondary group: large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific interest or activity

–  relatively temporary, more anonymous, formal, interaction on basis of roles

Voluntary Associations

•  group made up of volunteers who organize on the basis of some mutual interest

–  particular type of secondary group

–  examples include: Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Chamber of Commerce, American Legion

–  Michels: iron law of oligarchy

•  tendency to be dominated by small, self-perpetuating elite

In-groups and Out-groups

•  in-group: social group commanding a member’s esteem and loyalty

•  out-group: social group toward which one feels competition or opposition

•  social life is an interplay of both kinds of groups

•  consequences are both positive and negative

–  sense of belonging, clearer social identity

–  discrimination, hatred, violence

•  “we” have valued characteristics that “they” lack

–  can create problems in a diverse society, especially when there is unequal distribution of power

–  Merton: double standard

Reference Groups

•  groups we use as standards to evaluate ourselves

–  serves as a point of reference

–  reflects need to conform

–  operates as form of social control

•  we don’t actually have to belong to the group to use it as a reference group

•  whatever our situation in absolute terms, we assess our situation subjectively, relative to some specific reference group

Social Networks

•  web of social ties that links people who identify and interact little with one another

–  people who come into occasional contact with one another, but lack a group’s sense of boundaries and belonging

–  people we “know of” or who “know of us”

•  often used for career advancement

•  tend to perpetuate social inequalities

Bureaucracies

•  formal organization designed to perform complex tasks efficiently

•  characteristics include:

–  clear-cut levels, with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward (hierarchy of offices)

–  division of labor (specialization)

–  written rules and regulations

–  written communications and records

–  impersonality

•  informality exists within bureaucracy

•  perpetuation through goal displacement

•  rationalization of society (social life dominated by bureaucracies)

- “McDonaldization” of society (limited creativity, discretion, autonomy)

Dysfunctions of Bureaucracies

•  "red tape" (inefficiency, ritualism, inertia)

•  alienation

•  iron law of oligarchy (hidden corporate culture)

•  Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time available

•  Peter principle: bureaucrats are promoted to their level of incompetence

Group Dynamics

•  group size

–  as small group grows larger, intensity (intimacy) decreases and stability increases

•  dyad: most intense (intimate) and most unstable
•  triad: coalitions

–  diffusion of responsibility

–  formality

–  division into small groups

•  types of leaders / leadership styles

–  instrumental, expressive / authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire

•  conformity

–  Asch: willing to compromise our own judgment to avoid being different (peer pressure)

–  Milgram: obedience to “legitimate” authority

–  Janis: groupthink (desire for consensus closes off alternatives)

leaders cut off from different points of view

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