Transcript Essentials of Sociology, 7th Edition

Chapter six:
Social Groups and Formal
Organizations
Chapter
Overview

Social Groups

Bureaucracies

Group Dynamics
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Aggregates and
Categories
(What is not a group)
 Aggregate – People who
temporarily share a space
but don’t see themselves as
belonging together
 Category - People who
share common
characteristics
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
 Social Groups
1.Two or more people
2.Interact in patterned ways
3.Feeling of unity
4.Shared interests
Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Social Groups
 Primary Groups – Charles Cooley referred to
primary groups as “the springs of life”
 Essential to our emotional well being
 Tend to be smaller than other groups
 Very impersonal
 We can be our true self
 Enduring
 Relationship focus: “END-IN-ITSELF”
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Social Groups
 Secondary Groups
 People come together on the basis of a mutual interest
 More formal than primary groups
 Often large
 Members interact on the basis of statuses
 Fail to meet the need for intimacy
 Weak ties
 Temporary
 Relationship focus: “MEANS-TO-END”
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Social Groups
(Voluntary Associations)
 Many different voluntary associations today in the
United States
 Organized on Basis of Mutual Interest
 The Inner Circle and Iron Law of Oligarchy
 How organizations come to be dominated by a selfperpetuating elite.
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Social Groups
 In-Groups – People feel a loyalty
towards their in-groups
 Out-Groups – People of the in-group
dislike out-groups
Positive consequence of in-groups:
People feel a sense of belonging
• Loyalty
Negative consequence of in-groups and
out-groups: Intense rivalries can develop
 “We vs. Them” mentality
 Ethnocentrism
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Social Groups
Reference Groups – Groups that we use to
evaluate ourselves
 Reference Groups will change as we go
through the life course
 Socialization
 Comparison
“RELATIVE DEPRIVATION”
• "RELATIVE GRATIFICATION"
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Social Groups
(Electronic Communities)
 People Connect Online
 Online Chat Rooms
 Can be impersonal and fail to meet the needs of
intimacy
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations

People who are linked to one another through
friends, family, acquaintances, etc.
 A bank of social relationships
 It is like a snowball effect
 Milgram Study 1967
 “Small World Phenomenon”
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

Criticisms
J. Kleinfeld replicated the research (2002)
Socially Diverse Society
Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Bureaucracies
(Weber)
Five Characteristics of Bureaucracies
 Clear Cut Levels (Hierarchy)
 Division of Labor
 Written Rules
 Written Communication and Records
 Impersonality
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Perpetuation of
Bureaucracies
 Take on a Life of their Own
 Suffers from Goal Displacement –When the old goal is
reached in a bureaucracy and a new goal is created to keep the
bureaucracy running
 Rationalization of Society
 Bureaucracies with so many rules, regulations, and emphasis on
results, would increasingly take over our lives.
 Red Tape
 Bureaucratic Alienation
 Marx—Worker’s Alienation
 Weber—Iron Cage
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Group Dynamics
 How groups influence us and how we affect groups
 Dyads – Two people
 Most intense or intimate of all groups
 Most unstable
 Triads – Three People
 Interaction becomes less intense and intimate
 Stronger and more stable
 As a group increases in size it becomes more formal and more
stable
 Coalitions may begin to form
 Greater Diffusion of Responsibility may occur in larger groups
– “Someone else will take care of it”
 As a group gets larger, smaller groups may form
 Groupthink may occur- collective tunnelvision
 Darley & Latane (Diffusion of Responsibility)
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
15
Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Leadership –
Two Types of Leaders
 Leaders are People Who Influence Others’
Behaviors, Opinions, and Attitudes
1.Instrumental Leader – a leader who keeps the group
on track towards meeting its goals
2.Expressive Leader – tries to life the groups morale
through motivation (can also be an instrumental leader)
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Leadership –
Three Leadership Styles
1) Authoritarian – One who gives orders and
instructions with little to no information
2) Democractic – Tried to gain a group
consensus
3) Lassiez-Faire – Totally hands off leader,
lets the group lead
 The leadership style will change as the
situation changes
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Asch study
 Studied the effects of
peer pressure
 Used a set of cards
 6 stooges and a nonstooge
Milgram study
 Studied the affects of
authority figures
 Teacher and a learner
 Controversial experiment
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Social Groups and Formal Organizations
19
Social Groups and Formal Organizations
Groupthink
• Decision making that ignores alternate
solutions in order to maintain group harmony
Social Groups and Formal Organizations