Transcript Groups and Formal Organizations

Chapter 6
“Organization has been
made by man; it can be
changed by man.” -William H. Whyte,
Sociologist
Groups, Categories, and
Aggregates
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Groups are composed of people who share several
features, including:
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They are in regular contact with one another
They share some ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving
They take one another’s behavior into account
They have one or more interests or goals in common
Social Categories are people who share a social
characteristic
 High school seniors
 Women/men
 Harry Potter Fanatatics/freaks

Social Aggregates are people temporarily in the
same place at the same time
Neither categories or aggregates are groups, but some may form
groups!!!
Primary Groups

A primary group is composed of people
who are emotionally close, know one
another well, and seek one another’s
company
 Most important for socialization
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Primary relationships are
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Intimate
Personal
Caring
Fulfilling
“You are the company that you keep”
Characteristics of Groups
Boy Groups
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Larger
Less intimate
More willing to allow
other boys into their
circles
Anything else?
Girl Groups
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Smaller
More intimate
Less willing to allow
other girls into their
circles
Anything else?
Are these difference the result of
sociobiology or socialization?
How Do Primary Groups Develop?
Small size
 Face-to-face contact

 Is this becoming obsolete?
 Dating websites, social networking sites?
Continuous contact
 Proper social environment

What are the Functions of
Primary Groups?
Emotional support
 Socialization
 Encourage conformity

 Primary groups teach norms and values, as
well as provide pressure to conform
Secondary Groups
A secondary group is impersonal and
goal oriented.
 Secondary relationships are impersonal
interactions involving limited parts of
personalities

 “Hi, how are you?” (To what extent do we
really, truly care?)
Sometimes, primary relationships can occur in
secondary groups. And, primary groups can include
secondary interaction
Other Groups

Reference groups
 Group used for self-evaluation and the formation of
attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms
 We may consider a reference group without being a
member
 Evaluate ourselves in terms of others’ standards
 Do NOT have to be positive

In-Groups require extreme loyalty from its
members
 “we”

Out-Group is a group targeted by an in-group
for opposition, antagonism, or competition
 “they”
Groups: Where, What, How
Formed around schools, teams, races,
ethnicities, neighborhoods, countries, etc.
 Boundaries must identify who “we” are and
who “they” are—otherwise there are not
groups
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 Symbols of handshakes, clothes, slang, place,
style of dress, hairstyles, uniforms, etc.

Maintained through loyalty and
commitment to the boundaries
Mean Girls Guide to In- and Out-Groups
Social Networks
The web of relationships that join a
person to other people and groups
 Social networks tie us to hundreds of
people within our communities,
throughout the country and around the
world

 Durkheim’s studies on suicide and social
networks

Role of the internet in social interaction?
Facebook Manners and You
Functions of Social Networks
Provide a sense of belonging and
purpose
 Furnish support (help and advice)
 Networking for jobs

25 Things I Hate About Facebook
5 Types of Social Interaction
Cooperation
 Conflict
 Social exchange
 Coercion
 Conformity
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Cooperation
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Interaction in which individuals or groups
combine their efforts to reach a goal
 Usually occurs when reaching a goal
demands the best use of the limited
resources and efforts
 Examples?
Conflict
Interaction aimed at defeating an
opponent
 Working against one another for a larger
share of the rewards
 Defeating the opponent might be more
important than achieving the goal
 Benefits:
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 Promotes unity within opposing groups
 Attention it draws to social inequality
 May change social norms
Social Exchange
A voluntary action performed in the
expectation of getting a reward in return
 Different from cooperation because both
people benefit from working together
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 Not necessarily true in cooperation
○ People working together at a blood bank
Is altruism self-serving? Is there a self-less
good deed? What do Phoebe and Joey say?
Coercion

Interaction in which individuals or groups
are forced to behave in a particular way
 The opposite of social exchange
 Central element of coercion is domination
Conformity

Behavior that matches the group
expectations
 Beyond adolescence and into adulthood, is
there a lessening or increasing need to
conform?
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In groups, people conform because they
are emotionally committed to the welfare
of the group
 Groupthink is self-deceptive thinking that is
based on conformity to group beliefs, and
created by group pressure to conform
Experiment: Group Pressure
and Obedience
Solomon Asch (1955)
 Many participants publicly denied their
own sense because they wanted to
avoid disagreeing with majority opinion
 Groups of male college students were
asked to match lines on cards
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 All but one were instructed to incorrectly
match the wrong lines
○ The “naïve” participant went with the group
1/3 of the time
Formal Organizations
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Formal organization
 A group deliberately created to achieve one
or more long-term goals
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Bureaucracies
 A formal organization based on rationality
and efficiently
Major Characteristics of
Bureaucracies
Division of labor based on the principle of
specialization
 A hierarchy of authority
 Power: the ability to control the behavior of
others
 Authority: the legitimate or socially approved
use of powers
 A system of rules and procedures
 Written records of work and activities
 Promotion on the basis of merit and qualifications
