Sociology Chapter 5

Social Groups

• Everyone seeks a sense of belonging

• A SOCIAL GROUP –is two or more people who identify and interact with one another.

• Not every collection of individuals can be called a group.

• People with a status in common are not a group, but a category.

Primary and Secondary Groups

• A PRIMARY GROUP – is a small social group whose members share your personal and enduring relationships.

• They are among the first groups we experience in life.

• A SECONDARY GROUP – a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity.

• They involve weak emotional ties. (see chart pg. 112)

Group Leadership

• Groups benefit from two types of leadership:

• 1) INSTRUMENTAL LEADERSHIP – emphasizes the completion of tasks.

• 2) EXPRESSIVE LEADERSHIP – focuses on collective well-being.

Group Conformity Asch’s Research

• SOLOMON ASCH conducts a classic experiment that showed the power of groups in generating conformity.

• Arranging students around a table, he showed them a line.

• He asked them to match the line to one of three shown on a card.

• One-third of all subjects conformed to the others by answering incorrectly. (see page 113)

Milgram Experiment

• STANLEY MILGRAM studied obedience.

• He assigned subjects to the roles of “teacher” and “learner.”

• Teachers applied false shocks to learners in response to incorrect answers.

• He found people are likely to follow directions even when it means inflicting harm on another person.

Group Conformity Janis’s Research

• IRVING JANIS contends that a number of United States foreign policy errors were the result of group conformity.

• GROUPTHINK – the tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issue.

Reference Groups

• How do we assess our own attitudes and behaviors?

• Often we are a reference group (ex: peer group)

• REFERENCE GROUPS – serve as point of reference in making evaluations and decisions.

• Our need to conform means that other’s attitudes greatly influence us.

Ingroups and Outgroups

• Everyone favors some groups over others.

• AN INGROUP – a social group commanding a member’s esteem and loyalty.

• AN OUTGROUP – a social group toward which one feels competitive or opposition.

• Tensions among the groups sharpen their boundaries.

• What are your ingroups and outgroups?

Group Size

• DYAD – a social group with two members.

• A dyad is intense and unstable.

• TRIAD – a social group with three members.

• A triad is more stable than a dyad because one member can act as a mediator.

• Stability increases with group size. (see diagram pg. 115)

Social Diversity:Race, Class, and

Gender• Efforts to promote diversity may have an

unintended effect of promoting separatism.

• The more diverse a group, the more likely its members are to interact with outsiders.

• If all groups have the same social standing, members of all the groups will interact.

• If a group is physically segregated from others, its members are less likely to associate with other people.

Networks

• A NETWORK – a web of weak social ties.

• People who come into occasional contact.

• A social web reaching great distances.

• The feeling that we live in a “small world.”

• Ties may be weak, but they can be a powerful resource.

• See map on page 118. Why are networks powerful?

Formal Organizations

• FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS – large secondary groups that are organized to achieve their goals efficiently.

• They operate in a deliberate way.

• They accomplish complex jobs.

• Large organizations develop cultures of their own in order to last over time.

• What formal organizations do you belong to? (see chart on page 119)

Types of Formal Organizations

• UTILITARIAN ORGANIZATION – one that pays people for their efforts.

• NORMATIVE ORGANIZATION – one that pursues some goal believed to be morally worthwhile.

• COERCIVE ORGANIZATION – one that forces people to join.

• Any particular organization may fall into all of these categories.

• Can you think of organizations that fall into 2 or 3 of the above categories?

Bureaucracies

• A BUREAUCRACY – an organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently.

• There are specific traits that promote efficiency:

• Specialization• Hierarchy of offices• Rules and regulations• Technical competence• Impersonality• Formal, written communication (see chart on pg.

121)

Organizational Environment

• How an organization performs depends on its environment.

• ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT – factors outside the organization that affect its operation.

• Factors include technology, economic and political trends, work force, and other organizations.

Problems of Bureaucracy

• It has the ability to dehumanize the people it is supposed to serve.

• It creates alienation.

• BUREAUCRATIC RITUALISM – a preoccupation with rules and regulations to the point of thwarting an organization’s goals.

• BUREAUCRATIC INERTIA – the tendency of the organizations to perpetuate themselves. (see graphs pages 125 -6)

The Evolution of Formal Organization

• SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT – the application of scientific principles to the operation of a business or other large organizations.

• Managers carefully observe the task performed by each worker.

• Managers analyze data and provide guidance.

The “McDonaldization” of

Society• McDonalds has enjoyed enormous

success around the world.

• The organization principles that underlie it are coming to dominate our entire society.

• Where do you see “McDonaldization” through the U.S. and the world?

Discussion Questions• What are the 5 most important social groups to which

you currently belong? Which are primary and which are secondary? Compare the sizes. Do you see any patterns?

• Think of 3 examples of your yielding to group conformity? What factors caused you to conform?

• How might a group reduce GROUPTHINK?

• In the Asch and Milgram experiments do you think that groups of people who already knew each other would demonstrate more or less conformity? Why?

• Do you think Milgram’s experiments were ethical?

• What are some of your most valued reference groups?