GROUPS Objectives Identify what a social group is

GROUPS

Objectives • Identify what a social group is • Identify primary and secondary groups • Define the terms Aggregate, category, Ingroup, outgroup and Reference group

ARE THESE GROUPS? • Three strangers standing at a street corner waiting for a traffic light to change • NOT DEFINED AS A GROUP • Five hundred women and men are first-year graduate students at a university • NOT DEFINED AS A GROUP

WHAT IS A GROUP? • Aggregate – a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time but share little else in common • EX: Shoppers in a Department Store • Category – a number of people who may never have met one another but share a similar characteristic • EX: Educational level, age, race, gender

WHAT IS A GROUP? • Social Group – collection of two or more people who interact frequently with one another, share a sense of belonging, and have a feeling of interdependence • IN YOUR NOTES, write down the social groups that you belong to

COOLEY’S PRIMARY AND SECONDARY GROUPS • SOCIOLOGIST GEORGE COOLEY • Primary Group – Small, less specialized social group in which members engage in face to face, emotion based interactions over an extended period of time – EX: Spouses, Friends, Family Members

TYPES OF GROUPS • Secondary Group – larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more impersonal, goal – oriented relationships for a limited period of time • EX: Class of students • NOTE: Secondary groups can become primary groups (Class or teammate)

SUMNER’S INGROUPS and OUTGROUPS • SOCIOLOGIST William Graham Sumner • Ingroup – group to which a person belongs and with which the person feels a sense of identity • Outgroup – group to which a person does not belong and toward which the person may feel a sense of competitiveness or hostility

TYPES OF GROUPS • Reference Groups – is a group that strongly influences a person’s behavior and social attitudes, regardless of whether that individual is an actual member

TYPES OF GROUPS • Network – web of social relationships that links one person with other people, and through them, with other people they know