SOC 201 Chapter 8: Chapter 8.9
Document Summary
We do not spend our lives among random assortments of individuals. Group membership is so important to people that sociologists tend to focus almost exclusively on individuals in groups (large and small). Our assumption is that we can understand individuals" behavior only if we study individuals within the context of their own social groups. There are, of course, many different sorts of social groups, and these vary in size and degree of intimacy among members, as well as in how open or closed they are to new members. But social groups are always something more than mere social aggregations. A social aggregation is some collectivity of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time. The aggregations of fans who gather at a football game or rock concert are not social groups, although the five guys who paint their faces and sit together may be a social group. Sociologists typically distinguish between primary and secondary groups.
