SOC101Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Georg Simmel, Class Discrimination, Social Group
Social group is a collection of 2 or more people who interact frequently with one
another, share a sense of belonging and interdependence
□
Common purpose
Aggregate: collection of people who happen to be at the same place and time, but
share little in common
□
Ex: women, university students
Category: share common characteristic, but have not met
□
Aggregates and categories can form social groups
□
Formal organization: structured group, formed in order to achieve specific goals
□
Groups Aggregates and Categories
▪
Primary: small, less specialized, engage face to face, emotion based interactions
Secondary: larger, more specialized, impersonal, goal oriented
Primary and secondary groups
□
Ingroup: group to which a person belongs and feels a sense of identity
Outgroup: does not belong, feeling of hostility / competition
Boundaries may be formal with defined criteria, ex: club
Friendships may not have defined boundaries
Ingroups may cause classism, ageism, etc.
Ingroups and outgroups
□
Evaluating selves --> refer to standards of group
◊
Group that strongly influences a person's behaviour and social attitudes
regardless of membership
Reference groups
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Web of social relationships that link people
Bridges: people who bridge different social worlds
social networks decrease connection amounts
More employment among certain groups who have networks
Networks
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Types of Groups
▪
Social Groups
○
Groups meet instrumental and expressive needs
▪
Instrumental: task-oriented, one person cannot meet alone, group works together
▪
Expressive: emotional needs, support from friends
▪
Symbolic: size of group influences kind of interaction
▪
Conflict: power relationships - needs may not be equally met
▪
Jameson - waning of emotion
□
Postmodern: superficiality and shallow social relationships
▪
Small group: members are acquainted, interact simultaneously
□
Dyad: 2 members, active participation of both members is essential to group
Triad: group can function even without one's interaction
As group size grows, communication patterns change, specialization
changes, difficult for all to participate
◊
Coalition: alliance created in an attempt to reach a shared objective or goal
Simmel: small groups have distinctive interaction patterns
□
Group Size
▪
Group Characteristics and Dynamics
○
Process of maintaining or changing behaviour to comply with established norms
▪
Pressure to conform is strong in small groups
□
Participants were willing to contradict best judgment
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Asch's research
▪
Willing to do something because authority told them
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People tortured because scientist said to
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Milgram's research on obedience
▪
Jamis: pressure towards group conformity
Challenger case
Process by which members of cohesive group arrive at a decision that individual
members believe is universal
□
Groupthink
▪
Group conformity
○
Organized model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, division of labour, explicit
rules
□
Intended to be most efficient
□
Organizations grew too large to manage
Rejection of traditional authority for rational - legal authority
Grant legitimacy to set of rules intended for purpose
Why bureaucracy?
□
Division of labour: specialization, specific status / tasks
Hierarchy of authority: pyramid, chain of command
Rules and regulations: establish authority, standardized
Qualification: specific standards, personnel policies
Impersonality: personal feelings do not affect decisions
Formal characteristics
□
Aspects of day-to-day activities and interactions that ignore, bypass or don't
correspond with official rules
Informal structure in bureaucracies
□
Level of productivity was determined by workers' informal networks, not be
management
Hawthorne
□
Positive and negative aspects of informal structure
□
Bureaucracies
▪
Formal Organizations
○
Groups and Organizations
Lecture 1.7: Reading - Groups and Organizations
October 23, 2016
1:50 PM
READINGS Page 110
Document Summary
Social group is a collection of 2 or more people who interact frequently with one another, share a sense of belonging and interdependence. Aggregate: collection of people who happen to be at the same place and time, but share little in common. Category: share common characteristic, but have not met. Formal organization: structured group, formed in order to achieve specific goals. Primary: small, less specialized, engage face to face, emotion based interactions. Ingroup: group to which a person belongs and feels a sense of identity. Outgroup: does not belong, feeling of hostility / competition. Boundaries may be formal with defined criteria, ex: club. Group that strongly influences a person"s behaviour and social attitudes regardless of membership. Evaluating selves --> refer to standards of group. Bridges: people who bridge different social worlds social networks decrease connection amounts. More employment among certain groups who have networks. Instrumental: task-oriented, one person cannot meet alone, group works together.
