Chapter 2 The Structure of Social Groups

Chapter 2 The Structure of Social Groups

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The Micro Level

• Social Organization

• The ways in which the human conduct becomes socially organized

• Social conditions that constrain behavior:

• Social Structure
• The structure of behavior in groups and society
• Culture
• The shared beliefs of group members that unite them and guide behavior

The Micro Level

• Social Interaction

• When the actions of one person affect another person
• The most common method is through speech
• Enduring social interaction is a social relationship

The Micro Level

• Culture

• The shared beliefs of a group’s members that serve to guide conduct
• Common expectation about how people should act are called norms
• Criteria for judging what is appropriate, correct, moral and important are the values of a group
• The expectations that group members have of individuals occupying the various positions within the group are social roles

The Micro Level

• Norms

• Rules that specify appropriate and inappropriate behaviors
• Folkways are minor rules
• Mores are important norms

• Status

• The positions each societal member occupies
• A master status is a status that has exceptional significance for social identity.

The Micro Level

• Role

• The behavioral expectations and requirements attached to a position in a social organization

• Reasons for varied behavior within a role

• Personality variables can account for variations in the behavior of people holding identical statuses
• The occupants of a status may not receive a clear, consistent message about which behavior is expected
• The statuses we occupy may have conflicting demands on our behavior due to multiple group memberships

The Micro Level

• Social Control

• Social groups universally demand conformity to some norms.
• Mechanisms of social control can occur subtly in the socialization process, in the form of rewards, or can be public.
• Sanctions are social rewards or punishments for approved or disapproved behavior.

Primary and Social Groups

• Social Group

• An organization created through enduring and patterned interaction

• Primary Group

• Groups whose members are most intimately involved with each other

• Secondary Group

• Formally organized, task oriented, and relatively nonpermanent groups

Bureaucracy: The Ultimate Social Group

• A bureaucracy is a hierarchical formal organization characterized by rationality and efficiency

• The increasing bureaucratization of social life is called McDonaldization, as coined by George Ritzer.

• There is the danger that Max Weber feared from the “iron cage” of rationality.

Power of the Social Group

• The Group Affects the Probability of Suicide

• Emile Durkheim’s Suicide
• One’s attachment to social groups affects the probability of suicide.
• Types of Suicide
• Egoistic suicide
• Altruistic suicide
• Anomic suicide

Power of the Social Group

• The Group Affects Perceptions

• Apparently, our wish to conform is so great that we often give in to group pressure.

• The Group Affects Convictions

• Sectarians with group support maintain their conviction despite contrary evidence.

• The Group Affects Health and Life

• Membership in a group may have an effect on one’s health and even on life itself.

• The Group Affects Behavior

• The group can alter the behavior of members, even behaviors that involve basic human drives.

Figure 2.1 – Process of Social Organization

• Figure 2.1 – Process of Social Organization

• Source: This scheme is adapted from that developed by Marvin E. Olsen, The Process of Social Organization, 2nd ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976)

The Societal or Macro Level

• Society

• An aggregate of people, united by a common culture, who are relatively autonomous and self-sufficient and who live in a definite geographical location

Society as a Social System

• Society is a social system composed of interdependent parts that are linked together into a boundary-maintaining whole.

• Culture explains much individual and group behavior as well as the persistence of much of social life.

• Social Stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of people in terms of power, prestige, and resources.

• Social Institutions are social arrangements that channel behavior in prescribed ways in the important areas of social life.