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Sociology Chapter 5
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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)
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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.
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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?
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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)
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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?
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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)
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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?
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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?