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How Society Is Organized

Society is organized into various groups that play important roles in cultural transmission. These include: 1) Primary groups like family and friends which are small, intimate, and enduring and secondary groups like work colleagues which are larger, impersonal, and transactional. 2) In-groups which people identify with and out-groups which they see as different. In-groups enhance their self-image by finding negative traits in out-groups. 3) Reference groups that people compare themselves to, whether or not they are actually part of that group, based on attributes like race, class, gender, etc. 4) Networks of weak social connections between individuals and groups through

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72 views2 pages

How Society Is Organized

Society is organized into various groups that play important roles in cultural transmission. These include: 1) Primary groups like family and friends which are small, intimate, and enduring and secondary groups like work colleagues which are larger, impersonal, and transactional. 2) In-groups which people identify with and out-groups which they see as different. In-groups enhance their self-image by finding negative traits in out-groups. 3) Reference groups that people compare themselves to, whether or not they are actually part of that group, based on attributes like race, class, gender, etc. 4) Networks of weak social connections between individuals and groups through

Uploaded by

Jimmelie Mangaliwan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lesson 1

How Society is Organized

Social interaction is necessary for the transmission of culture and the survival of
the society. Our lives are filled with random and inconsequential interactions. Example
is conversations with cashiers in stores and supermarket. However, many social
interactions are planned or anticipated (Schaefer and Lamm, 1995).

Group within Society:

Below are some types of groups that become important in sociological


investigation because they have important role in the transmission of culture.

A. Primary and Secondary Groups

Aspects Primary groups Secondary groups


size and equality typically small group or usually large
small-scale society
Relationship and close, personal, and formal, impersonal,
communications among enduring relationships and contractual relations.
members
Shared activities and “special interest groups”
Goals and Membership cultures identification created fir the attainment of
(group identity) some specific interests or
ends
Group Structure and Informal structures, Organized groups,
Member’s Statuses and members commonly have formal
Roles structure
Influence to Members and Marked by members’ care Little intimacy or mutual
Nature of Group Control concern for one another understanding, competitive
family, childhood friends, college student
Examples: and highly influential social organization, school clubs
groups

The classification of social group into primary and secondary should not be taken
as a sort of dichotomy. It should rather be considered continuum, i.e. at the two extreme
ends, there may be crystallized primary and secondary groups, and in between the two
extremes, there are mixture of the two types.

B. In-groups and Out-groups

An in-group social is a social group in which an individual psychologically


identifies himself or herself as being a member. Those who share a group’s particular
qualities are called an “in-group”, while those who do not, is known as “out-group”.
Social identity theory originated British social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John
Turner in 1979 where “In-group will discriminate against the out-group to enhance their
self-image. The central hypothesis of social identity theory is that group members of an
in-group will seek to find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing their self-
image. These groups can either be sports team, unions, and sororities”.

C. Reference Groups

Is a social group that we use as a standard of comparison for ourselves


regardless of whether or not we are part of that group. It could be race, class, gender,
sexuality, religion, region, ethnicity, age, or localized groups defined by neighborhood or
school. These groups have norms and dominant values, and we choose to either
embrace or reproduce them In our own thoughts, behaviors, and interactions with
others; or we reject and refute them by thinking and acting in ways that break from
them.

D. Networks

A social network is a series or web of weak social ties involving people or groups
of individuals connected to each other, such as through friendship, family, business
relationship, academic institutions, religious organizations and socio-political clubs.
Social network refers to the ways in which people are connected to one another and
how these connections create and define human society on all levels: the individual, the
group, and the institutional.

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