1.

How do ascribed and achieved statuses serve to identify who a person is in a

culture? What are reference groups? How are reference groups experienced
in society?
a. Achieved status is a status you gain by the effort you are willing to put into
it. This is what we earn say a rank in the military or police. On the other
hand a ascribed status is something given to a person by society at birth
and the individual has no say in it. An example would be born into wealth.
Reference groups are the group or groups a person looks up to. These
groups are what an individual compares themselves to. These groups are
experienced in 2 ways, as a comparison function or normative functions

2. What is a social role (give examples)? How does one violate his or her role?
What is meant by role exit? And how does role exit relate to the socialization
process? Distinguish between primary and secondary groups (give
examples). (Andy)
a. Social roles are the behaviors or expectations that other people in the
society presume to see based on our position in the community. For
instance, people expect teachers to have some good manners since they
have to educate students to learn positive knowledges from school.
However, people can violate their roles by doing something that other
don’t expect them to do or they are not allowed to do. Most of the time
these people will be fired or receive some sorts of warning letters based
on how serious their violations are. Role exit often refers to a person who
leave their social roles and change to another particular role. Some
examples would be re-employ and retirement. Since everyone can’t stick
to their role for the entire life, changes have to be made. After people
switching their role, people have to assimilate the situation again. And, the
assimilation that happens after the role exit is known as the socialization
process. Therefore, role exit is crucial to socialization because it is what
caused the socialization process to occur. According to Charles Cooley’s
theory, the primary group refers to the group of people who have an
extremely large impact in an individual’s life. These group of people are
connected with emotional interactions. For instance, family member,
relatives, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. On the other hand, the secondary group
are disparate as we compare it to the primary group. They always consist
of a large amount of people, and they are cooperating to achieve some
certain goals. An example would be a company, group work, research
group, sport team, etc. - Chi Ng

3. What is meant by in-group and out-group? How is in-group connected to

primary group? How is out group connected to secondary group? (Dexter)
a. In in-group, group members are more comfortable with each other, they
know what to expect because these group members share similar traits.
For example, race, sex, religion, and more. This allows in-group members
to feel more comfortable around each other while out-group are people
 who do not know each other as well which makes the people interacting a
bit uncomfortable. A out-group member is someone who does not know
another person that well but with time, this out-group member can find
similar interest which would resolve into him/her becoming a in-group
member. In-group is connected to primary group because a primary group
is a small group that understands each others relationships. This group
likes to hangout and is comfortable with each other just like a in-group. A
secondary group is connected to out-group because a secondary group
has less social interaction between the members. LIke a out-group, they
are not as involved with each other’s lives and only interact when they
need to.
4. What are the five functional prerequisites that a society must satisfy if it is to
survive? Describe the differences between organic and mechanical solidarity.
a. In order to survive the five prerequisites a society needs are: family,
education, religion ,government and economy.
i. Family: it helps ensure the society’s continued existence by giving
birth to the next generation. They carry out the work of both making
sure there are kids for the society to survive but also teaching them
the culture they need for survival.
ii. Education: Teaching them to be member of the society. Teaches
formal education like history, math, science and etc. They also
teach how to interact with other people outside the family.
iii. Religion: This is what holds society together by having a clear
identity with shared beliefs and practices. They also answer
questions about meaning and enforce discipline.
iv. Government: They help maintain order through law, policing, and
punishment. They also seek to establish relations with other
societies via diplomacy.
v. Economy: It regulates the production, distribution, and consumption
of goods and services.
b. Mechanical solidarity: it is a type of social cohesion based on shared
experience, knowledge and skill in which social relations functions more or
less the same. In short everyone has the same job and idea as their
parents and grandparents and it gets passed down from generation to
generation with little or no change. Think like everyone is a cog in a
machine and has their own job to make the whole machine works.
Mechanical solidarity is the idea that over time the cogs in the machine
break down or need replacement so you replace it with another cog of the
same size. (ex. Father was a farmer and son is now a farmer too)
c. Organic solidarity: is a type of social cohesion based on mutual
interdependence in the context of extreme division of labor. So instead of
have one person building a house there are more specialized jobs. One
person is responsible for lumber, another electrical, tile, etc. organic
solidarity focus on people with the skills rather than family and closed
experience. Think mom and pop store compared to giant corporation.