1.

Understand the meaning of social groups;

2. Examine the sociological perspectives about social
groups;
3. Differentiate the various forms of social groups;
4. Analyze the functions of social groups; and
5. Determine your social groups.
GROUP – composed of two or more persons
interacting with each other, guided by a set
of norms.
Structural Functionalism

• It sees society as a complex system whose parts

work together to promote solidarity and stability. It
asserts that our lives are guided by social structures,
which are relatively stable patterns of social
behaviour.
 Structural Functionalism
• Society is viewed at the macro-level. It is
likened to the human body formed by
different interdependent parts with different
coordinated functions that are integrated into
a whole system.
 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

• It is an approach that sees society as the

product of the everyday interactions of
individuals.
• Established by American pragmatist George
Herbert Mead (1863-1931).
 THE SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST
APPROACH
• This ideology views people’s appearance,
gestures, and language symbols that are
apparent when they interact with others in
social situations.
 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
• If you love books, for example, a symbolic interactionist
might propose that you learned that books are good or
important in the interactions you had with family,
friends, school, or church; maybe your family had a
special reading time each week, getting your library card
was treated as a special event, or bedtime stories were
associated with warmth and comfort.
• According to Interaction and Relationship
⚬ Primary Group and Secondary Group
• Primary Group - intimate, personal, face-
to-face relationship found among the
members of the family, friend, and
associates.
⚬ Example: family, neighborhood and the
classroom group
• Secondary Group – interaction among the
members is impersonal, business-like,
contractual and casual.
⚬ Example: Nation, Church Hierarchy,
Professional Association, Corporation,
University classes
2. According to Membership
⚬ In-Group, Out-Group, Reference Group and
Peer Group
• In-Group – the individual identifies himself
and gives him a sense of belonging.
⚬ Solidarity, camaraderie, spirit de corps
and a protective attitude towards the
members prevail within the group.
⚬ “We feeling”
⚬ Example: Sports team, Unions and
Sororities
• The Out- Group – commonly referred to as the
“other group” or the outsiders.
⚬ This is a group toward which one has a
feeling of indifference, strangeness, dislike,
antagonism and even hatred.
⚬ “They feeling”
• Reference group - collection of people that we
use as a standard of comparison for ourselves
regardless of whether we are part of that group.
⚬ Example: parents, siblings, teachers, peers,
associates and friends.
⚬ Pop idols, sports team, favorite fashion style
• Peer Group – small kind of grouping whose
members have the same level, interests and
economic standing in the community.
3. According to Nature, Form and Objectives
⚬ Formal Group and Informal Group
• Formal Group (explicit) – large social group
deliberately constructed and organized to
achieve certain specific, clearly stated goals.
⚬ It has structures that facilitate its goal-
seeking efforts (bureaucracy)
• Informal Group (implicit) – it arises
spontaneously out of the interaction of
two or more persons.
⚬ they are unplanned, have no explicit
rules for membership and do not have
specific objectives to be attained.
⚬ Example: friends, family
4. According to Communal (Community)
Relationship
⚬ Gemeinschaft and Gessellschaft
• Gemeinschaft – (often translated as
community) is a traditional society in which
social relationships are based on personal
bonds of friendship, kinship and
intergenerational stability.
⚬ It is characterized by strong personal
relationship, strong families and
division of labor
• Gesselschaft – (often translated as society or
civil society) is a large, urban society in which
social bonds are based on impersonal and
specialized relationships.
⚬ Example: workers, managers, and owners
• It is a collection of people tied together by a
specific pattern of connections.
⚬ Nowadays, the giving of information and
establishing of connections and various
relationships can be done through social
networking sites.
• The group as transmitter of culture
• The group as means of social control
• The group socializes the individual
• The group as sources of fundamental social
ideas
• The group trains the individual to communicate
Thank You!