Social Groups

Made by
Ms. Romana jabeen
 Introduction

• A group is a collection of individuals but all collectivities do

not constitute a social group.
• The key to the nature of human grouping is the notion of
association.
• Groups are created and maintained because they enable
individual members to attain certain goals or interests which
they hold in common.
• Our social behavior and personalities are shaped by the
groups to which we belong.
• Throughout his life, individual is a member of various groups,
some are chosen by him, others are assigned to him at birth.
 Definition of Social Group

• According to Maclver and Page “Any collection of human

beings who are brought into social relationship with one
another”. Social relationships involve some degree of
reciprocity and mutual awareness among the members of
the group.
• “A social group, remarks Williams, “is a given aggregate of
people playing interrelated roles and recognized by
themselves or others as a unit of interaction.
• According to Green, “A group is an aggregate of individuals
which persist in time, which has one or more interests and
activities in common and which is organised.”
 Characteristics of Social Groups:
Following are the important characteristics of social group:
1. Mutual Awareness:
• The members of a social group must be mutually related to one
another. A more aggregate of individuals cannot constitute a social
group unless reciprocal awareness exists among them. Mutual
attachment, is therefore, regarded as its important and distinctive
feature. It forms an essential feature of a group.

2. One or more Common Interests:

• Groups are mostly formed for the fulfillment of certain interests. The
individuals who form a group should possess one or more than one
common interests and ideals. It is for the realization of common
interests that they meet together. Groups always originate starts and
proceed with common interests.
3. Sense of Unity:
• Each social group requires sense of unity and a feeling of sympathy for
the development of a feeling or sense of belongingness. The members
of a social group develop common loyalty or feeling of sympathy
among themselves in all matters because of this sense of unity.
4. We-feeling:
• A sense of we-feeling refers to the tendency on the part of the
members to identify themselves with the group. They treat the
members of their own group as friends and the members belonging to
other groups as outsiders. They cooperate with those who belong to
their groups and all of them protect their interests unitedly. We-
feeling generates sympathy, loyalty and fosters cooperation among
members.
• 5. Similarity of Behavior:
• For the fulfillment of common interest, the members of a group
behave in a similar way. Social group represents collective
behavior. The-modes of behavior of the members on a group are
more or less similar.
• 6. Group Norms:
• Each and every group has its own ideals and norms and the
members are supposed to follow these. He who deviates from
the existing group-norms is severely punished. These norms may
be in the form of customs, folk ways, mores, traditions, laws etc.
They may be written or unwritten. The group exercises some
control over its members through the prevailing rules or norms.
 Types of Social Groups in Sociology
• We may classify social groups from various viewpoints. If we
consider size as the criterion, the single person as a focus of group
relationship is ‘monad’ two involved in interaction to affect its
organization is ‘dyad’ and ‘triad’ with the participation of three. If
we consider the nature of social contact and intensity of social
interaction the types of social group will be as such:
• Primary Groups
• The primary group is primary in the sense that the members are
emotionally attached together sharing their basic ways of life with
one another. In the basic affairs of life which are most essential for
a social life those who fall into mutual sharing of one another
form a group prime in importance called primary group.
Emotions, attitude, ideas and habits of individuals develop within
here.
• Secondary Groups
• The people within their contact second to the primary form secondary group no matter
whatever the type of relationship is there. The intimacy is relatively lower than that in
primary. The relations of teacher and student, buyer and seller, voter and candidate, are
secondary. The frequency, duration, intensity and focus in interaction may be there but
their degree being lower than the one in primary group. This is second in importance of
life to the participants. He is first affected by the primary group members and later by
those in the secondary.
• In-Group and Out-Group
• These types were given by W. C. Sumner.
• During the processes of our daily life we divide people into ‘we and they’. The interest of
the individual rests within those people with whom he is closely affiliated and places his
confidence in them. They may be Members of his family, neighborhood, play-group or
immediate or close relatives. He develops his subjective attitude and forms opinion about
the acceptance or rejection of a certain object or idea through his in-group members.
Consciousness kind also falls in this type of social group. The members are tied in the
bonds of ‘we feel’, It is the group to which the individual is member.
• Out-Group:
• ‘Out group’ members are considered in relation to in-group.
Those not included in ‘we’ and fail in `they’ are the members
of out-group, its members are not members of individuals self.
We (in-group) the Russians, they (out-group) the Americans:
we the Pathans and they the Sayyed are the examples. It
means a person member of a certain group falls in its in-group
and a person not member to a group falls in his out-group.
 Formal and Informal Groups
• Here membership is defined. Those who fulfill the conditions can
become member. The entry is made under written rule and the
membership can be cancelled on violation of its rules and
regulations. The offices are distributed according to the rules. The
students in a class are a formal group, other example is the Union
Council, people enjoying a match on tickets. United Nations
Organization (U.N.O.), SAARC, Punjab Professors and Lecturers
Association (PPLA), Youth Club in a mohalla, are also formal groups.
• Informal group membership is not defined. Any person can
participate and leave it when he likes. People in markets, fairs,
listening radio, watching television, listening to a speaker and
enjoying the feats of an acrobat on the roadside are the examples of
informal groups. Other example is people gossiping in mohalla and
children playing in street.
• Reference Group
• The term reference group was introduced by Muzafer Sherif in his
book “an Outline of Social Psychology”. Here individual was
socialized. Here he identifies himself may include the old
members of the family and those who influenced him. Those who
left bright effects on the social life of the individual are the
members of his reference group.
• Pressure-Group
• It lays pressure on government to change its policies in its favour.
Here are participants are high class people, especially the rich and
the diplomats. This enjoys high status in society. Its members also
participate in running government and administration.
 Social Organizations
• Social organization consists of all the ways in
which men live and work together, especially
all of the participants of societies
programmed, ordered and coordinated
relationships. Social organizations arrange and
communicate group actions at various levels.
They organize and crystallize various individual
and collective desires.
 Social Organization Definitions
• Duncan Mitchell: “Social organization means
the interdependence of parts which is
essential characteristic of all enduring
collective entities, groups, communities and
societies.”
• Ogburn & Nimkoff. “An organization is an
articulation of different parts which perform
various functions; it is an active group device
for getting something done.”
 Types of social organization

• Informal Organization
• Informal organization refers to a small group the members of which are
tied to one another as persons. The group is characterized by informal
and face to face relations, mutual aid, cooperation and companionship.
• The members of informal organizations work together not in their
official capacities but as persons. They share their hopes and fears, their
joys and sorrows. The informal organizations consist of only rules and
not statuses. Here there is no authority but only leadership.
• Informal organizations have their own unwritten norms of behavior.
They have their own ways of correcting and punishing the violators of
the norms. Though they are smaller in size they give strength to the
formal organizations to function effectively. These informal
organizations resemble Cooley's Primary Groups and Sunmer's in –
groups.