1. SOCIOLOGY AND
YOU
CHAPTER 6
GROUPS AND FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS
1

2. Activity 1: Draw a Social Map
Directions: Draw a social map of this class
period.
Include yourself.
 Do not include your teacher.
 Include all classmates.
 Draw lines connecting you to those classmates that are
your friends.
 Draw lines connecting those classmates that you think
are friends.
 Use large lettering and clear lines.


4. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
Main Idea
Groups are classified by how they develop and
function. Primary groups meet emotional and
support needs, while secondary groups are task
focused.
Primary group
Secondary group

5. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
Group: at least two people who have one or more
goals in common and share common ways of
thinking and behaving
• In regular contact with one another
• Take one another’s behavior into account
• Tend to draw lines around themselves, creating
insiders and outsiders. These lines are known
as boundaries.

6. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
•
Social Category: people who share a social
characteristic
• Examples: women, fathers, students, artists
•
Social Aggregate: People temporarily in the same
place at the same time
• Examples: students in the lunch line, people at a concert,
contestants in a talent competition

7. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
Primary Group: People who are emotionally close, know one
another well, and seek one another’s company
• Characterized by primary relationships
(interactions that are intimate, personal, and fulfilling)
• Conditions that favor development of primary
groups/relationships
• Small size
• Face-to-face contact
• Continuous contact
• Proper social environment

8. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
Primary Group (continued)
• Functions of primary
group
1. Emotional support
2. Socialization
3. Encourages
conformity

9. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
Secondary Group: People who only share a part of their lives
while focusing on a goal or task
Secondary relationships: impersonal interactions involving
only limited parts of our personalities
-Secondary groups are about accomplishing a task NOT
about establishing friendship but they can include some
primary relationships.

10. Activity 2: Draw another Social Map
Directions: Draw a social map of your life.







Include yourself.
You may but are not required to include your teachers.
Include at least 19 other people.
Include at least one primary group. [label it!]
Include at least one secondary group. [label it!]
Draw lines connecting you to those people.
Use large lettering and clear lines.

12. SEC 1: PRIMARY & SECONDARY GROUPS
Choose one primary and one secondary
group from your Social Map.
For each group: Describe the group and the
boundaries of the group as you see them.
Are the boundaries tight or loose? Are other
allowed in? If so, how does one become a
part of the group?

13. SEC 2: OTHER GROUPS & NETWORKS
Main Idea
Reference groups help us evaluate ourselves and
form identities. In-groups and out-groups divide
people into “we” and “they.” Social networks
extend our contacts and let us form links to many
other people.

14. SEC 2: OTHER GROUPS & NETWORKS
Reference Group: group used for self-evaluation and the
formation of attitudes, values, beliefs and norms
◦ Examples: families, teachers, classmates, political groups,
sports teams, bands
◦ A person can consider a group to be a reference group
without being a member.
◦ Reference groups are not necessarily positive (i.e. gangs).

15. SEC 2: OTHER GROUPS & NETWORKS
In-group: exclusive group which demands intense loyalty
 Norms compel members to exclude others.
Out-group: a group targeted by an in-group for opposition,
antagonism, or competition
 People get divided into “we” and “they”

16. SEC 2: OTHER GROUPS & NETWORKS
Group boundaries: allow the ingroup to tell who is “in” and who is
not “in”
• In-groups and out-groups can
form in schools, athletics,
neighborhoods, or even countries
at war.
◦ This is often a symbol like
clothes or slang or can be an
action like a handshake.
• New members may be taught the
boundaries in an initiation
ceremony
• Boundaries are maintained by
demanding intense loyalty from
group members

17. In-Group/Out-Group Clarification
In-group is NOT the same as “popular group.”
 In group is the group that a person has an affinity
or closeness for (example: Mrs. Downs and The
Ohio State Buckeyes)
 Out-group is NOT the same as “unpopular group.”
 Out-group is the group that a person has a
disconnect with, often a negative bias (example:
Mrs. Downs and Michigan Wolverines)


18. SEC 2: OTHER GROUPS & NETWORKS
Social Networks: a web of social relationships that join a person
to other people and groups
• It includes groups, but is not a group in and of itself
• Functions:
• Provide a sense of purpose and belonging
• Provide support in the form of advice or help
• Useful for entering the job market
FRIEND’S MOM
BRO’S BABYSITTER
& YOUR FRIEND’S
FRIEND
MOM’S FRIEND &
FUTURE BOSS
BABY BRO
MOM
YOU
DAD’S FRIEND’S
FRIEND & YOUR
FRIEND’S DAD
FRIEND
DAD’S FRIEND
DAD
DAD’S FRIEND &
FUTURE IN-LAW

20. SEC 3: (5) Types of Social Interaction
Main Idea
Five types of social interaction are basic to
group life:
1.Cooperation
2. Conflict
3. Social exchange
4. Coercion
5. Conformity.

21. SEC 3: (5) Types of Social Interaction
Cooperation
• Interaction in which individuals or groups combine
their efforts to reach a goal
• Most likely to occur when reaching the goals requires
the best use of limited resources (like in emergency
situations)
• The goal, may or may not, even benefit those who are
cooperating

22. SEC 3: (5) Types of Social Interaction
Conflict
• Interaction aimed at defeating an opponent
• Usually considered disruptive, but it can also be
socially beneficial
• It may promote cooperation and unity within
opposing groups
• It may draw attention to social inequalities and cause
a change in values, beliefs and norms

23. SEC 3: (5) Types of Social Interaction
Social Exchange
• A voluntary action
is performed in the
expectation of
getting a reward in
return
• The exchange
relationship is
based on
reciprocity

24. SEC 3: (5) Types of Social Interaction
Coercion
• Interaction in which individuals or groups are
forced to behave in a particular way
• Central element of coercion is DOMINATION
• Physical – imprisonment, torture
• Social – ridicule, rejection, ostracize

25. SEC 3: (5) Types of Social Interaction
Conformity
• Behavior that matches group expectations
• Most people do conform to group pressure (Asch,
1955) {Asch Experiment Video} – (see: handout)
• Groupthink: self-deceptive thinking that is based on
conformity to group beliefs and created by group
pressure to conform
• Milgrim Experiment (see: handout)
• ABC Primetime – Basic Instincts –Milgrim Revisited (see:
handout)
• Stanford Prison Experiment (see: handout)

26. SEC 4: Formal Organizations
A formal organization is a group created to achieve
one or more long-term goals
A bureaucracy is a formal organization based on
rationality and efficiency. Characteristics include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Division of labor based on specialization
Hierarchy of power
System of rules and procedures
Written records and activities
Promotions are based on merit and qualifications
Often seen as impersonal, but designed to protect
individuals from abuses

27. SEC 4: Formal Organizations
Primary relationships do form within formal
organizations
Informal organization: group within formal
organization in which relationships are guided by
norms, rituals or sentiments that are not part of
the formal organization

28. SEC 4: Formal Organizations
Iron Law of Oligarchy (Robert Michels, 1911)
• Power increasingly becomes more
concentrated in the hands of fewer
individuals within the organization