Group Work: Social Structure & Interaction
Owen Lee- question 1
Fatemeh Dehghan- 2
Juana Ayala- 3
Zheqing Zhu- 4
Achieved status is social position we have earned as a consequence of something we have done. Since it assigns this person a social position, he or she now has a role in our culture. He/she is now a Doctor, performing surgeries. He/she is now a florist, planting and selling flowers. They all make up the culture in which we live in. Though we may have multiple achieved statuses there is always a Master status, which is a status that holds more importance.
A reference group is a group in which we compare ourselves. It serves a normative function by setting and enforcing standards and belief. There are two types of groups in which we share the same norms, values and goals. First, there is the primary group which is usually small, involves long conversations, is intimate, face to face association, in depth relationships and is generally cooperative and friendly. Than there is the secondary group which is consists of a large amount of people, interactions are cut short, contains little intimacy or little mutual understanding, relationships are superficially, formal and impersonal.
Reference groups are what shapes the person. We use reference groups as references to people who we want to become. Reference groups are experienced by seeing a group of people and acting a certain way to fit into the group and become one of them. We may change the way we speak, wear and act to fit into the group.
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).
As individuals become mature they become entitled to new responsibilities and challenges in the society. The social role is set of society behavioral expectations for adults in their personal and public lives. For example when a grown man and woman got married, their social role will be couple, parent, and taking care of family.
By violating a social role, a specific social norm is violated which is called deviance. The role exit means when a person leaves on of his or her an important social roles to participate in a new role. Certain role exits are essential for socialization process. As we grow, we learn to accept more responsibility and behave more maturely. These learnings leads us to exit our current social roles with the purpose of joining new roles.
The primary groups and secondary groups are concepts suggested by Charles Cooley to categorize our surrounding groups. The primary groups consists of few persons who has the most critical impacts in an individual’s life. The primary groups have direct, close and emotional interaction with the individual. The significant others are the main members of primary groups. For example a family is a primary group for its members. On the other hand, secondary groups are not small usually larger and less private. An individual will become a member of a secondary groups for a limited time to achieve a certain goal. An example of a secondary groups is this collaboration group that we joined to complete the Social Structure & Interaction assignment.
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?
According to Witt in-groups and out -groups are groups sharing certain norms, beliefs, and interest, but each of them develop its boundaries to distinguish each other like “ insiders” and “outsiders”. For instance, society can be described as ingroup because we all share norms, and values in the same society, but people are categorized according to their racial identity, and social quo this is the out-groups who are part of the society, yet not belong to certain in-groups, upper class. In fact, UCL and USC share the same social norms and goals which describes them as an in-group, but each member of the team belongs to its team which make them to be out-group. Because sport teams have a periodical face to face interaction, they build strong connections with each other which make them develop a strong relationship forming part of the family, so in-groups have influential connections with the primary groups due to their close interaction and similar goal and values. Not only sport teams develop strong connections with each other, but also people who share similar interests develop loyalty to certain groups such as church members, clubs, classmates, and coworkers. That later becomes an ingroup because they belong to their group excluding others who do not share things in common. Moreover, the secondary group has little interpersonal communication with out- groups, the secondary group has no intimacy to interact face to face for sharing personal information or long term goals. These people do not disclose themselves to build strong bonds in friendship, as a result they become as outsiders.
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.
The first is "replacing members", which means that there people in society need to have offspring continuously. People would have illness and old age. The members in the society are not fixed, but are changed through successors and replacement. The society needs certain population to make it operate.
The second is socialization, which means that new members of the society needs to integrate into the society, otherwise they would do improper things that violate the rule the society and bring troubles to interrupt the normal order. This process can be done through education, religions or other gathering institutions.
The third is production and distribution, which means that this society needs to produce goods and service to make it functional, to make people enjoy the life. Goods and service could be spread through economical institution like commercial company.
The fourth is preserving order, which means that this society needs power to maintain the social order and protect the people when there are external attack or internal chaos. Police usually do the job of limiting internal disorder and the army serves as defend outside attack.
The fifth is purpose, which means that people in the society would have a common goal to pursue. People in the society cannot just consider about themselves but also for the well-being of the whole society. Sometimes to fulfill the purpose of the whole society, individuals needs to act in restraint or even sacrifice the welfare of themselves.
In mechanical solidarity, bonds of unity are formed through similarities among individuals. People connected to each other when they are learning in the same educational institutions, working for the same purpose or sharing the same belief of religion and same life style. Kinship ties are significant in mechanical solidarity.
In organic solidarity, social cohesion happens because individuals depend on each other. People work together for complementarities they need from each other or specialization in certain kind of job.
Fatemeh Dehghan- 2
Juana Ayala- 3
Zheqing Zhu- 4
- How do ascribed and achieved status serve to identify who a person is in a culture? What are reference groups? How are reference groups experienced in society?
Achieved status is social position we have earned as a consequence of something we have done. Since it assigns this person a social position, he or she now has a role in our culture. He/she is now a Doctor, performing surgeries. He/she is now a florist, planting and selling flowers. They all make up the culture in which we live in. Though we may have multiple achieved statuses there is always a Master status, which is a status that holds more importance.
A reference group is a group in which we compare ourselves. It serves a normative function by setting and enforcing standards and belief. There are two types of groups in which we share the same norms, values and goals. First, there is the primary group which is usually small, involves long conversations, is intimate, face to face association, in depth relationships and is generally cooperative and friendly. Than there is the secondary group which is consists of a large amount of people, interactions are cut short, contains little intimacy or little mutual understanding, relationships are superficially, formal and impersonal.
Reference groups are what shapes the person. We use reference groups as references to people who we want to become. Reference groups are experienced by seeing a group of people and acting a certain way to fit into the group and become one of them. We may change the way we speak, wear and act to fit into the group.
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).
As individuals become mature they become entitled to new responsibilities and challenges in the society. The social role is set of society behavioral expectations for adults in their personal and public lives. For example when a grown man and woman got married, their social role will be couple, parent, and taking care of family.
By violating a social role, a specific social norm is violated which is called deviance. The role exit means when a person leaves on of his or her an important social roles to participate in a new role. Certain role exits are essential for socialization process. As we grow, we learn to accept more responsibility and behave more maturely. These learnings leads us to exit our current social roles with the purpose of joining new roles.
The primary groups and secondary groups are concepts suggested by Charles Cooley to categorize our surrounding groups. The primary groups consists of few persons who has the most critical impacts in an individual’s life. The primary groups have direct, close and emotional interaction with the individual. The significant others are the main members of primary groups. For example a family is a primary group for its members. On the other hand, secondary groups are not small usually larger and less private. An individual will become a member of a secondary groups for a limited time to achieve a certain goal. An example of a secondary groups is this collaboration group that we joined to complete the Social Structure & Interaction assignment.
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?
According to Witt in-groups and out -groups are groups sharing certain norms, beliefs, and interest, but each of them develop its boundaries to distinguish each other like “ insiders” and “outsiders”. For instance, society can be described as ingroup because we all share norms, and values in the same society, but people are categorized according to their racial identity, and social quo this is the out-groups who are part of the society, yet not belong to certain in-groups, upper class. In fact, UCL and USC share the same social norms and goals which describes them as an in-group, but each member of the team belongs to its team which make them to be out-group. Because sport teams have a periodical face to face interaction, they build strong connections with each other which make them develop a strong relationship forming part of the family, so in-groups have influential connections with the primary groups due to their close interaction and similar goal and values. Not only sport teams develop strong connections with each other, but also people who share similar interests develop loyalty to certain groups such as church members, clubs, classmates, and coworkers. That later becomes an ingroup because they belong to their group excluding others who do not share things in common. Moreover, the secondary group has little interpersonal communication with out- groups, the secondary group has no intimacy to interact face to face for sharing personal information or long term goals. These people do not disclose themselves to build strong bonds in friendship, as a result they become as outsiders.
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.
The first is "replacing members", which means that there people in society need to have offspring continuously. People would have illness and old age. The members in the society are not fixed, but are changed through successors and replacement. The society needs certain population to make it operate.
The second is socialization, which means that new members of the society needs to integrate into the society, otherwise they would do improper things that violate the rule the society and bring troubles to interrupt the normal order. This process can be done through education, religions or other gathering institutions.
The third is production and distribution, which means that this society needs to produce goods and service to make it functional, to make people enjoy the life. Goods and service could be spread through economical institution like commercial company.
The fourth is preserving order, which means that this society needs power to maintain the social order and protect the people when there are external attack or internal chaos. Police usually do the job of limiting internal disorder and the army serves as defend outside attack.
The fifth is purpose, which means that people in the society would have a common goal to pursue. People in the society cannot just consider about themselves but also for the well-being of the whole society. Sometimes to fulfill the purpose of the whole society, individuals needs to act in restraint or even sacrifice the welfare of themselves.
In mechanical solidarity, bonds of unity are formed through similarities among individuals. People connected to each other when they are learning in the same educational institutions, working for the same purpose or sharing the same belief of religion and same life style. Kinship ties are significant in mechanical solidarity.
In organic solidarity, social cohesion happens because individuals depend on each other. People work together for complementarities they need from each other or specialization in certain kind of job.