Lesson Six – Chapter Five and Six – Discussion Assignment = 25 points
First Post = 20 points Post your own work first – prior to viewing other student’s post – blank first post = zero points for this assignment
Offer a narrative summary of how social groups are structured and organized within society, respond to the following (reference chapter/lesson material):
Describe how the social groups that you belong to have influenced you – for example: work, school, church, sport team, clubs, activities, etc. (two sentences) = 2 points
From a macro sociological perspective (structural functional or conflict) define the purpose of social groups in society (one paragraph – five complete sentences) = 3 points
Based on the descriiptions provided in the text book (chapter 6), list three different kinds of social groups = 3 points
Describe group dynamics, as stated in the text book (chapter 6) = 2 points
Describe groupthink, as stated in the text book (chapter 6) = 2 points
Discuss the macro social value of (chapter 5 & 6): = 3 points
Leadership
Conformity
Networking in society
Max Weber outlined several characteristics of bureaucracy – what are they? (one complete paragraph – five complete sentences) = 5 points
Typed, 12-point font, double spaced
*Cite All Sources* (5-point deduction if sources are not properly cited)
Below is the chapter notes
Lesson Six Lecture NotesLesson Six Lecture Notes
Lesson Six / Chapter 5 and 6 Links:
*select “control” then click on provided links to access OER text book resources*
Chapter 5: Social Structure and Social Interaction
5.1 Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life
5.2 The Development of Modern Society
5.3 Social Interaction in Everyday Life
5.4 End-of-Chapter Material
AND
Chapter 6: Groups and Organizations
6.1 Social Groups
6.2 Group Dynamics and Behavior
6.3 Formal Organizations
6.4 Groups, Organizations, and Social Change
6.5 End-of-Chapter Material
Chapter Five Summary:
The major components of social structure are statuses, roles, groups and organizations, and social institutions.
As societies moved beyond the hunting-and-gathering stage, they became larger and more impersonal and individualistic and were characterized by increasing inequality and conflict.
Industrial societies developed about 250 years ago after several inventions allowed work to become more mechanized. The Industrial Revolution has had important consequences, some good and some bad, in virtually every area of society. Postindustrial societies have begun in the last few decades with the advent of the computer and an increasing number of service jobs. While it’s too soon to know the consequences of the advent of post industrialization, there are signs it will have important implications for the nature of work and employment in modern society
Erving Goffman used a theatrical metaphor called dramaturgy to understand social interaction, which he likened to behavior on a stage in a play. More generally, many sociologists stress the concept of roles in social interaction. Although we usually play our roles automatically, social order occasionally breaks down when people don’t play their roles. This breakdown illustrates the fragility of social order.
Although roles help us interact, they can also lead to problems such as role conflict and role strain. In another problem, some individuals may be expected to carry out a role that demands a personality they do not have.
Emotions play an important role in social interaction. They influence how social interaction proceeds, and they are also influenced by social interaction. Sociologists emphasize that emotions are socially constructed, as they arise from the roles we play and the situations in which we find ourselves.
Nonverbal communication is an essential part of social interaction. The sexes differ in several forms of nonverbal communication. Biologists and sociologists differ on the origins of these differences.
Source Title: End of Chapter Material
URL Chapter 5 (5.4) https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/5-4-end-of-chapter-material/
Chapter Six Summary:
Social groups are the building blocks of social life, and it is virtually impossible to imagine a society without groups and difficult to imagine individuals not being involved with many types of groups. They are distinguished from social categories and social aggregates by the degree of interaction among their members and the identification of their members with the group.
Primary groups are small and involve strong emotional attachments, while secondary groups are larger and more impersonal. Some groups become in-groups and vie, sometimes hostilely, with people they identify as belonging to out-groups. Reference groups provide standards by which we judge our attitudes and behavior and can influence how we think and act.
Social networks connect us through the people we know to other people they know. They are increasingly influential for successful employment but are also helpful for high-quality health care and other social advantages.
The size of groups is a critical variable for their internal dynamics. Compared to large groups, small groups involve more intense emotional bonds but are also more unstable. These differences stem from the larger number of relationships that can exist in a larger group than in a smaller one.
Instrumental and expressive leaders take different approaches in exercising leadership. Instrumental leaders focus more on solving tasks, even at the risk of alienating group members, while expressive leaders focus more on group relations. Of the three major styles of leadership—authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire—laissez-faire leadership seems the least effective in helping a group achieve its goals.
Women and men are equally effective as leaders but exhibit different leadership styles. Women tend to be expressive leaders, while men tend to be more authoritarian leaders. Women leaders still face problems in securing the respect of the group members they seek to lead.
Processes of group conformity are essential for any society and for the well-being of its many individuals but also can lead to reprehensible norms and values. People can be influenced by their group membership and the roles they’re expected to play to engage in behaviors most of us would condemn. Laboratory experiments by Asch, Milgram, and Zimbardo illustrate how this can happen, while a real-life classroom experiment called the Third Wave dramatized how a fascist atmosphere could develop from everyday group processes.
Formal organizations are commonly delineated according to the motivations of the people who join them. According to Etzioni’s popular typology, three types of formal organizations exist: utilitarian, normative, and coercive.
Max Weber outlined several characteristics of bureaucracy that he felt make them the most efficient and effective type of large formal organization possible. At the same time, other scholars have pointed to several disadvantages of bureaucracies that limit their efficiency and effectiveness and thus thwart organizational goals.
Robert Michels hypothesized that the development of oligarchies in formal organizations and political structures is inevitable. History shows that such “oligarchization” does occur but that society remains more democratic than Michels foresaw.
Women and people of color have long been involved in normative organizations and continue to expand their numbers in utilitarian organizations, but in the latter they lag behind white men in rank and salary. In a major type of coercive organization, prisons, people of color and men are overrepresented. The chapter closes with the question of whether the reason for this is the offending rates of these two groups or, instead, discrimination against them in criminal justice processing.
Source Title: End of Chapter Material
URL Chapter 6 (6.5): https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/6-5-end-of-chapter-material/
Lesson Six Lecture Notes:
Structure, organizations, and groups.
1. A common question we will asking throughout this lesson is how do groups structure our lives? Do we as humans need groups of people? Yes. Humans are inherently social. We cannot survive without other people and without interaction humans become feral. According to Durkheim, we need a connection to a group, or we experience anomie, a disconnect from society, a sense of normlessness.
2. What is a group? A group is a collection of people that share a common attribute, such as an identity There are primary groups and secondary groups. Primary groups are characterized as small and personal. Secondary groups are characterized as larger and less personal. In-groups are the group someone identifies with and feels loyalty towards. Out-groups are the group someone feels no loyalty towards.
3. Group identification is incredibly important to everyone. The groups you identify with structure your life horizontally and vertically. For example, identifying as a male horizontally structures your life regarding who you select as friends and the toys you played with. Vertically, being a male structures access to education, jobs, prestige, and wealth, which will be discussed in later chapters regarding gender, race, and social class inequalities. When you identify with a group, you internalize the culture of the group, the way of life. Therefore, identifying as a male means identifying with male culture. Group identification structures your life in many ways. For example, think about how your sex, your race, your social class, the region you grew up, the religions or no religion you identify, for example, structures your life. Group identification has major impacts upon your life. For example, where you are located within groups compared to other people determines your social status and your social role.
4. Status is the position someone occupies in a society. Your social location within groups determines your status and your status determines your access. However, status is not based upon where you are located within one group. Status is based upon your location within multidimensional groups, such as sex, race, and social class. For example, males, that are white, with a high social class location historically had all the power in America. Therefore, if you were born a female, your access to opportunities was restricted compared to white males, because white males were socially located above females. Social change has enabled reconciliation of past inequalities, but inequality still exists, and the amount of inequality people experience is based upon their location within compounding groups.
5. There are several types of status, including achieved status, which is earned, and ascribed status, which you are born with. Group identification and where you are located within groups also determines your social role, which is the socially expected attitudes and behaviors attached to social locations. When you find out your status and discover the role you are socially expected to play, you play the part.
6. The theory of dramaturgy accounts for how people role-take socially expected attitudes and behaviors and engage in a performance in the social world like an actor on a stage. Goffman described the performance as impression management. People engage in impression management to control the impressions people have of you. This relates to the looking glass self and the generalized other in the sense that our perception of ourselves is based upon how we think other people perceive us. We look to our social networks, our reference groups, not only for survival, but to discover who we are. Therefore, people strive for status in order to impress others to impress ourselves
7. Group size is very important to understand group dynamics or patterns of interaction. A dyad is the smallest possible group. It consists of 2 people. It is the most efficient type of group, but also the most unstable. A triad is 3 people, more stable, but less efficient. As group size increases, interaction and bonding decrease, stability increases. The globalization effect is very interesting. For example, as globalization increases, are we more or less dependent upon other people? To answer this, think of a light switch and how many people it takes to make it work. Then the answer, thousands. You need electricians to wire the building, a company to make the materials, an organization to run the electricity company, and a bureaucracy to regulate it.
8. What holds groups together? Group cohesion is a sense of solidarity or loyalty towards a group one belongs to. However, we often conform to the group, which is known as group think. When there too much cohesion, groupthink can lead to a tendency to enforce a high degree of conformity among members, creating a demand for unanimous agreement. People are influenced to accurately match the attitude and behavior expectations of the group and conform in order to be liked and behave accurately with regard to social norms. Most people comply to the standards of the group to gain rewards or avoid punishments, even when it goes against what they know to be correct. For example, in the Solomon Asch line experiment, the participant conformed to group responses about which line was the longest, by stating incorrectly the wrong answer in order to not stand out from the group of people that also stated the wrong answer. However, people also conform to standards of the group even when they are not ethical. For example, in the Milgram shock experiment, participants shocked the experimenter when told to by a person in authority. In the Zimbardo prison experiment, people conformed to and acted out the role of authority.
9. People gain power and authority based upon their status within groups. This can be achieved and ascribed, influentially or coercively. Power is the ability to influence others and get your way. Coercive power is backed by threat of force. Influential power is supported by persuasion.
10. There are several types of authority, including traditional authority, meaning it’s always been that way, legal rational authority, based on laws, rules, and procedures, and charismatic authority, based on perception of remarkable personal qualities in a leader leadership can be instrumental or and expressive. Instrumental leadership is task/goal oriented and less concerned with people’s feelings. Expressive leadership involves maintaining emotional and relational harmony within the group.
11. Formal organizations are large groups that follows rules and procedures to achieve goals. Society is the largest form of an organization. Gemeinschaft is a traditional society with strong bonds. Gesellschaft is a modern society with weak bonds. Society evolved in phases ranging from hunting and gathering, horticultural and pastoral, agricultural, industrial, and in modern times, postindustrial. As it evolved it became characterized as more impersonal and individualistic, exacerbated by increasing inequality and conflict.
12. A bureaucracy makes a bigger group more efficient. Max Weber’s ideal type bureaucracy is a type of formal organization that can be characterized as hierarchical, specialized, structured by written procedural rules, impartial, and impersonal. Bureaucracy achieves goals via efficiency and is the dominant form of social organization in modern society. A bureaucracy can be characterized as a rational, iron cage, that is not necessarily reasonable or competent. George Ritzer coined McDonaldization to describe the process of spreading bureaucratic rationalization that results in efficiency and dehumanization.
