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In the
social science
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s, social groups can be categorized based on the various
group dynamics
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision ...
that define
social organization
In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struc ...
.
[Boundless team.]
Types of Social Groups
" ''Social Groups and Organization'' OER course">Open_educational_resources.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Open educational resources">OER course
Boundless Sociology
'. Portland: Lumen Candela. In
sociological
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociology was coined in ...
terms, groups can fundamentally be distinguished from one another by the extent to which their nature influence individuals and how. A ''primary group'', for instance, is a small social group whose members share close, personal, enduring relationships with one another (e.g. family, childhood friend). By contrast, a ''secondary group'' is one in which interactions are more impersonal than in a primary group and are typically based on shared interests, activities, and/or achieving a purpose outside the relationship itself (e.g. coworkers, schoolmates).
Four basic types of groups have traditionally been recognized: primary groups, secondary groups, collective groups, and categories.
[ Forsyth, Donelson R. 2009. ''Group Dynamics'' (5th ed.). New York: Wadsworth. .][Litwak, Eugene, and Iván Szelényi">Ivan Szelenyi. 1969.]
Primary Group Structures and Their Functions: Kin, Neighbors, and Friends
" ''American Sociological Review'' 34(4):465–81. . – via ResearchGate
Udru Helps
Primary and secondary groups
The distinction between primary and secondary groups serves to identify between two orders of social organization.
Primary groups
A
primary group' is typically a small
social group
In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. F ...
whose members share close, personal, enduring relationships in which one exchanges implicit items, such as love, caring, concern, support, etc. These groups are often long-lasting and marked by members' concern for one another, where the goal is actually the relationship themselves rather than achieving another purpose.
In general, they are also psychologically comforting to the individuals involved, providing a source of support. As such, primary groups or lack thereof play an important role in the development of
personal identity
Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time ...
, and can be understood as tight circles composed of people such as family, long-term romances, crisis-support group, church group, etc.
The concept of the primary group was first introduced in 1909 by sociologist
Charles Cooley, a member of the famed
Chicago school of sociology, through a book titled ''Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind''. Although Cooley had initially proposed the term to denote the first intimate group of an individual's childhood, the classification would later extend to include other intimate relations.
Additionally, three sub-groups of primary groups can be also identified:
# Kin (relatives)
# Close friends
# Neighbours
Secondary groups (social groups)
A
secondary group' is a relatively larger group composed of impersonal and goal-oriented relationships, which are often temporary.
These groups are often based on achieving a common purpose outside of the relationship itself and involve much less emotional investment. Since secondary groups are established to perform functions, individual roles are more interchangeable, thus members are able to leave and
outgroup are able to join with relative ease. Such groups can be understood to be ones in which individuals exchange explicit commodities (e.g. labour for wage, service for payment, etc.). Examples include study groups, sports teams, schoolmates,
attorney-client,
doctor-patient, coworkers, etc.
Cooley had made the distinction between primary and secondary groups, by noting that the term for the latter refers to relationships that generally develop later in life, likely with much less influence on one’s identity than primary groups.
Collectives
A ''
collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...
'' is a large group of individuals whose relationships to one another are loosely formed, spontaneous, and brief. Members are generally connected through performing similar actions or possessing similar outlooks. As they only exist for a very brief period of time, it is very easy for an out-group member to become an in-group member and ''vice versa''.
Examples of collectives include audiences at a show, bystanders, people at the park, etc.
Collectivities
A ' comprises "any grouping wider than the individual".
Categories
''Categories'' are characterized by an aggregate of individuals who share something in common, but only become groups when their similarities have social implications.
Categories can appear to be higher in
entitativity and
essentialism
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their Identity (philosophy), identity. In early Western thought, Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an Theory of forms, "idea" or "f ...
than primary, secondary, and collective groups. This group is generally the largest type of such, where members can be either permanently or temporarily in-group. Categories can include individuals with the same ethnicity, gender, religion, or nationality. For example,
Torontonians, women, and
gamers can all be characterized as ''categories''.
Campbell (1958) famously defines ''entitativity'' as the extent to which collections of individuals are perceived to be a group.
[ Campbell, Donald T. 1958.]
Common Fate, Similarity and other Indices of the Status of Aggregates of Persons as Social Entities
" '' Systems Research and Behavioral Science'' 3(1):14–25. . – via University of Bern
The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...
. Retrieved April 24, 2020. The degree of entitativity that a group has is influenced by whether a collection of individuals experience the same fate, display similarities, and are close in proximity. If individuals believe that a group is high in entitativity, then they are likely to believe that the group has unchanging characteristics that are essential to the group, known as essentialism.
Reference groups
A reference group is a group to which an individual or another group is compared, used by sociologists in reference to any group that is used by an individual as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior. More simply, as explained by Thompson and Hickey (2005), such groups are ones "that people refer to when evaluating their
wnqualities, circumstances, attitudes, values and behaviors."
Reference groups are used in order to evaluate and determine the nature of a given individual or other group's characteristics and sociological attributes. It is the group to which the individual relates or aspires to relate him or herself psychologically. It becomes the individual's frame of reference and source for ordering his or her experiences, perceptions, cognition, and ideas of self. It is important for determining a person's self-identity, attitudes, and social ties. It becomes the basis of reference in making comparisons or contrasts and in evaluating one's appearance and performance.
Reference groups provide the benchmarks and contrast needed for comparison and evaluation of group and personal characteristics.
Robert K. Merton hypothesized that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires.
[ Holton, Gerald. 2004.]
Robert K. Merton – Biographical Memoirs
" '' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 148(4):506–17. Archived from th
original
on 2007-08-11. Retrieved 7 August 2007. ertondeveloped a theory of the reference group (i.e., the group to which individuals compare themselves, which is not necessarily a group to which those individuals belong), and elaborated on the concepts of in-group and out-group
In social psychology and sociology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify. People may for example ...
. For any group of people there are always other groups whom they look upon to and aspire to be like them.
Such groups act as a frame of reference to which people always refer to evaluate their achievements, their role performance, aspirations and ambitions. A reference group can be either from a membership group or non-membership group. An example of a reference group being used would be the determination of affluence. An individual in the
U.S.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
with an
annual income of $80,000, may consider themself
affluent if they compare themself to those in the middle of the income strata, who earn roughly $32,000 a year.
If, however, the same person considers the relevant reference group to be those in the top 0.1% of households in the US, those making $1.6 million or more, then the
individual's income of $80,000 would make them consider themself as rather poor.
[Chapman, Jamie. 2005.]
Record number of US millionaires
" '' World Socialist Web Site''. UK: International Committee of the Fourth International.
Examples
* Basic groups: The smallest possible social group with a defined number of people (i.e. greater than 1)—often associated with family building:
**
Dyad: Will be a group of two people. Social interaction in a dyad is typically more intense than in larger groups as neither member shares the other's attention with anyone else.
[Macionis, John, and Linda Gerber. 2010. ''Sociology'' (7th Canadian ed.) Toronto: Pearson Canada.] (See also
couple.)
**
Triad: A group of three people. Triads are generally more stable than dyads because one member can act as a mediator should the relationship between the other two become strained.
*
Family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
,
Household
A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...
: Small group of people who live in the same
home
A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
. Family may or may not form
clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...
, fellowship, larger
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
groups, or a basic unit of community. Various cultures include different models of households, including the
nuclear family
A nuclear family (also known as an elementary family, atomic family, or conjugal family) is a term for a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single ...
,
blended families,
share housing, and
group home
A group home, congregate living facility, care home (the latter especially in British English and Australian English), adult family home, etc., is a structured and supervised residence model that provides assisted living as well as medical car ...
s.
*
Crew
A crew is a body or a group of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchy, hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the ta ...
or Band: Small group of skilled people with common interest; a rowing crew; a
music band;
construction crew; subunit of a
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
as
band society
A band society, sometimes called a camp, or in older usage, a horde, is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family or clan. The general consensus of modern anthropol ...
.
*
Peer group
In sociology, a peer group is both a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests ( homophily), age, background, or social status. Members of peer groups are likely to influence each others' beliefs and behaviour.
Durin ...
: A group with members of approximately the same age, social status, and interests. Generally, people are relatively equal in terms of power when they interact with peers.
*
Clique: A group of people that have many of the same interests & commonly found in a high school/college setting; most of the time they have a name & rules for themselves.
*
Club: A group that usually requires one to apply to become a member. Such clubs may be dedicated to particular activities: sporting clubs, for example.
*
Cabal
A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state (polity), state, or another community, often by Wiktionary:intrigue, intrigue and usually without the kn ...
: A group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views or interests in a church, state, or other community, often by intrigue.
*
Community
A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
: A group of people with a commonality or sometimes a complex net of overlapping commonalities, often—but not always—in proximity with one another with some degree of continuity over time.
*
Gang
A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...
: Usually an urban group that gathers in a particular area. It is a group of people that often hang around each other. They can be like some clubs, but much less formal. They are usually known in many countries to cause
social unrest
Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, civil strife, or turmoil, are situations when law enforcement and security forces struggle to Public order policing, maintain public order or tranquility.
Causes
Any number of thin ...
and also have negative influence on the members and may be a target for the law enforcers in case of any social vices.
*
Mob: Typically a group of people that has taken the law into their own hands. Mobs are usually groups which gather temporarily for a particular reason.
*
Posse: Originally found in English common law, posses are generally obsolete and survive only in the United States, where they are the law enforcement equivalent of summoning the militia for military purposes. However, posse can also refer to a street group.
*
Squad
In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...
: Generally a small group, of around 3 to 15 people, who work as a team to accomplish their goals.
*
Team
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...
: Similar to a squad, though a team may contain many more members. A team works in a similar way to a squad.
See also
*
Fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...
*
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
*
Group dynamics
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision ...
*
Social complexity
In sociology, social complexity is a conceptual framework used in the analysis of society. In the sciences, contemporary definitions of complexity are found in systems theory, wherein the phenomenon being studied has many parts and many possible ...
*
Social group
In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. F ...
*
Social network
A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...
References
Further reading
* Appelbaum, R. P., D. Carr, M. Duneir, and A. Giddens. 2009. "Conformity, Deviance, and Crime." ''Introduction to Sociology,'' New York:
W. W. Norton & Company. p 137.
External links
McGraw Hill online Sociology Glossary
{{Authority control
Social groups
Sociological terminology