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A group is where people have the chance to interact with other people and think of themselves as
belonging together. The group exists as long as individuals are interested in belonging to it. Each society
is made up of smaller groups and associations that are built on social class, personal interest, or common
goals.
Muzafer Sherif, a well-known social Psychologist, proposed to define a social group as a number of
individuals interacting with each other with respect to:
According to Charles Horton Cooley, a primary group is a small social group whose members share
personal and lasting relationships.
Secondary groups are large clusters of people who have a mutually shared purpose, often aiming to
complete tasks. They are much less likely to be an influence to an individual’s identity.
1. School/Class – A classroom consists of students and a teacher, in which the teacher is in charge
of creating a structure and environment that help the students learn. Much less of being
emotional with each other.
2. Workplace or Place of Employment – The goal of the structured environment in the workplace is
to fulfill a predetermined assignment.
An in – group is a group wherein people feel that they are part of the social group group. It is a social
category or group with which you identify strongly. On the other hand, the out – group is the complete
opposite. It is where a social group with which an individual does not identify to be part of. It is a social
category or group with which you do not identify.
There are lot of factors which create the identify if a n individual is in the in – group or out – group. These
are some:
1. Race: Asians vs. Caucasians
2. Culture: Filipinos vs. Chinese
3. Gender: Males vs. Females
4. Age: Teenagers vs. Senior Citizens
5. Religion: Muslims vs. Infidels
REFERENCE GROUPS
A reference group to which we compare ourselves. It serves as a standard to which we measure our
behaviors and attitudes. Reference groups are used in order to guide our behavior and attitudes and help
us to identify social norms.
Reference groups are used in order to evaluate and determine the nature of given individual or other
group’s characteristics and sociological attributes It is a group to which the individual relates or aspires to
relate themselves psychologically. It acts as a frame of reference if an individual want to be part of the
norms of the group.
1. Informal reference groups – It is based on the groups shared interests and goals. Members react
on a personal level. Examples are family and friends.
2. Formal reference groups – have a specific goal or mission. Examples are Employee Union.
3. Membership reference groups – groups that are in agreement with in regards to attitude, norms,
and behaviors.
4. Disclaimant reference groups – group we do not agree with in regards to attitudes, norms, and
behaviors.
5. Aspirational reference group – a group an individual doesn’t belong to but aspires to become a
part in the future.
6. Dissociative reference group – a group an individual doesn’t belong to and disapproves of inn
regards to attitudes, norms, and behaviors.
NETWORKS
The social network is a theoretical construct useful in the social sciences to study relationships between
individuals, groups, organizations, or even entire societies. It is a social structure exists between actors
(individuals and organizations).
Social networks where divided into three levels of analysis: Micro, Meso, and Macro.
1. Micro – smallest level of analysis of social networks. It explains that a social network typically starts
with an individual. The micro level is divided into 4 levels.
Dyadic Level – Social relationship starts with two individuals.
Triadic Level – Social relationship starts with three individuals.
Actor Level – The smallest unit of analysis in a social network is an individual in their social
setting.
Subset Level – May focus on distance and reachability, cliques, cohesive subgroups, or
other group actions or behavior.
2. Meso – Meso – level of analysis begins with a population size that falls a between the micro– and
macro– levels. Examples of Meso level of analysis are:
Organizations – group of people that has distributive task for a collective goal.
Scale Free Networks – a scale-free network is a network whose degree distribution follows
a power law, at least asymptotically In network theory a scale-free ideal network is a
random network with a degree distribution that unravels the size distribution of social
groups.
3. Macro – it analyses generally trace the outcomes of interactions, such as economic or other
resource transfer interactions over a large population.