Social Groups: Meaning and Characteristics
Chapter Twelve
Syllabus topic 1.5.2, "Social groups (Meaning & Characteristics, Types of & Groups Primary & Secondary, In-group & Out group, Organized & Unorganized groups, Reference groups)". This chapter is the meaning and characteristics; the four type pairs follow.
Pages 52 to 55 of 451
In one line
A social group is two or more people who are aware of one another, interact with one another, and feel that they belong together.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: a social group is a collection of two or more individuals who are in reciprocal interaction and communication, who share common interests or goals, who are bound by an accepted set of norms and by a recognised structure of statuses and roles, and who possess a consciousness of kind, a feeling of belonging together which distinguishes members from non-members.
Why the concept matters
Nearly everything sociology studies happens in groups. A person is born into one, learns their language and morality in another, works in a third, worships in a fourth and is judged by a fifth. The individual meets society almost entirely through groups, which is why the concept sits at the head of MU's list of basic concepts.
It matters for law too. Legal rules are addressed to individuals and to legal persons, but they operate on people embedded in groups, and the group's own norms will often decide whether a legal rule is obeyed. A worker deciding whether to give evidence against an employer is not deciding alone.
Definitions
- MacIver and Page: by a group we mean any collection of human beings who are brought into social relationships with one another.
- Ogburn and Nimkoff: whenever two or more individuals come together and influence one another, they may be said to constitute a social group.
- Harry M. Johnson: a social group is a system of social interaction.
- Emory S. Bogardus: a social group may be thought of as a number of persons, two or more, who have common objects of attention, who are stimulating to each other, who have common loyalty and participate in similar activities.
The recurring elements are interaction, mutual influence, shared interest and a sense of belonging.
The characteristics of a social group
- A collection of individuals. At least two; there is no upper limit.
- Interaction. The essential element. People who never interact are not a group however much they have in common.
- Mutual awareness. Members know of one another and take one another into account.
- We-feeling, or consciousness of kind. Members identify with the group and distinguish it from others.
- Common interests or goals. These give the interaction its point and hold the group together.
- Norms. Every group develops rules about how members should behave, and enforces them, formally or by disapproval.
- Statuses and roles. Positions within the group and expected behaviour attached to them, even in a group of three friends.
- Similarity of behaviour. Members act alike in the pursuit of shared aims.
- Stability, variable. Some groups last generations, others an afternoon.
- Dynamic. Groups change: membership turns over, aims shift, structures harden.
- Control over members. The group exerts pressure to conform, which is one of the most powerful forms of informal social control, taken up in [Formal and Informal Social Control].
Social Groups: Meaning and Characteristics
Group, aggregate and category: the distinction that carries marks
This is where beginners go wrong and examiners look.
| Social group | Social aggregate (or quasi-group) | Social category | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | People who interact and feel they belong together | People physically together at one time and place, without regular interaction | People who share a characteristic but need not be together at all |
| Interaction | Present and regular | Momentary or absent | Absent |
| We-feeling | Present | Absent | Absent |
| Norms and roles | Present | Rudimentary or none | None |
| Example | A family; a study circle; a trade union branch | A crowd waiting at Dadar station; an audience in a cinema | All left-handed people; all citizens aged 21; all women |
The example worth remembering. The passengers in a local train compartment are an aggregate. If the train stops for two hours in the middle of nowhere, they begin to talk, organise, share water, appoint someone to speak to the guard, and develop expectations of one another. They have become a group, and the transformation shows exactly what the elements are.
Why the difference has legal consequences. A social category can be a legal category: legislation frequently addresses all persons of a certain description, who need never have met. A group can act, hold a common intention and be represented; an aggregate and a category cannot, without machinery that converts them into associations. That machinery, registration, incorporation, representative proceedings, is a large part of what law does about groups.
A worked example
In a court building on a Monday morning:
The people queuing at the filing counter are an aggregate. They are together, they interact minimally, and if the counter opens on time they will disperse having formed no relationship.
The bar association is a group. Its members interact repeatedly, know one another, share interests, have norms about how a member behaves towards another, have offices and roles, and enforce their expectations by approval and disapproval long before any formal machinery is invoked.
All the litigants in the building are a category. They share a characteristic, having a matter listed, but they do not interact as such, have no consciousness of kind and no norms.
Now watch the aggregate become a group. If the counter stays closed for three hours, the queue starts talking, someone drafts a complaint, someone else collects signatures, and by noon there is a spokesperson. Interaction has produced awareness, awareness has produced we-feeling, and a common goal has produced a rudimentary structure. That is the process in miniature, and it is also how a great many associations and unions actually begin.
Social Groups: Meaning and Characteristics
The importance of groups
- Socialisation. The group is where a person learns language, norms, values and roles, which is [Socialization].
- Identity. Membership tells a person who they are, and Cooley's looking-glass self in [Symbolic Interactionism] shows the mechanism.
- Control. The group's approval and disapproval do more to regulate conduct than any statute.
- Achievement. Almost nothing large is done by individuals; groups pool effort and divide labour.
- Security and support. Emotional and material, which is why isolation is a serious social condition and not merely an unhappy one.
What a group is NOT
Not merely a number of people. Without interaction there is no group.
Not necessarily an organisation. An organisation is a group with a formal structure, written rules and offices. Every organisation is a group; most groups are not organisations. This is the next distinction, in [Organized and Unorganized Groups].
Not necessarily a physical gathering. Members of a family living in three cities remain a group; a hundred strangers in a lift are not.
Not always beneficial. Groups produce conformity, exclusion and hostility to outsiders as readily as support, which is what [In-groups, Out-groups and Reference Groups] examines.
Quick revision
- A social group is two or more people who interact, are mutually aware, and share a sense of belonging.
- Characteristics: individuals, interaction, mutual awareness, we-feeling, common interests, norms, statuses and roles, similarity of behaviour, stability, dynamism, control over members.
- Group against aggregate against category: interaction and we-feeling are the tests. Train passengers are an aggregate; all women are a category; a family is a group.
- An aggregate becomes a group when interaction begins and a common goal appears.
- Groups matter because they socialise, confer identity, control conduct, achieve what individuals cannot, and provide security.
- A group is not necessarily an organisation, and is not necessarily benign.
Test yourself
1. Define a social group and give four of its characteristics. Two or more individuals in reciprocal interaction who are mutually aware, share common interests, and possess a sense of belonging together. Characteristics include regular interaction; mutual awareness; a we-feeling or consciousness of kind; common interests or goals; norms governing members' conduct; and a structure of statuses and roles.
2. Distinguish a social group from an aggregate and from a category, with examples. A group interacts regularly and has a we-feeling: a family, a trade union branch. An aggregate is people physically together without regular interaction or belonging: a crowd on a railway platform. A category is people sharing a characteristic who need not ever meet: all left-handed people, all citizens over sixty. Interaction and we-feeling are the two tests.
Social Groups: Meaning and Characteristics
3. How does an aggregate become a group? Through interaction produced by a shared situation. Passengers stranded on a stopped train begin to talk, discover a common problem, cooperate, develop expectations of one another and appoint someone to act for them. Interaction produces mutual awareness, awareness produces a sense of belonging, and a common goal produces a rudimentary structure of roles.
4. Why does the group matter to a lawyer? Because legal rules address individuals but operate on people embedded in groups whose norms usually decide whether the rule is obeyed; because a group can form a common intention and act, while an aggregate and a category cannot without legal machinery such as registration or representative proceedings; and because group pressure is a stronger regulator of conduct than the sanction attached to most statutes.
5. Is every group an organisation? No. An organisation is a group that has acquired a formal structure with written rules, defined offices and explicit procedures. Every organisation is a group, but most groups, a family or a circle of friends, are not organisations, though they still have norms and roles.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.