Chapter 3

Groups within Society

Lesson 1
How Society is Organized

Specific Objectives

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to:

1. Define kinship and social networks

2. Differentiate the types of kinship and social networks
3. Determine ways on how to trace kinship

Let us start!

Activity 15. Think-pair-share: How do you interpret the

image below? Is it important for a family to take note of
this? Why?
 Let’s Learn from this!

As pointed out in the earlier lessons, social interaction

is necessary for the transmission of culture and the survival
of the society. According to Schaefer and Lamm
(1995), our lives are filled with random and inconsequential
interactions, such as conversations with cashiers in stores
and supermarkets. However, many social interactions are
planned or anticipated.

In sociological terms, a group is any number of people

with similar norms, values and expectations who regularly
and consciously interact. Student organizations, dance
group, chess clubs are considered example of groups.

GROUP WITHIN SOCIETY:

The study of groups has become an important part of
sociological investigation because they play such a key role
in the transmission of culture. Below are some types of
groups.

A. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY GROUPS

(Schaefer and Lamm,1995)
Aspects Primary Secondary
Groups Groups
Size And typically a small Usually large
social group
Equality
(small- scale
society)
Relationship close, personal, formal,
And enduring impersonal, and
Communications relationships contractual
Among relations
Members
Goals And shared activities “special interest
Membership and culture groups” , created
for the attainment
 Identification of some specific
(group identity) interests or ends
Group Structure informal organized groups,
And Members’ structure, commonly have
Statuses And members formal structure.
Roles
Influence To marked by Little intimacy or
Members And members' care mutual
Nature Of Group concern for one understanding,
Control another competitive
Examples: family, childhood College student
friends, and organization,
highly influential Lions Club
social groups.

The classification of social groups into primary and

secondary should not be taken as a sort of dichotomy. It
should rather be considered as a continuum, i.e. at the two
extreme ends, there may be crystallized primary and
secondary groups, and in between the two extremes, there
are mixtures of the two types.

B. IN-GROUPS AND OUT-GROUPS

An in group social is a social group of which an individual
psychologically identifies himself or herself as being a
member. Those who share a group’s particular qualities
 are called an "in-group," while those who do not known
as "out-group. Social identity theory originated from
British social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner
in 1979. "Social identity theory states that the in-group
will discriminate against the out-group to enhance their
self-image. The central hypothesis of social identity
theory is that group members of an in-group will seek to
find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing
their self-image. These groups can either be sports
teams, unions, and sororities.

C. REFERENCE GROUPS
Is a social group that we use as a standard of comparison
for ourselves regardless of whether or not we are part of that
group. It could be race, class, gender, sexuality, religion,
region, ethnicity, age, or localized groups defined by
neighborhood or school. These groups have norms and
dominant values, and we choose to either embrace or
reproduce them in our own thoughts, behavior, and
interactions with others; or, we reject and refute them by
thinking and acting in ways that break from them.
D. NETWORKS
A social network is a series or web of weak social ties
involving people or groups of individuals connected to
each other, such as through friendship, family, business
relationship, academic institutions, religious
organizations and socio-political clubs.
Social network refers to the ways in which people are
connected to one another and how these connections
create and define human society on all levels: the
individual,
the group, and the institutional. It can be depicted in
a sociogram, as shown in the
following figure.
Example of a Social Network Based on Information Ties
Image downloaded from:
https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/wpcontent/uploads/sites/5/2015/03/f2d2fd573ecb02
d24611b776087cbeed.jpg