1. Groups & Organizations

2. Part 1: Social Structure

3. Social Structure: Status
DEFINITION: socially defined position within a group or society
Status Set:
Refers to EVERY status that an individual holds at any given point in time
Status Set (i.e. father, accountant, male, husband, etc.)

4. Ascribed v. Achieved Status
Ascribed Status:
A status assigned according to standards that are beyond a person’s control
Achieved Status:
A status acquired by an individual on the basis of some special skill, knowledge or ability
Ascribed: age, sex, family, heritage, race, etc.

5. Ascribed v. Achieved Status?
Ascribed: age, sex, family, heritage, race, etc.

6. Master Status
DEFINITION: a social position that holds exceptional importance for identity, often shaping a person’s entire life
What is your master status right now?
Oftentimes, a person’s occupation comprises his or her master status.

7. Social Structure: Role
DEFINITION: the behavior expected of someone occupying a particular status
The dynamic expression of status
Role Conflict:
The incompatibility among roles corresponding to two or more statuses

8. Part 2: Social Groups

9. Types of Social Gatherings
Social Group
Social Category
Social Aggregate
Social Group: A collection of people who interact, share similar characteristics & a have sense of unity
Social Category: A collection of people who do not interact, but who share similar characteristics (i.e. women, men, elderly, high school students, moms, tall people, blondes, etc.)
Social Aggregate: At any give time, a collection of people who are together, but who interact very little (i.e. people on the subway, people at the mall, people at a restaurant, etc.)

10. Types of Social Gatherings
Social Group: collection of people who interact, share similar characteristics and have a sense of unity
Social Category: collection of people who do not interact, but who share similar characteristics
Social Aggregate: at any given time, a collection of people who are together but who interact very little
Social Group: A collection of people who interact, share similar characteristics & a have sense of unity
Social Category: A collection of people who do not interact, but who share similar characteristics (i.e. women, men, elderly, high school students, moms, tall people, blondes, etc.)
Social Aggregate: At any give time, a collection of people who are together, but who interact very little (i.e. people on the subway, people at the mall, people at a restaurant, etc.)

11. Girls at Milton High School Fans at a Zac Brown Band concert
Practice… For each of the following indicate if it is a Group, Category, or Aggregate
Roman Catholics
The Bravehearts
Girls at Milton High School
Fans at a Zac Brown Band concert
Sigma Phil Epsilon brothers at UGA
The Silverman Family
People on a bus tour in New York
Milton High School 2014 Football team
(category)
(group)
(category)
(aggregate)
(group)
Social Group: A collection of people who interact, share similar characteristics & a have sense of unity
Social Category: A collection of people who do not interact, but who share similar characteristics (i.e. women, men, elderly, high school students, moms, tall people, blondes, etc.)
Social Aggregate: At any give time, a collection of people who are together, but who interact very little (i.e. people on the subway, people at the mall, people at a restaurant, etc.)
(group)
(aggregate)
(group)

12. Democrats living in Georgia The cast of Milton’s spring musical
Practice… For each of the following indicate if it is a Group, Category, or Aggregate
Democrats living in Georgia
The cast of Milton’s spring musical
First time moms
Customers eating at Chipotle on a Friday night
EagleStix 11U girls lax team
Delta Zeta sisters nationwide
World History PLC members at MHS
Passengers on a flight to NY
(category)
(group)
(category)
(aggregate)
(group)
Social Group: A collection of people who interact, share similar characteristics & a have sense of unity
Social Category: A collection of people who do not interact, but who share similar characteristics (i.e. women, men, elderly, high school students, moms, tall people, blondes, etc.)
Social Aggregate: At any give time, a collection of people who are together, but who interact very little (i.e. people on the subway, people at the mall, people at a restaurant, etc.)
(category)
(group)
(aggregate)

13. Primary & Secondary Groups
Primary Group:
Small social group whose members share personal & enduring relationships
Secondary Group:
Large & impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific interest or activity
Primary Group:
Families, friends, peers, neighbors, classmates, sororities, fraternities and church members
Secondary Group:
***Distinction not always clear in real life…

14. Social Networks Social Network:
The web of relationships that is formed by the sum total of a person’s interactions with other people
Includes direct & indirect relationships
Do not have clear boundaries
Do not give rise to a common sense of identity

15. Six Degrees of Separation?
Experiment by Stanley Milgram in 1967
Tried to get letters from Omaha, NE to a stock broker in Boston
Each person was instructed to only give the letter to someone they knew already whom they thought may be able to get the letter to the stock broker
This means the letter had to go through ties/social connections to arrive in Boston

16. Six Degrees of Separation?
About 20% of letters made it and they did so in around 5 connections… “we are all separated by 6 degrees of separation”
Study has been questioned, but theory is interesting…randomly select 2 people in different parts of country and see how many connections would it take to link them…

17. Six Degrees of Separation?
Duncan Watts and colleagues at Columbia University in New York conducted a massive experiment to test the theory of “six degrees of separation”, i.e. that everyone in the world can be linked through just six social ties.
More than 60,000 people from 166 different countries took part in the experiment. Participants were assigned one of 18 target people. They were asked to contact that person by sending to people they already knew and considered potentially “closer” to the target. The targets were chosen at random and included a professor from America, an Australian policeman and a veterinarian from Norway.
The researchers found that it in most cases it took between five and seven s to contact the target

18. Six Degrees of Separation?
2011 Facebook study
The analysis of 721 million active Facebook users and their over 69 billion friendships found that any two individuals in the world are connected, on average, by just 4.74 acquaintances (less in US – 4.37)
92% of individuals on Facebook are just "four degrees" from one another, while 99.6% are separated by 5 degrees That number shrinks even more if the pairs are limited to a specific country

19. Part 3: Group Dynamics

20. Size Matters! Dyad: Group of 2 Most intimate
Each member has direct control over group existence
Triad: Group of 3
No one person can disband group
Easier decision-making
As a group gets bigger its complexity grows quickly.
While a group of 3 has only 3 total possible relationships, a group of 4 has 6 possible relationships, and a group of 6 has a 15 possible relationships.
Large organizations can be thought of as tanker ships, it takes a long time for them to do anything. While smaller groups can be thought of as speedboats that can turn on a dime.

21. Size Matters! What is happens to groups as they get larger?
As a group gets bigger its complexity grows quickly.
While a group of 3 has only 3 total possible relationships, a group of 4 has 6 possible relationships, and a group of 6 has a 15 possible relationships.
Large organizations can be thought of as tanker ships, it takes a long time for them to do anything. While smaller groups can be thought of as speedboats that can turn on a dime.

22. In-Groups v. Out-Groups
Characteristics of In-Groups:
Titles, external symbols & dress
Competition with members of the out-group; strengthens unity within each group
Apply positive stereotypes to the in-group; negative stereotypes to the out-group
Titles, external symbols and dress to distinguish themselves from members of the out-group
To some extent every social group creates boundaries between itself and other groups; however, a cohesive in-group typically has three characteristics.

23. Conformity within Groups
a change in beliefs or actions that results in adherence to group norms
How susceptible are individuals to group pressure? Dead Poet’s Society

24. Conformity within Groups
Pressure to Conform:
Strength of social pressure
Immediacy of social pressure
Number of people involved in the source of social pressure
Strength of social pressure: status, credibility, power, attractiveness, etc.
Immediacy of social pressure: proximity of target – in person, on phone, on TV, etc.

25. Conformity within Groups
Asch Experiment:
WYFFT Elevator Clip:

26. Compliance in Groups
Compliance: a change in behavior prompted by a direct request rather than social norms; obedience
6 Primary Factors:
Friendship, commitment, scarcity, reciprocity, social validation, authority…

27. Compliance in Groups Milgram Experiment:

28. Group Leadership Expressive Leaders: Affiliation motivated
Cooperative style of management
Instrumental Leaders:
Achievement motivated
Directive style of management

30. Part 4: Performance in Groups

31. Group Behavior Group-Think:
When members of a cohesive group endorse a single explanation or answer, usually at the expense of ignoring reality
No toleration of dissenting opinions
psychologist Irving Janis defined it as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action

32. Group Behavior Group-Think happens when there is:
A strong, persuasive group leader
A high level of group cohesion
Intense pressure from the outside to make a good decision
psychologist Irving Janis defined it as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action

33. President Kennedy asked his advisors (the war cabinet) their opinions about the US-backed invasion of Cuba. All of them approved. The investigation after the fiasco revealed that they did not like it but everyone of them was afraid of dissenting from the group. They thought the President wanted it and it was their duty to support him. The President said if only one of them dissented I would have canceled it
The U.S. officials had evidence of the strength and determination of the Vietnamese to continue their resistance to the U.S. invasion and occupation. They threw such evidence aside refusing to believe that "little, uneducated, barefoot people in pajamas" could defeat the U.S. military

34. President Roosevelt and his chiefs of staff refused to believe the evidence presented to them that the Japanese were preparing to attack Pearle Harbor. They did not want to believe that the Japanese could dare to do it.

35.
Engineers of the space shuttle knew about some faulty parts months before takeoff, but they did not want negative press so they pushed ahead with the launch anyway.

36. Loafing & Compensation
Social Loafing:
The tendency to work less when responsibility for an outcome is spread throughout several members of a group

37. Loafing & Compensation
Social Compensation:
The tendency to work harder when one is part of a group, rather than when he or she is alone

38. Pro-social Behavior DEFINITION: acting to benefit others
More likely to help if:
Have a high need for approval
Personal and social responsibility
Sense of empathy

39. Pro-social Behavior More likely to be helped by others if:
Perceived as a potential leader
Not responsible for predicament
Member of helper’s group
Bystander Effect:
The more people present, the less likely each individual is to help someone in distress

41. Part 5: Formal Organizations

42. Formal Organizations Utilitarian Organizations:
An organization that provides material benefits in exchange for labor

43. Formal Organizations Normative Organizations:
An organization that pursues what they believe to be a morally worthwhile goal

44. Formal Organizations Coercive Organizations:
An organization that serves as a form of punishment & treatment