SOCIOLOGY CHAPTERS UNITS 3 & 4

Groups, Networks, and Organizations

Levels of Sociology

• Macro: study of large patters, of large groups, over a long period of time

• Meso: study of large groups, organizations, and communities

• Micro: study of small groups and face to face interactions

Group

• interaction of two or more people based on some common interests

  • Example: sports team

Network

• web of social ties that connect people who have little common identity or interaction

Organization

• a large, secondary group of people participating in a division of labour, coordinated by communication and leadership to achieve a common goal efficiently

Close Knit Networks

• everyone knows everyone

Loose Knit Network

• only one person knows everyone

Strong & Weak Ties

• Strong: close connection and support group

• Weak: distant connection and support

Bonding vs. Bridging

• Bonding: all becoming one big group

• Bridging: going from one group to the next

Types of Groups

1. Informal vs. Formal groups

2. Primary vs. Secondary groups

3. In-groups vs. Out-groups

4. Reference groups

1. Informal vs. Formal groups

• Informal: no clearly defined roles or goals

• Formal: explicit roles, goals, and rules

2. Primary vs. Secondary groups

• Primary: small groups in which relationships are both personal and enduring

• Secondary: large and impersonal social groups based on specific interest or activity

3. In-groups vs. Out-groups

• In-groups: with which individual identifies and feels loyal

• Out-groups: with which individual dissociates and feels antagonism (odd one out)

4. Reference groups

• groups we use as standards to evaluate ourselves

Some Aspects of Group Structure

a) size

1. Dyads: 2 members, 1 relationship

2. Triads: 3 members, 3 relationships

3. Quartets: 4 members, 6 relationships

4. Small groups: around 20 members or less

Size General Principal

• an increase in size results in:

1. An increase in stability and formality

2. A decrease in intensity and intimacy

Some Aspects of Group Structure

b) leadership

1. Kinds of leadership: instrumental (task oriented), expressive (people oriented)

2. Decision making style: democratic (51% agreement, authoritarian (listen to leader), laissez faire (stand back leadership), consensus (100% agreement)

Sample Group Processes/Dynamics

a) group identification

b) group cohesion and conformity

c) group think - 2 heads are better than 1

Formal Organizations

• a large, secondary group of people participating in a division of labour, coordinated by communication and leadership to achieve a common goal efficiently

Formal Organization

1. Control and Leadership

• Types of Social Control

a) coercive power

b) utilitarian power

c) normative power - everybody wants to be there

Formal Organization

2. Alternative to Control

a) selection of members

b) socialization of members

Formal Organization

3. The Informal Organization

• the complex inter-personal networks within the formal organization

  • Example: based on personal relationship, not positions in the organization

Bureaucracy

• Organizing actives in a logical, impersonal, efficient manner

  • “Bureau” = office, “crazy” = rule

  • Bureaucracy = the rule of he office holders

1. Characteristics of Bureaucracy

a) specialization

b) hierarchy of positions

c) rules and regulations

d) technical competence

e) impersonal relations

f) formal, written communication

g) protected careers

2. Benefits of Bureaucracy

a) efficiency

b) objectivity

3. Problems of Bureaucracy

a) waste & incompetence

b) “red tape” ritualism

c) inflexible inertia

d) alienation

e) structured inequity

4. McDonaldization

• The process where the principles of the gas food restaurant are coming to dominate ever more sectors of the world

4. McDonaldization

• a) efficiency

• the effort to discover the best possible means to whatever end is desired

4. McDonaldization

5. b) calculability

• the emphasis on quantity of products and speed of service, often to the detriment of quality

4. McDonaldization

• c) predictability

• the assurance that everything is much the same everywhere and every time

4. McDonaldization

• d) control

• the physical and social tech ologies that determine what will happen

4. McDonaldization

• e) the irrationality of rationality

• the paradoxical reality that instrumental rationality becomes irrational when the ends sought are sabotaged by the means employed

Sexuality

Sex

• based on anatomy/biology → male/female

Gender

• social norms build ones ex → masculine/feminine

Sexual Identity

= subjective sense of bring male or female

Sexual Organs

• anatomical structures that play a role in reproduction and sexual pleasure

Intersex Persons

• born with partial make and female physical characteristics

Sexual Behaviour

• physical activism involving sexual organs for the purpose of reproduction, pleasure, or affection

1. Sexual Orientation Definiton

• whether a persons primary erotic interest in in a member of the other or same sex, whether those interests are expressed overtly or not

  • a) orientation = disposition

  • b) behaviour = conduct

2. Rates of Sexual Orientation

• 2024 → approximately 4.4% of Canadians ages 15 & older identify as part of the 2SLGBTQ+ population

• Gender Identity: about 8.1% of this group identities as transgender or non binary

3. History

• Until 1965, non heterosexuality was views as:

a) immoral → religious view

b) criminal = legal view

c) sick = medical view

3. History

• “homophobia” 1960

• irrational fear of homosexuality in others, fear of homosexual feelings in oneself, self loathing because of one homosexuality

3. History

• “heterosexism”

• beliefs that deny, denigrate, or stigmatize non heterosexuality behaviour, identify, relationships, and communities

3. History

• “heteronormativity”

• the cultural presupposition that heterosexuality is the appropriate standard for sexual identity, Rand that alternative sexualities are abnormal and wrong

3. History

• “homoppression”

• using social power of moral and legal codes to control homosexuals to the detriment

Sexual Socialization

• internalizing cultural beliefs and norms about human sexuality

What do biology & anatomy determine?

• they determine what is possible, painful, or pleasurable, not what is proper and improper

Sexual Desire

= a combination of objective physical responses and subjective psychological/emotional responses

Sexual Scrips

• the learned guidelines for sexual expression that provide individuals with a sense of appropriate sexual desires and behaviours for their culture

Sexual Scrips

• what they tell us

• What they help us define

1. They tell us, who, what, where, when, why

2. Help us define what will be considered a sexual sensation, event, object, situation, person, etc