Chapter 5

1. Chapter 5 Social Groups and Formal Organizations

2. Social Groups A collection of two or more people who: • Identify and interact with one another. • Also: • Share a sense of belonging. • Have a feeling of interdependence.

3. Categories and Aggregates • Categories share a similar characteristic: • Students, elderly, Native Americans • Aggregates happen to be in the same place at the same time: • Airline passengers, shoppers, waiting at a traffic light

4. Cooley’s Primary and Secondary Groups

5. Sumner’s Ingroups and Outgroups

6. Reference Group • Influences a person’s behavior and attitudes, regardless of whether they are a member. • We may act more like members of a group we want to join than members of groups to which we already belong. • In this case, reference groups are a source of anticipatory socialization.

7. Anticipatory Socialization • The process by which knowledge and skills are learned for future roles

8. Group Size

9. Possible Interactions Based on Group Size

10. Group Leadership • Important element of group dynamics is leadership • Two leadership roles • Instrumental leadership • Expressive leadership

11. Instrumental Leadership • Group leadership that focuses on the completion of tasks • Make plans • Give orders • Get things done

12. Expressive Leadership • Group leadership that focuses on the group’s well-being • Less of an interest in achieving goals • Focus on promoting the well-being of members • Minimize tension and conflict among members

13. Three leadership styles • Authoritarian • Democratic • Laissez-faire Leadership

14. Authoritarian Leadership • Focuses on instrumental concerns • Takes personal charge of decision-making • Demands that group members obey orders • Wins little affection from the group • Is appreciated in a crisis

15. Democratic Leadership • More expressive • Includes everyone in the decision-making process • Less successful in a crisis situation • Draw on the ideas of all members to develop creative solutions to problems

16. Laissez-faire Leadership • Allows group to function on its own • “Laissez-faire” – French, meaning “leave it alone” • Least effective in promoting group goals

17. Group Conformity Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience

18. Sherif’s Conformity Research • Subjects in a darkened room were asked to look at a point of light projected on a black wall. • Although the point of light was stationary, observed believed the light began to move (the autokinetic effect).

20. Sherif’s Conformity Research • When individuals discussed their estimate of the movement of light with each other, they converged on a common standard or norm. • Although the data indicate that influence was present, subjects denied that they were influenced by others. • The more uncertain subjects were about reality, the more they were influenced by others, especially confident others. • Norms, once established by the group, were used by participants even when they were alone.

21. Asch’s Research • Asch’s research assistants tried to influence participants to pick Line 1 or 3 as the match for the line in the lower card. • Many (approximately 33%) went along rather than risk the opposition of the “group.”

23. Milgram’s Obedience Experiment

24. The Teacher’s Desk

25. Milgram’s Shock Generator

26. The Student’s Electric Chair

27. Predicted Results • Experts/colleagues/students polled by Milgram predicted: • Less than 0.1% of subjects would give full dose of shock • Only 4% would give more than 300V • The majority would terminate the experiment before 150V

28. The Basic Experiment • The experimenter asked the teacher to begin teaching the learner a list of word pairs • At first, the learner did well, but then gradually made errors more frequently • The teacher found himself being asked to administer higher and higher shock levels • The learner increasingly objected to the shocks

29. Learner Response Voltage • 75 Grunt • 120 Loud Complaints • 150 “Get me out of here! I won’t be in this experiment anymore!” • 200 Screaming • 300 Agonized Screams • 400 Silence

30. Actual Results • 65% of teachers were fully obedient and administered shocks up to 450V. • By this point teachers were sweating, stuttering, or biting on their lip. • What caused this degree of obedience?

32. Milgram’s Obedience Experiment: Initial and Subsequent Results

33. Groupthink • The process by which members of a cohesive group arrive at a decision that many individual members privately believe is unwise.

35. Types of Formal Organizations

36. Characteristics and Effects of Bureaucracy

37. Alternative Forms of Organization “Humanizing” the bureaucracy: • Greater sharing of power and responsibility. • Encouragement of participants to share their ideas and try new approaches. • Efforts to reduce the number of people in dead‑end jobs and to help people meet family responsibilities.

38. Informal Side of a Bureaucracy • Those aspects of participants’ day-to-day activities and interactions that ignore, bypass, or do not correspond with the official rules and procedures of the bureaucracy.