Groups and Organizations

Groups and Organizations

• A group involves two or more people interacting with each other.
• A group category consists of people sharing common traits, such as race, religion, ethnicity, or class, who may never have met.
• A social group is a combination of two or more individuals who identify and interact with each other for a shared purpose or goal.
• Social groups are goal-oriented.

Sumner's Group Typology

• An ingroup is a group to which a person belongs and feels loyalty.
• An outgroup is a group to which a person does not belong and may feel antagonism.
• A reference group is a group that serves as a standard for evaluating one's own behavior and attitudes.

Group Leadership

• Group leadership involves how a group structurally operates in relation to status roles (chain of command) and rules.
• There are different leadership styles related to the decision-making process:
  • Authoritarian; leaders make decisions independently, with little input from the group.
  • Democratic; leaders involve group members in the decision-making process.
  • Laissez-faire; leaders provide little guidance and allow group members to make their own decisions.

Group Conformity

• Group conformity is the process of promoting compliance to established social norms or culture by influencing the behaviors of members.
• Asch and Milgram conducted research and experiments on conformity and obedience.

Group Size

• A dyad is a group consisting of two people.
• A triad is a group consisting of three people.

Organizations and Bureaucracy

• An organization is an institutional structure that operates through bureaucracy.
• Bureaucracy is characterized by:
  • A hierarchy of authority.
  • A clear division of labor.
  • Explicit rules and procedures.
  • Impersonal relations.
  • Formal rationality.

Sex and Sexuality

• Animals are categorized into race and sex using bio-scientific knowledge.
• Sex is related to bio-psycho-cultural relations, including sexuality.
  • Sexuality includes homosexuality and heterosexuality.
• Sexism and sexual harassment are related to sex.
• Gender is related to physio-cultural relations, including:
  • Transgenderism.
  • Transphobia.
• Social relations include:
  • Sexism.
  • Transgenderism.
  • Sexual harassment.
• Domestic violence: "Violence is the easiest, but the most costly manner of settling our problems" (J.M. Martinez).
  • Elements of power and control in domestic violence include:
    • Using isolation.
    • Using intimidation.
    • Using emotional or psychological abuse.

Race

• Bio-physio-social classification includes:
  • Black (Negroid) - African.
  • White (Caucasoid) - European.
  • Oriental (Mongoloid) - Asian.
• Bio-cultural relations include Racism.
• Theories of race and intelligence:
  • Arthur de Gobineau believed in the hierarchy of Caucasoid → Mongoloid → Negroid.
  • Murray & Herrnstein believed in the hierarchy of Mongoloid → Caucasoid → Negroid.
• Institutional racism is a question of measurement.
• Stealth racism and racialism are present.
• Socio-cultural classification includes ethnicity/tribe, which is a cultural classification based on linguistic/language.
• Socio-cultural relations includes Ethnocentrism/Tribalism vs. Cultural Relativism.

Deviance and Crime

• Social control: refers to the attempt by social groups/society to regulate individuals' behaviors and actions to encourage conformity to social norms/rules/laws so as to discourage deviance and anarchy/chaos in social groups/communities.
  • Informal social control.
  • Formal social control.
• Criminalization of actions/behaviors:
  • Mala in se: inherently immoral or evil.
  • Mala prohibitum: wrong because it is prohibited.

Theories of Deviance, Juvenile Delinquency, and Crime

• Biological Factors:
  • Genetics.
  • Substance use.
  • Brain injury.
  • Body physique.
• Psychological Factors:
  • Freud's personality traits: Id, Ego, Superego and deviant behavior.
  • Mental illness.
• Sociological Theories:
  • Anomie: normlessness, lawlessness, weak moral values.
    • Family environment.
    • Peer group environment.
• Merton's Modes of Adaptation to Blocked Opportunities:
  • Conformity.
  • Innovation.
  • Rebellion.
• Process of Becoming or NOT Becoming a deviant/juvenile delinquent/criminal:
  • Law of imitation.
  • Social Bonding Theory.
  • Labeling Theory.
• Success is a function of opportunity, motivation, and discipline.