Dominant social groups are examples. Concept and types of social groups

Man is part of society. Therefore, throughout his life he contacts or is a member of many groups. But despite their huge number, sociologists identify several main types of social groups, which will be discussed in this article.

Definition of social group

First of all, you need to have a clear understanding of the meaning of this term. A social group is a collection of people who have one or more unifying characteristics that have social significance. Another factor of unification is participation in any activity. You need to understand that society is not viewed as an indivisible whole, but as an association of social groups that constantly interact and influence each other. Any person is a member of at least several of them: family, work team, etc.

The reasons for creating such groups may be similarity of interests or goals, as well as the understanding that when creating such a group, you can achieve more results in less time than individually.

One of the important concepts when considering the main types of social groups is the reference group. This is a really existing or imaginary association of people, which is an ideal for a person. The American sociologist Hyman first used this term. The reference group is so important because it influences the individual:

1. Regulatory. The reference group is an example of an individual's behavioral norms, social attitudes and values.
2. Comparative. Helps a person determine what place he occupies in society, evaluate his own and others’ activities.

Social groups and quasi-groups

Quasi-groups are randomly formed and short-lived communities. Another name is mass communities. Accordingly, several differences can be identified:

• Social groups have regular interactions that lead to their stability.
• High percentage of people's cohesion.
• Group members have at least one common characteristic.
• Small social groups can be a structural unit of wider groups.

Types of social groups in society

Man as a social being interacts with a large number of social groups. Moreover, they are completely diverse in composition, organization and goals pursued. Therefore, it became necessary to identify which types of social groups are the main ones:

• Primary and secondary - allocation depends on how a person interacts with group members emotionally.
• Formal and informal - the allocation depends on how the group is organized and how relationships are regulated.
• Ingroup and outgroup - the definition of which depends on the degree to which a person belongs to them.
• Small and large - allocation depending on the number of participants.
• Real and nominal - the selection depends on features that are significant in the social aspect.

All these types of social groups of people will be considered in detail separately.

Primary and secondary groups

The primary group is one in which communication between people is of a high emotional nature. It usually consists of a small number of participants. It is the link that connects the individual directly with society. For example, family, friends.

A secondary group is one in which there are many more participants compared to the previous one, and where interactions between people are needed to achieve a specific task. Relationships here, as a rule, are impersonal in nature, since the main emphasis is on the ability to perform the necessary actions, and not on character traits and emotional connections. For example, a political party, a work collective.

Formal and informal groups

A formal group is one that has a specific legal status. Relations between people are regulated by a certain system of norms and rules. There is a clearly defined goal and a hierarchical structure. Any actions are carried out in accordance with the established procedure. For example, the scientific community, sports group.

An informal group usually arises spontaneously. The reason may be a commonality of interests or views. Compared to a formal group, it has no formal rules and no legal status in society. There is also no formal leader among the participants. For example, a friendly company, lovers of classical music.

Ingroup and outgroup

Ingroup - a person feels direct belonging to this group and perceives it as his own. For example, “my family”, “my friends”.

An outgroup is a group to which a person has no relation; accordingly, there is identification as “stranger”, “other”. Absolutely every person has his own system for assessing outgroups: from a neutral attitude to an aggressive-hostile one. Most sociologists prefer to use a rating system - the social distance scale, created by the American sociologist Emory Bogardus. Examples: “someone else’s family”, “not my friends”.

Small and large groups

A small group is a small group of people united to achieve some result. For example, a student group, a school class.

The fundamental forms of this group are the forms “dyad” and “triad”. They can be called bricks of this group. A dyad is an association in which two people participate, and a triad consists of three people. The latter is considered more stable than the dyad.

Traits characteristic of a small group:

1. A small number of participants (up to 30 people) and their permanent composition.
2. Close relationships between people.
3. Similar ideas about values, norms and patterns of behavior in society.
4. Identify the group as “mine”.
5. Control is not regulated by administrative rules.

A large group is one that has a large number of participants. The purpose of unification and interaction of people, as a rule, is clearly fixed and clear to each member of the group. It is not limited by the number of people included in it. Also, there is no constant personal contact and mutual influence between individuals. For example, the peasant class, the working class.

Real and nominal

Real groups are groups that are distinguished according to some socially important criteria. For example:

• age;
• income;
• nationality;
• Family status;
• profession;
• location.

Nominal groups are identified according to one common characteristic for conducting various sociological studies or statistical accounting of a certain category of the population. For example, find out the number of mothers raising children alone.

Based on these examples of types of social groups, we can clearly see that absolutely every person has a connection with them or interacts in them.

Society is a collection of very different groups: large and small, real and nominal, primary and secondary. A group is the foundation of human society, since it itself is one of the groups, but only the largest. The number of groups on Earth exceeds the number of individuals.

There is no unity in science in understanding which concept is broader: “social community” or “social group”. Apparently, in one case, communities act as a type of social groups, in another case, groups are a subtype of social communities.

Typology of social groups

Social groups- these are relatively stable groups of people who have common interests, values ​​and norms of behavior that develop within the framework of a historically specific society. All the diversity of social groups can be classified on a number of grounds, such as:

• - band size;
• – socially significant criteria;
• – type of identification with the group;
• – rigidity of intragroup norms;
• – nature and content of activity, etc.

So, depending on the size, social groups are distinguished big And small. The first include social classes, social strata, professional groups, ethnic communities (nation, nationality, tribe), age groups (youth, pensioners). A specific feature of small social groups is direct contacts of their members.

Such groups include a family, a school class, a production team, a neighboring community, and a friendly company. According to the degree of regulation of relationships and life activities of individuals, groups are divided into formal And informal.

• Large social group is the totality of all carriers of the same social status in the social structure of society. In other words, these are all pensioners, believers, engineers, etc. The classification of large social groups includes the two largest subspecies:
  • 1) real groups. They are formed on the basis of characteristics that are specified objective criteria. These characteristics include all social statuses: demographic, economic, professional, political, religious, territorial.

Real a characteristic is considered to exist independently of the consciousness of a member of this group or the consciousness of the scientist who identifies these groups. For example, youth are a real group that is distinguished according to the objective criterion of age. Consequently, there are as many large social groups as there are statuses;

2) nominal groups, which are allocated only for statistical accounting of the population and therefore they have a second name - social categories.

This is for example:

• – commuter train passengers;
• – registered in a mental hospital;
• – buyers of Ariel washing powder;
• – single-parent, large or small families;
• – having temporary or permanent registration;
• – living in separate or communal apartments, etc.

Social categories- these are artificially constructed population groups for the purposes of statistical analysis, which is why they are called nominal, or conditional. They are necessary in economic practice. For example, in order to properly organize suburban train traffic, you need to know the total or seasonal number of passengers.

Social categories are collections of people identified by similar features in the nature of behavior, lifestyle, position in society or the outside world. Similar features or criteria for identifying groups can be a variety of properties of people. One of the most powerful and fruitful ones is hobbies or passions. Based on this characteristic, a number of categories of people can be distinguished. Each group of hobbies, in turn, is divided into subgroups (according to the subject of the hobby) and gradations (according to the intensity of the hobby).

Thus, collectors are divided into philatelists, collectors of paintings, labels, badges, etc. Amateur collectors differ from professional collectors not only in the intensity of their passion, but also in the degree of organization: philatelic clubs, philatelic markets, where stamps turn into a means of enrichment. Amateur theatergoers become professional over time, and the subject of their hobby becomes their field of study. They regularly go to the theater, some become theater critics.

Nominal groups(social categories) are distinguished by artificial characteristics, which depend on the consciousness, but not of the member of this group, but of the scientist classifying the group. For example, everyone living in two-room apartments or everyone living with a full range of utilities. Such a sign, and there are many of them, is not recognized by group members as a sufficient basis for identifying their membership in the specified group. In other words, those living in two-room apartments and having a full range of utilities are not necessarily aware of the fact that they have been identified by one of the scientists as an independent group, and do not behave in accordance with this attribute. On the contrary, a real criterion, realized by people or representatives of a group, most often forces them to behave in accordance with this criterion.

For example, group unemployed belongs to the category of real, as it stands out according to an objective criterion. Unemployed status applies only to those who applied to the employment service and registered as unemployed, i.e. entered into a community or set of people endowed with corresponding rights and responsibilities. But for one reason or another, of the total number of those without work, only a small part (from 25 to 40%) turns to the employment service and receives formal unemployed status. And where should we include those people who are not actually engaged in social production, but have not applied to the employment service? How are these groups different? We are talking about potential And real unemployment, unregistered and registered. The real group here is the formally registered unemployed. There is also a so-called part-time employment, characterizing an independent collection of people. It does not overlap with either the first or second group. It is often said that real employment figures are hidden in Russia because the authorities are interested in lowering the unemployment rate: in reality it is not 2%, but 8–10 times more.

Partially employed people are classified as nominally unemployed, since this group was identified by sociological researchers interested in building a model, and this group exists only in the minds of these scientists. Therefore, this group is nominal.

Real group is a large group of people that is distinguished based on actually existing signs:

• floor- men and women;
• income - rich, poor and prosperous;
• nationality– Russians, Americans, Evenks, Turks;
• age - children, teenagers, youth, adults, old people;
• kinship and marriage– single, married, parents, widows;
• profession(occupation) – drivers, teachers, military personnel;
• location - townspeople, rural residents, fellow countrymen, etc.

These and some other signs are among socially significant. There are much fewer such signs than statistical ones; there are countless numbers of them. Since these are real signs, they not only exist objectively(biological sex and age or economic income and profession), but also realized subjectively. Young people feel their group affiliation and solidarity in the same way that pensioners feel theirs. Representatives of the same real group have similar behavioral stereotypes, lifestyles, and value orientations.

In independent subclass of real groups Sometimes the following three types are distinguished:

• stratification– slavery, castes, estates, classes;
• ethnic– races, nations, peoples, nationalities, tribes, clans;
• territorial- people from the same area (countrymen), city dwellers, villagers.

These groups are called the main ones however, with no less justification, any other real group can be included among the main ones. Indeed, we are talking about interethnic conflicts that have swept the world in the past and present centuries. We talk about a generational conflict, meaning that the contradiction between two age groups is a serious social problem that humanity has been unable to resolve for many millennia. Finally, we are talking about gender inequality in wages, distribution of family functions, and social status. Thus, real groups are real problems for society. Nominal groups do not provide a comparable range of social problems in scale and nature.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that society would be shaken by contradictions, say, between passengers of long-distance and short-distance trains. But the problem of refugees or “brain drain” associated with real groups identified on a territorial basis worries not only armchair scientists, but also practitioners: politicians, the government, social protection agencies, ministries.

Behind the real groups are social aggregates– a collection of people identified on the basis of behavioral characteristics. These include the audience (radio, television), the public (cinema, theater, stadium), some types of crowd (crowd of onlookers, passers-by), etc. They combine the features of real and nominal groups, and therefore are located on the border between them. The term “aggregate” (from the Latin aggrego – I add) means a random gathering of people. Aggregates are not studied by statistics and do not belong to statistical groups.

Moving further along the typology of social groups, we find social organization. This is an artificially constructed community of people, created by someone for the sake of fulfilling some legitimate goal, for example, the production of goods or the provision of paid services, with the help of institutionalized mechanisms of subordination (hierarchy of positions, power and subordination, reward and punishment). An industrial enterprise, a collective farm, a restaurant, a bank, a hospital, a school - all these are types of social organization. In terms of size, social organizations can be very large (hundreds of thousands of people), large (tens of thousands), medium (from several thousand to several hundred), small or small (from one hundred to several people).

Essentially, social organization is an intermediate type of association of people between large and small social groups. The classification of large groups ends with them and the classification of small groups begins. Here lies the border between secondary And primary groups in sociology: only small groups are considered primary, all other groups are secondary.

Small groups- these are small groups of people united by common goals, interests, values, norms and rules of behavior, as well as constant interaction. Small groups really exist: they are accessible to direct perception, observable in their size and time of existence. Their study can be carried out through specific methods of working with all members of the group (observation of interaction in the group, surveys, tests on the characteristics of group dynamics, experiment).

If we build social-group continuum, then the two poles on it will be occupied by completely opposite phenomena: large and small groups. The main socio-psychological feature of small groups is cohesion, large groups – solidarity(Fig. 6.1).

Cohesion we manifest it in real actions, knowing each member of the group, for example, when we go to the head of a department to defend our colleague, whom he intends to fire. The unity of a small group is undermined by everyday communication and interaction. Once friends move to different cities and stop communicating, after a while they forget each other and cease to be a cohesive group. Solidarity manifests itself not between acquaintances who know each other well, but between representatives of the same social group as social masks. Thus, a Moscow policeman protects a Tambov policeman only because they both belong to the same professional group and are not necessarily family friends.

Rice. 6.1.

Russian sociologists already in the 19th – early 20th centuries. paid great attention to the development of the idea of ​​harmony through cooperation, solidarity, integration, cooperation and mutual assistance (N.K. Mikhailovsky, P.L. Lavrov, L.I. Mechnikov, M.M. Kovalevsky, etc.). In particular, in M. M. Kovalevsky’s doctrine of solidarity is at the center of sociological theory. By solidarity he understood peace, reconciliation, harmony as opposed to struggle. He believes that in the normal course of social life, a clash of class and other social interests is prevented by an agreement, a compromise, in which the guiding principle is always the idea of ​​solidarity of all members of society.

Both cohesion and solidarity are based on one foundation, which is identification a person with his group. Identification can be like positive(solidarity, group cohesion), and negative(it is understood in sociology as alienation, rejection, distancing). The problem of identity and identification is quite fully reflected in the works of V. A. Yadov.

The classification of small groups generally includes laboratory and natural, organized and spontaneous, open and closed, formal and informal, primary and secondary groups, membership groups and reference groups, etc. In sociology, groups are divided into primary and secondary, informal and formal.

Primary group is a small association of people connected by ties of an emotional nature (for example, family, group of friends). The term "primary group", introduced into sociology by Charles Cooley, characterizes communities in which there are trusting, face-to-face contacts and cooperation. They are primary in several senses, but mainly because they play a fundamental role in shaping the social nature and ideas of man.

Main features of primary relationships – uniqueness And integrity. Uniqueness means that a response addressed to one individual cannot be forwarded to another. A child cannot replace its mother and vice versa; they are irreplaceable and unique. The relationship between husband and wife is the same: they bear full responsibility to each other, love and family absorb them entirely, and not partially or temporarily. To describe group integrity, the pronoun “we” is used, which characterizes a certain sympathy and mutual identification of people.

Secondary group represents a number of regularly meeting people whose relationships are mostly impersonal. They are distinguished by the criterion of immediacy - the indirectness of contacts between people.

For example, the relationship between a seller and a buyer. They can be redirected: the seller can come into contact with another or other buyers, and vice versa. They are not unique and are interchangeable. The seller and buyer enter into a temporary contract and have limited liability to each other. Such is the relationship between workers and employers.

Primary relationships are deeper and more intense than secondary ones; they are fuller in the way they manifest themselves. Face-to-face interaction involves symbols, words, gestures, feelings, reason, and needs. Thus, family relationships are deeper, fuller and more intense than business or industrial ones. The first ones are called informal, second – formal. In formal relationships, one person serves as a means or goal to achieve something that is not present in informal, primary relationships. Where people live or work together, primary groups arise on the basis of primary relationships: small work groups, families, friendly groups, play groups, neighborhood communities. Primary groups arise historically earlier than secondary ones; they have always existed, and they still exist now. As C. Cooley notes, in the reality around us there are fewer primary relationships than secondary ones. They are less common, although they play a more important role in people's lives.

Formal group- this is a group, the position and behavior of individual members of which are strictly regulated by the official rules of the organization and social institutions. Unlike informal groups, arising within the framework of a formal social organization on the basis of interpersonal relationships, common interests, mutual sympathies of their members, a formal group is a type of organization of social relations characterized by the division of functions, the impersonal, contractual nature of relations, a strictly defined goal of cooperation, extreme rationalization of group and individual functions, low dependence on traditions. The task of a formal group is to ensure high orderliness, planning, and controllability of the actions of its members in achieving the goals of a social institution or organization. The totality of formal groups within one institution constitutes an orderly structure hierarchical structure. Interpersonal relationships in a formal group develop within an established official framework: authority is determined by position, and not by personal qualities.

Large social groups are the area where social statuses are implemented in small groups personal statuses.

• For more details see: Kovalevsky M. M. Modern sociologists. St. Petersburg, 1905.

Social science. A complete course of preparation for the Unified State Exam Shemakhanova Irina Albertovna

3.2. Social groups

3.2. Social groups

Social group - this is an objectively existing stable community, a set of individuals interacting in a certain way on the basis of several characteristics, the shared expectations of each group member in relation to others. T. Hobbes was the first to define a group as “a certain number of people united by a common interest or a common cause.”

Differences between social groups and mass communities: sustainable interaction, which contributes to the strength and stability of their existence in space and time; relatively high degree of cohesion; clearly expressed homogeneity of composition, i.e. the presence of characteristics inherent in all individuals included in the group; entry into broader communities as structural entities.

The main criteria for identifying social groups and communities: according to demographic criteria (gender, age, relationship and marriage); by ethnicity (representatives of a tribe, nationality or nation); by race (representatives of the Caucasian, Negroid or Mongoloid race); on settlement and territorial; professionally; on educational; according to confessional; by social class; on political.

Classification of social groups

1. By method of education: spontaneously arose (unofficial); specially organized (official); real; conditional.

2. By the size of the group and the way its members interact: small; average; large; contact (primary); remote (secondary).

3. By the nature of joint activity: practical (joint work activity); Gnostic (joint research activities); aesthetic (joint satisfaction of aesthetic needs); hedonic (leisure, entertainment and gaming); directly communicative; ideological; socio-political.

4. According to personal significance: referential; elitist.

5. According to social significance: socially positive; asocial – socially destructive; antisocial – criminal, delinquent.

Types of social groups

1. Depending on the nature of the interaction - primary and secondary.

Primary a group is a group in which the interaction between members is direct, interpersonal and characterized by a high level of emotionality (family, school class, peer group, etc.).

Secondary group - a larger group in which interaction is subordinated to the achievement of a specific goal and is of a formal, impersonal nature. In these groups, the focus is on the ability of group members to perform specific functions. Examples of such groups are organizations (industrial, political, religious, etc.).

2. Depending on the method of organizing and regulating interaction - formal and informal.

Formal group – a group with legal status, interaction in which is regulated by a system of formalized norms, rules, and laws. These groups have a consciously set goal, a normatively established hierarchical structure and act according to an administratively established order (organizations, enterprises, etc.).

Informal a group arises spontaneously, based on common views, interests and interpersonal interactions. It is deprived of official regulation and legal status. Such groups are usually led by informal leaders. Examples include friendly companies, informal associations among young people, rock music fans, etc.

3. Depending on the individuals’ belonging to them:

Ingroup- this is a group to which an individual feels immediate belonging and identifies it as “mine”, “our” (for example, “my family”, “my class”, “my company”, etc.).

Outgroup- this is a group to which a given individual does not belong and therefore evaluates it as “alien”, not his own (other families, another religious group, another ethnic group, etc.).

Reference a group is a real or imaginary social group, the system of values, norms and assessments of which serves as a standard for the individual. The reference group in the system of relations “personality – society” performs two important functions: normative, being for the individual a source of norms of behavior, social attitudes and value orientations; comparative, acting as a standard for an individual, allows him to determine his place in the social structure of society, evaluate himself and others.

4. Depending on the quantitative composition and form of connections – small and large.

Small group- This is a small group of people in direct contact, united to carry out joint activities. Characteristic features of a small group: small and stable composition (usually from 2 to 30 people); spatial proximity of group members; stability and duration of existence; high degree of coincidence of group goals, values, norms and patterns of behavior; intensity of interpersonal relationships; a developed sense of belonging to a group; informal control and information saturation in the group; the presence of an organizing principle in the group (leader, manager; the leadership function can be distributed among group members); separation and differentiation of personal roles; the presence of emotional relationships between group members that influence group activity, can lead to the division of the group into subgroups, and form the internal structure of interpersonal relationships in the group.

Large group- this is a large group that is created for a specific purpose and the interaction in which is indirect (work collectives, enterprises, etc.

Types and characteristics of large social groups

* Target social groups are created to perform functions related to specific activities. For example, university students can be considered a formal target social group (the goal of its members is to obtain an education);

* Territorial (local) social groups are formed on the basis of connections formed based on the proximity of the place of residence. A particularly important form of territorial community is ethnos- a set of individuals and groups belonging to the sphere of influence of a state and interconnected by special relations (common language, traditions, culture, as well as self-identification).

* Society- the largest social group, which as a whole is the main object of theoretical or empirical research.

Among large groups, it is also customary to distinguish such social groups as the intelligentsia, office workers, representatives of mental and physical labor, the population of the city and village.

Team is a social group in which all vital connections between people are mediated through socially important goals. Characteristic features of the team: a combination of the interests of the individual and society; a community of goals and principles that act as value orientations and norms of activity for team members. The team performs the following functions: substantive - solving the problem for which it is created; social and educational – a combination of the interests of the individual and society.

5. Depending on socially significant characteristics:

Real groups– groups identified according to socially significant criteria: gender, age, income, nationality, marital status, profession (occupation), place of residence.

Nominal (conditional) groups are identified for the purpose of conducting sociological research or statistical registration of the population.

Quasigroup- an informal, spontaneous, unstable social community that does not have a specific structure and value system, the interaction of people in which, as a rule, is external and short-term in nature. The main types of quasi-groups are: audience (a social community united by interaction with a communicator and receiving information from him; the heterogeneity of this social formation is due to the difference in personal qualities, cultural values ​​and norms of the people included in it); crowd (a temporary, relatively unorganized, unstructured accumulation of people united in a closed physical space by a community of interests, while devoid of a clearly recognized goal and connected by a similarity in their emotional state); social circles (contact; professional; status; friendship).

The subjects of mass non-group behavior are the public and the masses.

Public– a large group of people who have common episodic interests, subject to a single emotional-conscious regulation with the help of generally significant objects of attention (participants of a rally, demonstration, listeners of a lecture, members of cultural societies).

Weight- a collection of a large number of people who make up an amorphous formation, who usually do not have direct contacts, but are united by common stable interests. Specific socio-psychological phenomena arise among the masses: fashion, subculture, mass hype, etc. The mass acts as a subject of broad political and sociocultural movements, an audience for various media of mass communication, and a consumer of works of mass culture.

Functions of a social group: place of socialization of the individual, familiarization with social values, norms, rules; instrumental determines the place and forms of work; social– a feeling of belonging to a given social community and support from it.