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Social Groups

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Please help me with the following questions in preparing for a 750-1000 word paper:

1. Examine several social groups or organizations to which you belong or have belonged (school, government, family, religious, special interest club, etc.).

2. Explain the role of the group and the social functions it supports or promotes.

3, Be sure to define the groups that you select in terms of primary and secondary classifications.

4. If the group can be deemed a reference group, consider how this group affects or affected your life, personally and/or professionally.

5. If you select any organizations for you analysis, consider Weber's five characteristic of an ideal bureaucracy and suggest which (if any) of the characteristics are directly applicable to your organization.

6. From personal experience, examine the positive and negative ramifications of operating within a bureaucratic structure.

Thank you.

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Solution Summary

This solution discusses primary socialization and identifies family, school, peers and the workplace as social groups. It also discusses other agents of socialization. This solution is approximately 2000 words.

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RESPONSE:

1. Examine several social groups or organizations to which you belong or have belonged (school, government, family, religious, special interest club, etc.). Explaining the role of the group and the social functions it supports or promotes. Be sure to define the groups that you select in terms of primary and secondary classifications. If the group can be deemed a reference group, consider how this group affects or affected your life, personally and/or professionally. If you select any organizations for you analysis, consider Weber's five characteristic of an ideal bureaucracy and suggest which (if any) of the characteristics are directly applicable to your organization. From personal experience, examine the positive and negative ramifications of operating within a bureaucratic structure. (750 - 1000 words).

Social groups and organizations function as either a primary (e.g. family) or a secondary (e.g. schools, peer groups, church, other social groups, etc.) source of socialization. In other words, the social function is socialization, which is the process whereby a child learns to get along with and to behave similarly to other people in the group, largely through imitation as well as group pressure. (1)

Primary socialization is the process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. For example, some Inuit learn to enjoy eating the raw intestines of birds and fish, while some Chinese people eat Carp's heads and the tripe of pigs (Schaefer & Lamm, 1992: 98). Secondary socialization refers to process of learning what is appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. It is usually associated with teenagers and adults, and involves minor changes than those occurring in primary socialization. E.g. entering a new profession. Agents of socialization are people and/or groups that influence self-concepts, emotions, attitudes and behavior of a person, including the family, school, and other social groups. (Henslin, 1999:76-81) http://www.answers.com/topic/socialization.

1. Family as a Social Group

Describe your family. (E.g. I grew up in a family with two parents and three siblings.) My family acted as a primary agent of socialization.

Its function was to socialize the child whereby a child learns to get along with and to behave similarly to other people in the group, largely through imitation as well as group pressure used by the parents for the child to conform to the rules and expectations. It is about learning the customs, attitudes, and values of the family, community, or culture. Thus, the family is essential in this socialization process, which is essential for promoting the development of individuals who can participate and function within their societies, as well as for ensuring that a society's cultural features will be carried on through new generations. Primary socialization is most strongly enforced by family, whereas secondary socialization is most strongly enforced by school, and peer groups and continues throughout an individual's lifetime. (1) http://www.answers.com/topic/socialization.

Family also promotes political socialization. It teaches broad values like obedience, but also teaches other more specific notions like political trust, efficacy, partisanship, candidate preference, political interest. It ...

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