1. Which category had the largest number of “friends”?

2. Which category(s) do you feel the strongest connection with? Is that category the same as the answer to

#1?

3. What social factors contribute the strength of a social tie between people?

4. How many of your facebook friends are really your friends??

People who think of themselves as belonging together and who interact with one another Provide intimate relationships and a sense of

belonging Groups are not to be confused with:

Aggregate- a number of people who happen to be in one place but don’t interact– Shoppers standing in line

Category- people who share similar characteristics but don’t interact with one another or consider each others interest– All people who wear glasses

Groups that are characterized by cooperative, intimate, long-term face- to-face relationships Family and friends

Meets the basic need of humans to have a sense of belonging and the feeling of being appreciated

The values and attitudes of the primary group become fused into our identity Continue to influence how we see the world

• Larger, more anonymous, more formal and more impersonal than primary groups

• Based on some interest of activity• American Sociological Association, Democratic

Party, etc.• Members are likely to interact on the basis

of specific roles: president, manager, worker, student

• Secondary groups tend to break down into primary groups: cliques at school or work

• Voluntary associations are secondary groups made up of volunteers who have organized on the basis of some mutual interest• Boy Scouts for example• Inner circle- key members in the association

• Iron law of oligarchy- the tendency of the inner core to dominate the organization by become elites

• In-Groups: groups toward which individuals feel loyalty– provide a sense of belonging

• Out-Group: those toward which the feel antagonism – Help to reinforce the loyalty of members in

the in-group• “US” vs. “THEM”• According to Robert K. Merton, the

behaviors of an in-group’s members are seen as virtues, while the same behaviors by members of an out-group are viewed as vices

Groups we use as standards to evaluate ourselves, whether or not we actually belong to those groups Family, neighbors, teachers, classmates,

co-workers, members of your church Can be a group you don’t belong to- college

students

Exert great influence over behavior- clothing, hairstyles, speech, etc.

• Consist of people who are linked by various social ties– Cliques for example– Our interactions within social networks

connect us to the larger society– Think Facebook-everyone you know, everyone

they know, and so on.• Tend to perpetuate social inequality in

which whom you know might be more important that what you know– Good old boy network

Classify your facebook friends into “primary group” “secondary group”, “in-group”, out-group”, “reference group”

Where do most of your “friends” fall??