Unit 4 B – Types of Groups

Groups and OrganizationsConflict and Cohesion

Part I

Types of Groups

Meeting Needs through Groups Group Functions

1. Improve the quality of member’s lives Feminist organizations

2. Empowerment Aboriginal self-government

3. Improving social status Advocacy groups – work on behalf of a cause or principle

Famous Five and the Person’s Case

4. Relieving others’ suffering Non-profit organizations – tax rebates NGO’s (MSF – Doctor’s without Borders), Free the Children

Meeting Needs through Groups Group Functions continued

5. Achieving Social Goals Goals that affect a wider community

gun control laws Council of Canadians – lobby politicians to protect

Canada’s social programs, promote economic fairness, and preserve Canadian independence

6. Achieving Environmental Goals Members have a variety of ways to contribute

Greenpeace, Sierra Club

Part II

Group membership

The Anthropologist’s PerspectiveCollectivist Outlook

People in a group put the group welfare above individual welfare Pre-industrial cultures, many Asian cultures, not North

America

Commitment to a group and level of co-operation with its demands relates to how well and thoroughly the group meets an individual’s needs. If a group is not meeting our needs we will be less

committed or co-operative

The Psychologist’s Perspective

Conformity

When a person adjusts his or her thoughts and behaviour to match the group

Two examples of extreme conformity

1. People’s Temple – 900 simultaneous suicides by cult members

2. Nazi War Criminals – argued that they are not responsible because they were “following orders”

The Milgram Conformity Experiment The “teacher” is actually the volunteer

subject of the experiment

The “learner” and the “experimenter” are acting

The “teacher” must press a button to send an electric shock every time the learner gets a question wrong

63% of the subjects continued even after the “death” of the subject from electric shock.

Why important?

People will easily conform to AUTHORITY to harm others and themselves

The Sociologist’s Perspective

Identifying too strongly with a group can result in non-members seen as lacking skills or worth “in” groups and “out”

groups e.g. Nazis and Jews,

Jocks and “Trench Coat Mafia” etc.

Trench Coat Mafia – Columbine High school

Nazis with Jews

The Stockholm Syndrome First documented case in

1973, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Bank robbers held 4 hostages for 6 days

The hostages resisted rescue and refused to testify against their captors

One hostage even became romantically involved with one of the robbers 1973 bank robbery in Sweden

during which the captives assisted, and then later refused to testify against their kidnappers.

The Stockholm Syndrome continued Conditions that create the syndrome:

Process begins after about 3-4 days in captivity Captive becomes committed to trying to keep the captor

happy – eventually identify with the captor Captor must threaten to kill the hostage No hope of escape Occasional kindnesses by captor Completely isolated from outside world

Similar to “Battered Wife Syndrome” Humans will go along with abusive situations if they can see

no other way, and they see the abuser in a position of authority