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Social Relationships Dyad – 2 people only (couples, best friends) Triad – 3 people Aggregate – people who share common
characteristic (age, gender, race) Group – 3 or more people who
Have something in common Share identity as a group
Georg Simmel: Group size determines social relations
You May Ask YourselfCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Social Groups
You May Ask YourselfCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Dyad: most intimate form of social interaction members are mutually dependent on each other if one member leaves, dyad ceases to exist. Requires “symmetry” (mutual participation, consensus) No supra-individual control over members.
“Group” can put pressure on members “Couple” cannot do that
Classifying groups: Simmel Small Group
Face to face interaction Unifocal No formal structure
Party Like small group but multifocal (may be larger)
Large Group Formal structure Status differentiation
Classifying Groups: Cooley Primary group
Intimate, face to face Personal – members not interchangeable Important in socialization
Secondary group Impersonal Instrumental Interchangeable
Other types of “groups” In-group – more powerful, majority Out-group – less powerful, minority Reference group – Group to which we
compare ourselves. May be source of opinions or standards. Age group, generation College students Occupational group Social class
Conformity to groups
You May Ask YourselfCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Solomon Asch:
1940s experiment -
“Which line is the same length as line on left?”
Subjects were put in groups; group chose wrong answer; 1/3 of subjects expressed “serious discomfort”
Ties and Networks
You May Ask YourselfCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Tie: set of stories that explains our relationship to the another person Friend Co-worker Tennis partner
Social network: set of relations between dyads held together by ties
Types of Ties Strong tie – “embedded” – reinforced through
indirect paths, e.g. lots of mutual friends Weak tie – few or no indirect paths
May be link between different networks (think about why)
May be effective way to connect with others (e.g. networking for job search)
Granovetter: “strength of weak ties” - weak ties more likely to provide new opportunities than strongly embedded ties
Networks and society
You May Ask YourselfCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Social capital Information, knowledge of people or ideas, and
connections that help individuals enter preexisting networks or gain power in them.
High levels of social capital in a community are desirable community is tightly knit can come together to face challenges,make improvements.
Is social capital declining?
You May Ask YourselfCopyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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YES Decline in civic engagement. Less time for community activities More individual leisure activities More people live alone Institutions have become individualized
Is social capital declining?NO: People still desire intimate relationships Young people are more politically active Civic engagement is cyclical Social networks may just be more informal Internet has created new ways of bringing people
together