SOC 1100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Achievement Orientation, Oligarchy, Industrial Revolution

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1100
• Professor: Karyn Freedman

Document Summary

Primary groups: a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships. Cooley called this type of group primary because they: are the first groups we experience, shape attitudes, behaviour, and identity, provide economic and other assistance, are bound by emotion and loyalty. Secondary groups: large and impersonal groups whose members pursue a specific goal or activity. Characteristics: weak emotional ties, little personal knowledge of each other, people look to one another strategically (for what they can do for one another, part of a secondary group could turn itself into a primary group. Very intimate, but unstable given its size. More stable than a dyad and more types of interaction are possible. Group leadership: important element of group dynamics, small circles of friends may have no leader at all, however large secondary groups place leaders in a formal chain of command.