The affects of a group on an individual.

By Charles Marren

You can be anything you want in life. It’s the most popular phrase used by parents and teachers to ignite the hopes and dreams of children and young adults. But wouldn’t it be better to phrase it as you can be whatever you think you can be? One of the very first things we’ve learned in sociology is that we have a limited view of the world and in this post I would like to discuss how groups may be the cause of not just our views of the world, but how we view ourselves and our limitations. 

Let’s kick this off with an example. Imagine a girl named Sarah. Sarah is sixteen, comes from a middle class home in the city, and has two loving parents. While age and parent situations differ from each of the other students in her school, what type of area she lives in and wealth does not. So on some grand level she’s equal with her classmates. So if we were to ask Sarah during the week of cheerleader tryouts why she’s not doing it and she tells us it’s because she feels she just can’t do it, we would have to wonder what could cause these feelings to plague her mind.

Primary Groups are known as our most intimate groups. They are our family, friends, and any other group that we are close to. Let’s talk about group of friends. As your primary group of friends you all share the same interests. These range from views, clothes, and hobbies. Although individuality still is among you, there is still a strong set of sameness within the group.

Now let’s jump back to Sarah and say that she is by our standards a nerd. She gets really great marks in school, and is a part of the science club. Sarah’s friends also get good grades too and some take part in after school activities too such as band, french club, and like Sarah, the science club. So how could this primary group affect Sarah’s belief in herself?

Through people we see what might be possible for ourselves. We see a singer performing on the stage at the Grammys, who happens to also come from our own city and we then are able to picture that we ourselves could be up there too. Sadly these dreams fade quickly and are forced to look at what’s more on the terms of reality for us, and we find that through our primary groups.  For example Sarah, who is surrounded by friends that excel in activities that require more of a mental stamina than physical. This is a group that has accepted her as one of their own, unlike those who take part in the activities such as football, soccer, tennis, etc.

A group that a person does not feel a connection with is called an out-group.  This other group may be one in which a person doesn’t like, or simply feel they themselves cannot be a part of due to their own placement and group settings. In Sarah’s case she feels she cannot take part in any clubs relating to physical activities because she has zero connection to them. Without any friends taking part in it, or others in that group being friends with her, she cannot seem to imagine even taking part in it. So without being accepted or having any relation to group that differs greatly from our own, how is Sarah or any of us able to accept ourselves in another group?

In The Dark

Sheba George

                Mc Donaldization is a term coined by Sociologist George Ritzer. If you’re not familiar with his work or haven’t read his book The Mc Donalization of Society, he defines Mc Donaldization as, “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American Society as well as the rest of the world”. The process of Mc Donaldization consists of 5 main ingredients: efficiency, calculability, predictability, control, and the irrationality of the rationality. Americans appear to be always in a hurry, to go where and to do what is irrelevant. They want things done fast and in their way. Society has become lazy and impatient. But what happens when this system is exercised by evil men. For example, The Manhattan Project on July 16^th 1945, a joint effort between the States, Canada, and United Kingdom to develop strategic nuclear weapons culminates with a detonation in New Mexico named the Trinity Test which is later used in 2 different cities Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan. This project employed more than 130,000 people at 3 different facilities across 3 different states.

                A practice known as compartmentalization: in matters concerning intelligence, whether public or private sector, compartmentalization of information to persons who directly need to know certain such information in order to perform certain tasks, go hand in hand with Mc Donaldization in this operation. Therefore, information is limited on a need to know basis and people are often left in the dark while working on a project. General Leslie Groves of The Manhattan Project stated that “compartmentalization is the heart of security”. Each man should know everything he needs to know and nothing else. All they ask of you is an honest day’s work. When society fails to question their small part in a large assembly line of a bureaucracy they are stripped of everything humane. They become marionettes and are manipulated to benefit only the elite.  

This is a clip from an episode of “I Love Lucy,” where Lucy and her friend are working in a candy factory and are given the small task of wrapping pieces of chocolate as they move along a conveyor belt. When the belt starts to speed up, Lucy and her friend are left desperate to keep up. This is an example of Ritzer’s “the irrationality of the rationality”. He explains: “Most specifically irrationality means that rational systems are unreasonable. In other words, they deny the basic human reason, of the people who work within or are served by them." The worker's need for the conveyer belt to move at a "human" pace correlates to the demands of a rationalized production process of a bureaucracy, which seeks to employ little to no workers possible to wrap chocolates.

Group Behavior

Submitted by Elena Lazarova

              People interact in small or large groups and the group they choose to participate in influences their behavior.  We could be a part of a school group, an organizational group, a peers group and etc.  Moreover, children are highly influenced by the groups they are involved in, and let that structure controls their social word.

              A great example of a group school behavior is the comparison between early adolescence and middle childhood behavior.  A research shows that fourth, sixth and eight graders were combined either with a close friend or with a classmate whom they neither strongly liked, nor strongly dislike. The pairs of children were observed while they were doing two assignments that provided them with the vision for kind and helpful behavior among each other.  On one of the challenges, children distributed presents to themselves and to their partner. On the second task, children were allowed to help their partner get his/her present, when the partner was placed on a disadvantage. In the end the results showed an increase in age with differences between friends’ and classmates’ behavior. Eight graders were more helpful and more generous towards friends then towards other classmates. On the other hand, fourth and sixth graders threated their friends and classmates equally. This research shows that group behavior changes within ages.   

            

               Another example of group behavior is the organizational behavior that explains how people, individuals and groups acts in organizations. Its purpose is to build better connections by accomplishing human, organizational and social goals.

 The workers see that, as this is a characteristic of work life, which leads their level of motivation.  A good example of group behavior among work environment is illustrated among the corporate environment. Employees have their cliques; just like in high school teenagers have their cliques. Moreover, there is a tendency to obey an authority figure. Employees are divided hierarchical and they act differently when they are within their level circle and when they are outside of it. Also, every individual in the group can be influenced by the direction of an authority figure.

               Group behavior changes within the age and the different group participation. Almost every person once in his/her life has been a part of a group. It could be a small or a large one. It could be a different kind of a social group. But this group will illustrate a point of view, influenced by our own opinion, the opinion of others participants, or an authority figure.

Group Behavior within the Philly Flash Mob and the La Riots

By Dineen Johnson

                            Group Behavior is defined as a small or large amount of people and the way they act among one another.  Crowds, Mobs and Gangs all show group behavior.  These groups may act a certain way to achieve a goal together and individually there actions differ when they are alone. 

                            

            Flash Mobs began several years ago, where large groups would gather on the street for art, dancing and impromptu.  These groups were linked through social sites such as Facebook, MySpace and text messaging.  They were once innocent but today have taken a turn for the worse.  Today hundreds of uncontrollable teens that sprint the downtown streets assaulting pedestrians, vandalizing, fighting and rioting are what make up the "new" Flash Mob.  This type of group behavior alters the teenagers attitude and behavior causing them to act out. 

              Actions have been enforced such as curfew, holding the parents legally responsible for their children's actions and making free transit passes for students invalid after school hours to limit the teens ability to ride downtown. Unfortunately, with all this enforcement there is a high possibilty that this may not work because of the lack of respect and obedience from our youth.

               The LA Riots is also an example of group behavior.  Riots evolve from simple crowds to caotic masses. These masses give individuals a false feeling of strenghth and invisibility.  This large group of people were all feeling the same emotion of betrayal and anger.  The beating of Rodney King was the reason for these people coming together and acting out. Normally people don't want others to see them act out or commit crimes but in large numbers the mentality is different.

I guess everything is OK as long as everyone else is doing it!

                                               

Socialization Among Juvinile Deliquents

Hello, My name is Stacey Nelson.

My post is basically about the social interaction of children that causes deliquency.

Most children's primary social group is thier families. Families are very important to a childs upbringing. The way they are taught at home kind of tell you what their social mind-process will be. In most cases, families raise their children to only hang out with certain people. Some follow and some don't, but in all aspects, parents strive to make thier kids what they want them to be.

On the other hand, some kids kind of find thier own way of gaining a meaning to the world. They find all the wrong people to become friends with and end up down the path of distruction. Socialization is one of the main teaching tools among children. Being taught how to act in society, or behave a certain way is mainly influenced by their peers, which brings me to the next influential social group, peers or friends.

Almost all children follow the "in crowd". Their friends have to be the most facsinating people in their world. No one wants to go against the crowd, so they tend to go with the "norm". In some cases, children only do what is cool to their friends verses what is the right thing which is usually the wrong thing. What do you think? In your opinion, do you think the socialization of these children have anything to do with their behavior? 

Even the Entertainment Industry has the "Who Is" and "Who's Not".

BY : TAI VIRGIL


Socialization is commonly described as a continuing process in which a person acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavioral and social skills of that social group. What one social group may consider a norm another social group may look at as forbidden. Many people today look at our entertainment industry as one large social group, but through a magnifying glass our entertainment industry can and often is divided between what each class considers the "who is" and the "who's not". For example, Ray J is a prominent, wealthy, well known celebrity that has an "indoor pool, outdoor pool, an indoor court and outdoor court" so he claims. But, it was made clear that he was not apart of the self proclaimed "Money Team" (50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather's entourage) as he thought he was.

Here you have two elite women of the entertainment industry LaLa Vasquez Anthony and Kim Kardashian photoed with tennis player Serena Williams and singer/Beyonce's shadow Kelly Rowland. Anyway, both being socialites in their own aspect and often caught in the paparazzi's never ending spotlight these women have made a big name for themselves when it comes to being an "it" factor. They surround themselves with a social group of women that identify with the same social class, wealth, and skills as them while also only dating the top athletes (minus Kris Humphries). These women have landed themselves reality shows in which showcase how they want to display themselves to millions of viewers and have us believe that this is how they live their everyday life.  

 

Within another social group of the entertainment industry you have the cast of the Jersey Shore. They definitely differ from the entourage that Kim Kardashian and LaLa identify with but still have a quite large fanbase. The Jersey Shore cast is no stranger to showcasing the way they live their life, partying, drinking and "smushing" (what they call sex) different guys, girls and each other until 8 am while also being fluent in profanity which displays acts of their social norm. The women  pride themselves on their loud colorful outfits, huge hair and long extensions.While the guys pride themselves on bring girls home that are DTF (willing to have sex easily), GTL (gym, tanning, laundry) and fist pumping. They've created quite a name for themselves.

These two social groups are perfect examples of how the entertainment industry has an umbrella over a social class that branches off  into sections with different values and norms. Yes, both groups of people are wealthy, blogged about constantly, have numerous YouTube tutorials on how to do your make up and hair like them, set trends and have landed many endorsements and publicity off of who they are, but they differ in when it comes to the bigger picture. That bigger picture is who is who. That bigger picture who is really invited to the Grammy's or who is sitting behind who at the VMA's. Yes, these groups may acknowledge each other in passing, can be caught sitting courtside at a game together by chance and smile and chat for a couple of paparazzi flicks, but to bring Jersey Shore castmates Dena or Snooki into Kim K's entourage of who she considers as "friends" is highly unlikely. Their social norms and behavioral skills are displayed to the public totally different. While Snooki and Dena have no problem announcing on national tv that they often don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, openly have sex with men they meet that night and castmates, kissing girls and getting drunk and arrested on the beach, Kim K and LaLa's show displays them vacationing on yachts with family, enjoying brunches with friends, and shopping with small talk and convo.  Nevertheless, America loves the entertainment on both sides of the fence according to ratings whether its consider "ratchet and raunchy" or not. But, through the social aspect of it all, the money, fame and fortune comes within a different light to each social group, a light that doesn't always promise longevity within fame.