Source: Intro Music by Mark Hannan; Public Domain, Images from www.clker.com, Public Domain
[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to this episode of Sociology-- Studies of Society. Today's lesson is on groups. As always, don't be afraid to pause, stop, rewind, or even fast forward to make sure you get the most out of this tutorial.
So today, we're looking at groups. Now, groups are just a group of two or more people. Generally, though, even though technically it's just two or more people, I like to think about it being bigger than just that. So that's why all my images here are going to have more than just two people.
So the first type of group that sociology is looking at is a social group. And this is any group of people that regularly interact and relate with each other. We all are members of many, many social groups.
There might be some at work. There might be some at home, with your church. Again, it's just any group. So it's two or more people. And they're a group. And they regularly interact with each other. And then they relate with each other on some level.
Now, we can break down social groups into two real primary subgroups. First is the primary group. Now, the primary group is a social group that's really tight-knit. And there's strong emotional ties within that group.
A good example of this might be your best friends. No matter how you met them-- maybe you met those from school. Maybe they're neighbors on your block. But you-- it's a really small, tight-knit group. And you have emotional ties with them.
Now, another type of social group is a secondary group. A secondary group is just a group of specific-- sorry, it's a group of people that are meeting for a specific purpose. And it's much larger and less personal than a primary group.
A good example of a secondary group might be your church. Now, you might have some primary groups amongst the people you go to church with. But the larger group of the church, of the people you go to church with, they could be a secondary group because it's a larger group. And also your relationships are less personal. And you're specifically grouped with them for one specific reason. And that is going to church, or praying, or whatever actually the one reason happens to be.
So today's take-away message. A social group is any group of people who regularly interact and relate with each other. Then we have a primary group. And that's the tight-knit group, with really strong emotional ties. And the secondary group, and that's a group that's meeting for a specific reason. And it's much larger and less personal than a primary group.
Well, that's it for this lesson. Good work. And hopefully you'll be seeing me on your screen again soon. Peace.