To be a social group, people must:

· interact with one another,

· perceive themselves as a group.

Social group is an assortment of people associated by a socially significant distinction, people who interact together in an orderly way and perceive themselves or perceived by others as a group.

Any social group is characterized by a number of attributes:

· interaction within a group is realized on the basis of shared norms, values and expectations about one another's behaviour;

· groups develop their own internal structure: kernel and periphery, norms, value, statuses and roles; they can be rigid and formal or loose and flexible;

· there is a sense of belonging, individuals identify with the group; outsiders are distinguished from members and treated differently;

· groups are formed for a purpose - specific or diffuse;

· people in a group tend to be similar, and the more they participate, the more similar they become.

There are a lot of classifications of social groups. The first one embraces statistical and real groups. A statistical group is an assortment of people differentiated by a definite characteristic that can be measured. For instance, citizens are people living in formal settlements called cities. A real group possesses a number of characteristics describing its immanent essence. So, citizens are people living in cities, who live an urban way of life with highly diversified labour (mainly industrial and information kinds) and leisure activities, with high professional and social mobility, high frequency of human contacts in formal communication etc. According to this definition, only a part of the statistical group of citizens comply with the criterion of being urbanites, or not everyone who lives in city can belong to the real group of citizens.

Another type is a reference group as any group we use to evaluate ourselves, but it doesn't necessarily mean we must belong to it. It is like a target group in the market: a target group of black BMW cars is composed of people with high income, of a certain age, males etc. David is a person with such characteristics but he doesn't like BMWs. He prefers Volvos. The normative function of the reference group is to set and enforce standards of conduct and belief. Its comparison function is viewed as a standard by which people can measure themselves or others. For instance, we compare confessional groups to examine some features, let's say, Jews and Protestants, and find out that Jews display 20% greater tolerance. So if you are a Jew, you're perceived by others as a more tolerant person.

Social groups can also be classified according to their size, character of organization, emotional depth, accomplished objective etc.

According to size, groups can be small, middle-sized and large ones. Small social groups, normally small in number, are characterized by human interactions in the form of direct contacts like in families. The smallest groups are stable and more constraining, but offer more intimacy and individuality. As size increases, freedom increases, but intimacy declines and the emerging group structure tends to limit individuality. Contacts are frequent and intensive; members take each other into account as they group together on the basis of shared norms, values and expectations about one another's behaviour. As more people are added to the group (up to 20), complexity increases, subdivisions appear.

Middle-sized social groups are relatively stable communities of people working at the same enterprise or organization, members of a social association or those sharing one limited but large enough territory, for example, people living in one district, city or region. The first type is called labour-organizational groups, the second one - territorial groups. People are united into labour-organizational groups to accomplish a certain purpose or objective that determines its composition, structure and type of activities, interpersonal interaction and relations.

Large social groups are stable numerous collections of people, who act together in socially significant situations in the context of the country or state, or their unions. They are classes, social layers, professional groups, ethnic groupings (nationalities, nations and races), demographic groupings (the young, the old, males and females) etc. With regard to all of them, a social group is a patrimonial, collective concept. People's affiliation to a large group is determined by a number of socially significant distinctions such as class affiliation, demographic factors, form and character of social activities etc. In large social groups, interaction bears both direct and indirect character.

According to the character of organization, groups are distinguished as formal and informal ones. Formal groups are collections of people whose activities are regulated by formal documents such as legislative norms, charters, instructions, registered rules, bans or permissions sanctioned by the society, organization etc. At performing some activities members of the formal group are in terms of subordination, or hierarchically structured submission. Such groups are academic groups, labour organizations, military units etc.

Informal groups don't have formally registered grounds for their existence. They are formed on the basis of common interests or values, respect, personal affection etc. which cohere individuals into more or less stable entities such as a group of friends, a musical band, Internet chatters etc. Behaviour of their members is regulated by special non-written laws and rules. In such groups membership is voluntary, and members may resign at any time.

Due to emotional depth of interrelations within the group, primary and secondary groups are differentiated. A primary group is, as a rule, a small social group whose members share personal and enduring emotional relations which are established on the basis of direct contacts reflecting the members' personal characteristics. The examples are a family, a group of friends, a research group etc.

A secondary group is a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a special interest or activity. In such a group people's ability to perform particular functions, not their personal qualities, is highlighted. This is the way that social organizations with their departments and job hierarchy are set up and function. The personality of any of its member is of very little significance for the organization. As roles in the secondary group are strictly fixed (John is a student, Mr. Brown is the dean), very often its members know too little about each other. Besides, in the social organization of an enterprise, both roles and ways of communication are fixed. If a student is in trouble, he can't apply straight to the University rector but first to the tutor, dean or prorector, then to the rector.

While studying human society sociologists are interested in larger groups of people at the meso - and macro-levels, or those ones called social communities. There are a lot of definitions of such a phenomenon but theorists agree that members of the community should possess a similar quality such as age, gender, job, nationality etc. and consider similarity as one of the main distinctions of the community. Examples are natural-historical communities like tribes, families, nationalities, nations and races; mass groups like crowds, TV audience etc.

A more important distinction of the social community is social interaction between its members. Interactions may be more enduring that determines a long-term existence of communities such as nations, races, and less enduring that is typical for occasional communities such as crowds, lines, passengers etc. But even occasional community with weak ties has its patrimonial and specific distinctions, regulating collective behaviour.

Besides similarity and social interaction, a social community also suggests that the actions undertaken by its members are oriented by expectations of behaviour of other individuals in the community. It encourages people's deeper solidarity that forms a cohered group - a basic element of the society. Judging by it, a social community may be defined as natural or social grouping of people characterized by a common feature, more or less enduring social relations, goal attainment, common patterns of behaviour and speculation.

A social class is also considered as a structural element of the society. Although approaches differ, in general the concept of a class is connected with people's relation to the means of production and character of acquiring wealth under a market economy. The known examples of a class are the nobility, bourgeoisie and proletariat. In each class society there are fundamental and non-fundamental classes. Fundamental classes are distinguished by a dominating way to produce material wealth within the socio-economic system (feudal, capitalist etc), for instance, under capitalism its fundamental classes are the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Non-fundamental classes are available because the rests of the previous relations of production are still kept in the society or new ones are emerging.

A social layer is an assortment of people who are distinguished by their social status and who perceive themselves cohered by this community. A social status is one's position (place) in the social structure of the society connected with other positions by the system of rights and obligations. The status of a teacher has its meaning only with regard to a student, not to a passer-by or doctor. The teacher should translate knowledge to the student, check up how knowledge is learnt and assess it etc. The student should regularly attend lectures, prepare for seminars, pass credits and examinations in time etc. In other words, the teacher and the student enter into social relationships as representatives of two large social groups, as bearers of social statuses.

Social status is often considered as the “standing”, the honour or prestige attached to one's position in the society. In modern societies, occupation is usually thought of as the main dimension of status, but even in modern societies other memberships or affiliations (such as ethnic groups, religion, gender, voluntary associations, hobby) can have an influence. For instance, a doctor will have a higher status than a factory worker but in some societies a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant doctor will have a higher status than an immigrant doctor of minority religion.

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