Social groups (Meaning & Characteristics, Types of & Groups

Your family is a group. Your law college class is a group. A bar association is a group. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a group. All four shape your behaviour, but not in the same way or to the same degree — and sociology has a precise vocabulary to say exactly how they differ. This is the vocabulary an exam question quietly expects you to reach for whenever it mentions any organised collection of people.

In two minutes

A social group is two or more people who interact regularly, share a sense of belonging, and are bound by common norms; sociology classifies groups as primary or secondary, in-group or out-group, organised or unorganised, and reference groups, each type shaping behaviour differently.

The rest of this chapter

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