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IV. Comment on the illustration in Figure 3.

V. Characterize in brief:

1) The core of group dynamics.

2) An ideal social group.

3) The importance of group size.

 

VI. Choose the qualities you think to be necessary for an ideal leader:

emotional, aggressive, active, brave, clever, strong, intuitive, tall, handsome, good with money, mechanically-minded, tender.

You may expand the list. But give reasons of your choice.

 

VII. Read the text and state its general idea:

Ingroups and Outgroups

By the time children are in the early grades of school, much of their activity takes place within social groups.

They eagerly join some groups, but avoid - or are excluded from — others. Based on sex as a master status, for example, girls and boys often form distinct play groups with patterns of behaviour culturally defined as feminine and masculine.

On the basis of sex, employment, family ties, personal tastes, or some other category, people often identify others positively with one social group while opposing other groups. Across the United States, for example, many high school students wear jackets with the name of their school onthe back and place school decals on their car windows to symbolize their membership in the school as a social group.Students who attend another school may be the subject of derision simply because they are members of a competing group.

This illustrates the general process of forming ingroups and outgroups. An ingroup is a social group with which people identify and toward which they feel a sense of loyalty. An ingroup exists in relation to an outgroup. which is a social group with which people do not identify and toward which they feel a sense of competition or opposition. Defining social groups this way is commonplace. A sports team is an ingroup to its members andan outgroup to members of other teams. The Democrats in a certain community may see themselves as an ingroup in relation to Republicans. In a broader sense, Americans share some sense of being an ingroup in relation to Russian citizens or other nationalities. All ingroups and outgroups are created by the process of believing that «we» have valued characteristics that «they» do not.

This process serves to sharpen the boundaries among social groups, giving people a clearer sense of their location in a world of many social groups. It also heightens awareness of the distinctive characteristics of various social groups, though not always in an accurate way.

Research has shown, however, that the members of ingroups hold unrealistically positive views of themselves and unfairly negative views of various outgroups. Ethnocentrism, for example, is the result of overvaluing one's own way of life, while simultaneously devaluing other cultures as outgroups.

 

VIII. Read the text again and note the difference between ingroups and outgroups.

IX. Prepare a report «Group Dynamics and Society».

 

Unit 10

I. Read and translate the text:

Deviance

What is Deviance?



The concept of deviance is defined as violation of cultural norms of a group or all of society. Since cultural norms affect such a wide range of human activities, the concept of deviance is correspondingly broad. The most obvious and familiar type of deviance is crime - the violation of cultural norms that have been formally enacted into criminal law. Criminal deviance is itself quite variable in content, from minor offenses such as traffic violations to serious crimes such as homicide and rape. Closely related to crime is juvenile delinquency -the violation of legal standards bv children or adolescents.

Deviance is not limited to crime, however. It includes many other types of nonconformity, from the mild to the extreme, such as left-handedness, boastfulness, and Mohawk hairstyles, as well as pacifism, homosexuality, and mental illness. Industrial societies contain a wide range of subcultures that display distinctive attitudes, appearance, and behaviour. Consequently, to those who conform to society's dominant cultural standards, artists, homeless people, and members of various ethnic minorities may seem deviant. In addition, the poor — whose lack of financial resources makes conforming to many conventional middleclass patterns of life difficulty - are also subject to definition as deviant. Physical traits, too, may be the basis of deviance, as members of racial minorities in America know well. Men with many highly visible tatoos on their body may be seen as deviant, as are women with any tatoo at all. Even being unusually tall or short, or grossly fat or exceedingly thin, may be the basis of deviance. Physical disabilities are yet another reason for being seen by others as deviant.

Deviance, therefore, is based on any dimension of difference that is considered to be significant and provokes a negative reaction that serves to make the deviant person an outsider. In addition to the experience of social isolation, deviance is subject to social control, by which others attempt to bring deviant people back into line. Like deviance itself, social control can take many forms. Socialization is a complex process of social control in which family, peer groups, and the mass media attempt to influence our attitudes and behaviour. A more formal type of social control is the criminal justice systemthe formal process by which society reacts to alleged violations of the law through the use of police, courts, and punishment. Social control does not have to take the form of a negative response to conformity. Praise from parents, high grades at school, laudatory mention in newspapers and other mass media, and positive recognition from officials in the local community are all forms of social control that serve to encourage conformity to conventional patterns of thought and behaviour.

 


Date: 2016-04-22; view: 2162


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