Social Groups and
Types
Definition
• When two or more individual come together and influence one
another is called a social group.(William ogburn)
or
Social group is a group of two or more person who are in state of
interaction with one another.(Mayer nimkoff)
Example
• A family living in a home
• Groups of employees working in same organization
• Group of classmates
Types of social groups
• Social groups have following types
• On the basis of contact(C.H COOLEY)
1. Primary group
2. Secondary group
On the basis of identification(W.G SUMNER)
3. IN-GROUP
4. OUT GROUP
On the basis of rules and regulation
1. Formal group
2. Informal group
On the basis of structure
3. Voluntary group
4. Involuntary group
5. Delegate group
On the basis of contact
• Primary group
• The group in which there is frequent face to face interaction among
its member and the relation among its member are too personal and
intense is called primary group. This group are smaller in size
• Example
• Family group
• Neighborhood
• Close friends
Secondary group
• The group in which there is less face to face interaction and the
relation among members are impersonal and secondary and the
members have specific aim and interest to achieve. These group are
larger in size
• Example
• A shopkeeper-customer relationship
• Doctor-patient relation
• A student-teacher relation
On the basis of identification(W.G SUMNER)
1. IN-GROUP
2. OUT GROUP
• In-group
• The groups with which the individual identifies himself are his in-
groups,
• the group in which we directly belong is our in-group .it can be our
family, occupation, games etc.
• Members of the in-group have very close relations with each other
and their loyalty to the group and to each other is very pronounced
• Example
• If I am player of cricket team, my team is in-group for me
• A religious group is in-group for its followers like dawat-e-islami goup
• Out group
• A group to which we don’t belong, is called out group
• For example if I am s student of sociology, then student of sociology
is in-group for me but the student of ant other discipline like
psychology is out group for me
• The term out group is used to distinguish one identity from others
like by saying we are Muslims(in-group) and they are Christian(out
group)
• They are doctors(out group) and we are nutritionist(in-group)
On the basis of rules and
regulation
• Formal group
• A group that has well-defined rules and regulation for joining the
group, staying in the group and leaving the group.
• Any person who fulfills the rules and regulation can join and
participate in the activities of these groups
• Example
• Any Organization, banks, educational institution, hospitals etc
• In-formal group
• A group which has not rules and regulation, any person can
join this group, stay in group and leave the group
whenever he wants
• For example a group of student sitting in the playground
and gossip with one another, another classmate can join
them
• People gathered to see a joker in public place
On the basis of structure
• Sanderson divide social groups on the basis of structure
into three types
• Voluntary group
• Involuntary group
• Delegate group
• Voluntary group
• A group that an individual join or leave the group by his own
choice
• For example you can join people watching a game in
playground
• You can become a student in college
• You can join an organization and so on ……..
• Sometimes you are required to fulfill the criteria to join the
group but still it is in your control to fulfill criteria and join
the group
• Involuntary group
• A group that an individual cannot join or leave by his or her
own choice
• For example a family is involuntary group because an
individual has no control over his birth to be born or not
born in specific family
• Similarly sex group is involuntary group to which we born
without our choice and we have no control to change
it(male or female)
• Delegate group
• A group that serves as representative of larger number of people.
The members are either elected by the people or nominated on the
basis of certain criteria
• For example a parliament is a delegate group
• Group of foreign minister sent to another country to discuss certain
issues on the behalf of their country
