Funeral Home and Social Groups, an Important Part of American Society essays

Funeral Home and Social Groups, an Important Part of American Society essays Social groups have existed throughout human history, and are simply defined as having two or more individuals who interact and identify with one another (Macionis). Social groups play a crucial role in our lives. They form a crucial part of the social relationships that determine human social behavior (Peter Berger Invitation to Sociology). Social groups can exist with in a wide and diverse framework. They can consist simply of social groups that are based on social categories like gender, race, class, interests, or age. They can also exist within institutions like family, law, religion, the media, education, medicine, business, nonprofit organizations, the arts, science, and professions. Social groups can include family groups (based on marriage and kinship relationships), work groups (based on employment), peer groups (based on age), and even friendship groups (based on feelings of friendship between members) (Peter Berger Invitation to Sociology). Group dynamics are driven by a number of different factors. Intra- group perspectives such as conformity, leadership, and group decision- making play an important role in group dynamics. Further, inter-group perspectives like social identity, stereotyping, and social categorization are important in the relationships between groups (Stangor). Formal organizations can act as a significant social group, and face their own special considerations. These groups are impacted by the relationships between organizations themselves, change in the organization, relationships between the organization and its environment, and conflict within the organization. As such, organizational behavior, entire sub discipline of sociology and psychology has grown up around the study of the Modern American society consists of a wide number of social groups and organizations, including school, government, family, religious, and s...