Social Interaction in Groups - Assignment Example

Social Structure and Interaction and Groups and Organizations

Social life involves several categories of building blocks. It allows people to understand themselves more and their surrounding world through social interaction. For this assignment, primary and secondary groups are explored by highlighting their effects on society and the various status held regarding composition, leadership, and conformity. The paper draws on sociological understanding to improve an individual’s interaction skills by using these concepts and sociological theories hence promote equality of the poor and people of color in modern bureaucracies.

Think of a time when you went along with an action that was ethically or legally wrong because of the group you belonged to. How do your experiences support or refute Janis's characterization of groupthink and its impacts?

I grew up kind of goody-two-shoes person, so I found it challenging to give an instance of groupthink and a moment I disobeyed the orders. However, I came up with something after quite a consideration. My first time taking alcohol occurred when I was just 16 years of age, which can get viewed as considerably a bit late, considering that some of my peers began at 14. My friends and I were hanging out during a Halloween day, and this is where I got surprised, realizing that my friends started taking beer and were getting tipsy.

I was taken aback at this behavior first since I pretty knew how strict my friends' parents could be. Being a straight-laced one was initially reluctant since my parents could not withstand such behavior at any cost. Similarly, I have never wanted to disappoint my parents, and as such, taking alcohol would mean disobeying my parents. However, as usual, my mother always comes to pick me early in the night, and to my friends, this appeared as being a killjoy. For the fact that I became a bit curious about the way my friends were behaving, I decided to take a shot by having two beers and headed straight back home, unlike my pals, who consumed much more alcohol at the time and had a sleepover.

The next day in the morning, my friends were getting scolded by their parents to consume a lot of alcohol and have sleepovers. On the other hand, my parents were considerate since I was much responsible, and they understood I had a bottle or two since I never wanted to be odd in the group. Although individuals incline to forget it, the allowed age for drinking is 21, labeling underage drinking as illegal.

This experience confirms Janis's groupthink characterization since my associates were aware that underage alcohol consumption is illegal, and perhaps they will get in trouble with their parents. Despite the efforts against alcohol use for underage people, my friends ignored the rules and bore the repercussions for their awkward behavior. Although the pressure was on me to drink more in my friends' company on this fateful night, I chose to be responsible since I was aware that it was an illegal act at that age, and my parents would get so mad at me. Sometimes, it is essential to avoid group consensus when you know something is not right.

What did Stanley Milgram seek to test in his human experiments at Yale University, and what did he find?

One of the remarkable researches of obedience in psychology got conducted by a psychologist at Yale University called Stanley Milgram. Milgram carried out an experiment that focused on the conflict between personal conscience and obedience to authority. He investigated justifications for genocide acts given by those accused at the Second World War, Nuremberg War Criminal hearings (Yükselbaba, 2017). Most often, the basis of their defense was on ‘obedience’ that they just had to follow orders from their seniors (Yükselbaba, 2017). As a result, Milgram wanted to investigate if the Germans were specifically obedient to their superiors since this was a standard description for killing the Nazis during the Second World War.

Milgram chose participants for his study by newspaper advertising of participants in the research of learning at Yale University. The experiment only considered male participants. The procedure involved participants getting paired with another individual; hence were drawing a lot to discover who would be the 'teacher' and who get considered as the 'learner.' As a result, the draw got fixed in a manner that the teacher was always the participant and one of Milgram's confederates constituted the learner. Therefore, Milgram's confederates pretended to be a real candidate. Afterward, the learner, the teacher, and the researcher went to different rooms. Mr. Wallace (learner) had his arms attached to electrodes and taken into a room (Yükselbaba, 2017). According to Yükselbaba (2017), the researcher and teacher got into a room next door with an electric shock generator and switches that had volts between (15 to 375 to 450) volts represented slight shock, severe shock and xxx respectively.

Again, the experiment aimed to determine how far individuals would go in obeying an order if it involved harming another individual. Therefore, Milgram's interest was on how ordinary persons could get influenced to commit atrocities, for instance, Germans in the Second World War. The experiment results concluded that ordinary persons are likely to obey rules given by authority figures, even if it involves killing an innocent person. Obeying an authority figure is in every person depending on the manner one gets brought up. Therefore, individuals are likely to obey orders from others when they recognize their authority is either legally based or morally right. Subsequently, this reaction to legitimate authority is learned in various ways, such as in the workplace, learning institutions, or family.

List the primary and secondary groups that you are a member of and make another list of the primary and secondary groups that you were a member of 5 years ago. Which groups in these two periods were the most important in shaping your view of yourself, your political beliefs, and your goals in life?

Primary and secondary groups are essential to both a person and society. As primary groups help in personal development, secondary groups tend to attain specific objectives, thus through society functions effectively through interaction (Keirns et al., 2018). Some of the primary groups that I was a member of 5 years ago would be my family and peer groups who also acted as my close friends. At the same time, we shared the goal of learning with all my classmates in high school; hence they formed part of my second group. While my current secondary groups are different from those I had 5years ago, my primary group remains the same. For example, currently, my secondary groups mainly consist of my college mates and mass media, but my family and close friends are still part of my primary group. From my perspective, I think my primary group has been instrumental in shaping my sense of self. For instance, the family passes on their behaviors, values, and language during the moment that children are growing; hence, they mold, shape, and develop the personality of people. Therefore the strong emotional bond formed with my primary group enhanced my personal development.

Again, individuals form political beliefs throughout their life cycle, which gets shaped by both primary and secondary groups. For instance, during childhood, the formation of political beliefs revolves around a burgeoning knowledge of rising within a particular place, forming a part of a specific political system, and recognizing various authority figures. However, I found the secondary group as the most influential group for the formation of political beliefs. I think it is because this is when I am more open to new ideas and encounter new opportunities for political involvement in college.

While obeying orders can have negative impacts such as lack of critical thought and apathy, a secondary group, especially in terms of education, prepared me to interact effectively in school, by enabling me to learn how to work constructively towards a common goal as a team. This idea, therefore, shaped my view towards setting goals of life. According to this unit, the rate of imprisonment has risen in the United States since the 1980s. Why are a disproportionate number of prison inmates of color?

According to this unit, the rate of imprisonment has risen in the United States since the 1980s. Why are a disproportionate number of prison inmates of color?

Beginning in the 1980s, the US incarcerated population started increasing rapidly. Additionally, responding to the tide of heightened law-breaking over the preceding decade, the country, through its lawmaker's implemented guidelines that increased the time of prison sentences for every kind of crime, from drug abuse to murder. Although the United States constitutes almost 5 percent of the global population, it has about 22 23 percent of the globe’s prison population. It tops in terms of incarceration. Over the last several decades, the nation has established the most significant number of mates in the world after Seychelles (Keirns et al., 2013).

Today, communities of color remain to be disproportionately policed, incarcerated, and sentenced to life imprisonment at considerably increased rates compared to their white counterparts. Moreover, racial discrimination within the judicial system threatens people of color- marginalizing several by restricting voting rights and not observing equality in various areas, including employment, public benefits, housing, and education.

While the community of color constitutes about 32 percent of the US population, they form about 60 percent of prison inmates (Keirns et al., 2013). the population of inmates grew by almost 710 percent from the 1980s to 2005, a level that outpaces the rates of population and crime. However, according to the Justice Statistics Bureau, during this period, the rates of incarceration disproportionately affected people of color, where 2 in every 30 African American men and 2 in every 72 Hispanic men get imprisoned relative to 2 in 212 white men (Keirns et al., 2013). According to the same study, 1 in 3 African American men may be expected to get imprisoned in their lifetime. As such, People of color experience unequal interactions with the judicial system, suggesting that racial discrimination thrives on a being a concern. Reports indicate that since the 1980s, there have been more strict measures regarding imprisonment. The Hispanics and Blacks were estimated three times likely to get searched at a traffic stop compared to their White counterparts. Again, law enforcement is nearly four times as likely to apply force on these individuals of color during encounters. Therefore, this idea translates to mass incarceration, mostly involving people of color, especially African Americans who are more likely to get imprisoned than the Latino and White counterparts.

The fight against drugs has been predominantly waged in individuals of color, where these populations are likely to get higher offenses than the Whites for the same. The reason for this disproportionate act is due to various reasons. For example, from 1980 to 2009, the incarcerated population in the US quadrupled-from nearly 500,000 to 2.3 million individuals (Crutchfield and Weeks, 2015). Out of this total incarcerated population, African Americans represent almost 1 million. As a result, the rate of imprisonment of African Americans is approximately six times that of Native Americans (Crutchfield and Weeks, 2015). Consequently, if such act prolongs in the US, it would mean that 30 percent of Black men born today may expect to get imprisoned during their lifetime. Another discouraging statistic is that 10 percent of American women are incarcerated as well. According to Crutchfield and Weeks (2015), African Americans are representing 25 percent of juvenile arrest, 45 percent of young adults who get detained, 47 percent of young adults who are judicially waived to criminal court as well as 57 percent of the young adults detained to state prisons (Crutchfield and Weeks, 2015).

These numbers representing the incarceration of African Americans are stunning, and one would wonder the reasons for the disproportionate rates. Since the Black community accounts for the majority of the prison inmates, it would appear probable that they will constitute a correspondingly large number of lawbreakers in violent crimes as well. However, most of the crimes committed by Blacks are nonviolent. As such, most of the African Americans detained in prisons were getting arrested because of drug-associated offenses (Crutchfield and Weeks, 2015). Most of the individuals of color who have been victims of mass incarceration are mainly a result of charges of class D drug. Another concern that has heightened the number of individuals of color imprisoned is the establishment of "Three Strikes" laws (Crutchfield and Weeks, 2015). Most of the lawbreakers can even be sentenced to death, but still charged as drug offenders. Notably, "War on Drugs" has, in a real sense, turned into a "War on People of Color," hence making individuals of color considered as the targets of collateral destruction.

Labeling theories in the area of criminology suggest that particular labeling groups as deviant can set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy (people may become that which is expected of them). What other settings can labeling theory be applied?

Labeling theory is an essential concept that enhances understanding of deviance in society. As a result, the theory focuses more on attempting to comprehend how individuals respond to behaviors that occur within their surroundings hence labeling it as ‘deviant’ or ‘nondeviant’ (Keirns et al., 2018). Therefore, in his theory, Howard Becker attempted to enlighten not on the sources of deviant behavior but instead which kind of behavior got viewed as deviant and what effect it had on the person involved in the behavior. According to Becker, the group or the society considered a specific behavior 'deviant,' and no behavior was intrinsically deviant (Keirns et al., 2018). Individuals may respond differently to the same behavior based on the social context of conducting the behavior.

Again, people may also realize that sometimes certain behaviors may be viewed as deviant, and the judgment will remain in the same manner. Therefore, after an action gets labeled 'deviant,' people may become what is expected of them hence setting in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a result, it becomes a challenge to erase the label of being deviant once one has been labeled since it now forms part of people's master status and hence affects the manner individuals interact with the 'deviants' (Keirns et al., 2018). Furthermore, it also influences the manner people to view themselves and has an influence on the self-concept, self-identity, this is because people often shape ideas about themselves depending on other people's views. As a result, one carries this view everywhere. What gets considered as deviant gets based on the society's legal forces and the law that the community entails, hence what gets considered as deviant is not the same with all societies (Keirns et al., 2018). Therefore, labeling theory posits that deviance is not inherent; instead, it focuses on the behavior of the majority to negatively label the few or the ones considered as deviant from principles of cultural norms.

Apart from labeling theory applied in setting a self-fulfilling prophecy in motion, it can also be applied in various areas to enhance understanding of criminal behavior. For instance, it begins by assuming that no behavior is intrinsically criminal. The ones in power establish the definition of criminality through law formulation and its interpretations by the correctional institutions, police, and courts (Keirns et al., 2018). As a result, deviance can be considered an interactive process between deviants and nondeviants and the social context in which offense is interpreted (Keirns et al., 2018). Judges, police, and educators are the people responsible for law enforcement. In its application, having labels to individuals and establishing classes of deviance, the ones tasked to enforce the law act accordingly by reinforcing society's power structure. On several occasions, the poor get the definition of the deviant from the wealthy. Similarly, men get the definition of deviancy for women and the aged for younger individuals (Keirns et al., 2018). Therefore, the dominant groups are the ones to create and apply deviant labels to the juniors. For instance, most children break windows, steal fruits from other individual's gardens, or skip school. This behavior gets considered typical juvenile behavior in affluent neighborhoods. However, in relatively poor regions, the same habit may get viewed as signs of juvenile delinquency. Therefore, this implies that class is critical in labeling; also, race is a factor.

List the primary and secondary groups that you are a member of and make another list of the primary and secondary groups that you were a member of 5 years ago. Which groups in these two periods were the most important in shaping your view of yourself, your political beliefs, and your goals in life?

Primary and secondary groups are essential to both a person and society. As primary groups help in personal development, secondary groups tend to attain specific objectives, thus through society functions effectively through interaction (Keirns et al., 2018). Some of the primary groups that I was a member of 5 years ago would be my family and peer groups who also acted as my close friends. At the same time, we shared the goal of learning with all my classmates in high school; hence they formed part of my second group. While my current secondary groups are different from those I had 5years ago, my primary group remains the same. For example, currently, my secondary groups mainly consist of my college mates and mass media, but my family and close friends are still part of my primary group. From my perspective, I think my primary group has been instrumental in shaping my sense of self. For instance, the family passes on their behaviors, values, and language during the moment that children are growing; hence, they mold, shape, and develop the personality of people. Therefore the strong emotional bond formed with my primary group enhanced my personal development.

Again, individuals form political beliefs throughout their life cycle, which gets shaped by both primary and secondary groups. For instance, during childhood, the formation of political beliefs revolves around a burgeoning knowledge of rising within a particular place, forming a part of a specific political system, and recognizing various authority figures. However, I found the secondary group as the most influential group for the formation of political beliefs. I think it is because this is when I am more open to new ideas and encounter new opportunities for political involvement in college.

While obeying orders can have negative impacts such as lack of critical thought and apathy, a secondary group, especially in terms of education, prepared me to interact effectively in school, by enabling me to learn how to work constructively towards a common goal as a team. This idea, therefore, shaped my view towards setting goals of life. According to this unit, the rate of imprisonment has risen in the United States since the 1980s. Why are a disproportionate number of prison inmates of color?

According to this unit, the rate of imprisonment has risen in the United States since the 1980s. Why are a disproportionate number of prison inmates of color?

Beginning in the 1980s, the US incarcerated population started increasing rapidly. Additionally, responding to the tide of heightened law-breaking over the preceding decade, the country, through its lawmaker's implemented guidelines that increased the time of prison sentences for every kind of crime, from drug abuse to murder. Although the United States constitutes almost 5 percent of the global population, it has about 22 23 percent of the globe’s prison population. It tops in terms of incarceration. Over the last several decades, the nation has established the most significant number of mates in the world after Seychelles (Keirns et al., 2013).

Today, communities of color remain to be disproportionately policed, incarcerated, and sentenced to life imprisonment at considerably increased rates compared to their white counterparts. Read More