PSEB 11th Class Sociology Solutions Chapter 4 Social Groups

Punjab State Board PSEB 11th Class Sociology Book Solutions Chapter 4 Social Groups Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers.

PSEB Solutions for Class 11 Sociology  Chapter 4 Social Groups

Sociology Guide for Class 11 PSEB Social Groups Textbook Questions and Answers

Answer the following very short answer questions in 1-15 words each:

Question 1.
Who discussed the two types of group, Ingroup, and Outgroup?
Answer:
W.G. Sumner gave this classification of groups.

Question 2.
Mention two examples of Ingroups.
Answer:
Family and, playgroups are examples of In-groups.

Question 3.
Give examples of Outgroups.
Answer:
Father’s office and Mother’s school are examples of Out-groups.

Question 4.
Who coined the term Reference group?
Answer:
This term was given by Robert K. Merton.

Question 5.
What is we-feeling?
Answer:
We-feeling is a feeling within an individual with which he associates himself that he is a member of this group.

Question 6.
Name the examples of primary groups given by C.H. Cooley.
Answer:
Family, Neighbourhood, and Playgroup.

Answer the following short answer questions in 30-35 words each:

Question 1.
Define social group.
Answer:
According to Ogburn and Nimkoff, “Whenever two or more individuals come together and influence one another, they may be said to constitute a social group.”

Question 2.
What do you mean by primary group ? Give its example.
Answer:
The groups with which we have physical proximity, about which we have we-feeling, with which we like to live are primary groups; for example, family, neighbourhood, play groups etc.

Question 3.
What do you mean by secondary group ? Give its example.
Answer:
Secondary groups are the groups whose membership is taken for a particular objective and after the completion of which, one can leave their membership. They are temporary in nature; for example, political parties.

Question 4.
State two differences between ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’.
Answer:
(i) People have a we-feeling for in-groups but out-groups lack such feeling.
(ii) An individual likes to live within in-groups but he never likes to live in out-groups.

Question 5.
Explain the features (characteristics) of secondary group.
Answer:

1. Membership of secondary groups is based on objectives.
2. Membership of secondary groups is temporary. It means one can leave their membership after the completion of his objective.
3. Secondary groups have a formal organisation.
4. Members of secondary groups have indirect relations with each other.

Question 6.
Explain the features (characteristics) of primary groups.
Answer:

1. Their members have physical proximity with each other.
2. Their size is quite limited.
3. Their members have permanent relations with each other and they know each other well.
4. These groups are permanent in nature.
5. Members have continuity of relations among them.

Answer the following short answer questions in 75-85 words each:

Question 1.
Discuss the features of a social group.
Answer:
Members of a group have mutual relations among them. Social group is not the collection of the humans but this collection is a group because of their mutual relations. These relations are because of interaction between them.

1. Sense of unity exists in society. Because of this unity members of a group are tied with each other.
2. Members of the group have we-feeling among them. They help each other and love and sympathy come because of this unity. .
3. Group has control over the behaviour of its members and this control is because of traditions, customs and rules etc.
4. Members of the group are interacting wfth each other because of mutual relations. ’
5. Members of the group have sense of commonness among them.

Question 2.
Write down the importance of primary groups.
Answer:
Members have physical proximity among them.

1. There is a stability among these groups.
2. They are small in size.
3. They have limited self-interests.
4. They have similarity of background.
5. They have mutual cooperation among them.
6. They are for longer duration.
7. They have continuity in relations.
8. They have complete control on their members.

Question 3.
What are the differences between primary and secondary groups ?
Answer:

1. Primary groups are small in size and secondary groups are large in size.
2. Relations in primary groups are direct, personal and informal but in secondary groups, relations are indirect and formal.
3. Members of primary groups have feeling of cooperation among them but in secondary groups cooperation is because of any specific motive.
4. Primary groups are available in villages but secondary groups are available in cities.

Question 4.
Discuss the features of in-group.
Answer:
The groups classified by Sumner exist in all the cultural developments because humans are very much influenced by these. In-groups are also known as we-groups because a person considers them as his own groups. In-groups are peace loving groups and the qualities such as mutual co-operation, friendship etc. exist in these groups.

Their point of view towards others is of enemy and they keep certain restrictions on their members. Many a time members of such groups come closer to each other to challenge other groups. We-feeling exists in such groups. For example, caste, religion, tribe etc. are few of the in-groups about which a person has the complete knowledge.

Answer the following short answer questions in 250-300 words each:

Question 1.
What do you understand by a social group ? Write a detailed note.
Answer:
A layman uses the word group in daily language. Generally people don’t have the same meaning of the group but everyone gives a different meaning of this word. If we want to study the effect of anything on people, we have to keep that thing in two groups. One is that group which uses that thing and the other group is that which does not use that thing.

May be these groups are living near each other or may be living far away from each other but this thing is not important for us. In this way we can see that if our aims are different then groups can be different also. In this way in simple language and for a layman collection of people is the group.

Man is a social animal. His daily life is related with the activities of group. First of all in family, then he joins other groups by moving out of family. In social group meaningful actions of persons are there. Man is not limited to the establishment of relationships in the group but he fulfils his needs as well. But question arises that what is group. There is a lot of difference between the meaning of group for a layman and for Sociology. For a layman, group is collection of some people but in Sociology, it is different. In Sociology collection of people is a group where people have definite relations among them.

Definitions of Group:
1. According to Bogardus, “A social group may be thought of as a number of persons, two or more, who have some common objects of attention, who are stimulating to participate in similar activities.”

2. According to Sanderson, “Two or more people between whom there is an established pattern of psychological interaction, it is recognised as an identity by its own members and usually by others because of its particular type of collective behaviour.”

3. According to Harry M. Johnson, “Social group is a system of interactions.”

4. According to Bennet and Tumun, “A group always consists of people who are in interaction and whose interaction is a unit.” After looking at the given definitions we can say that we cannot call a group to be collection of people who have physical proximity but do not cooperate with each other to achieve common goals and who do not affect each other by mutual interaction.

It can be called only a crowd or collection of people. In Sociology group is the collection of people who are equal to each other, whose members have mutual social action, interactions, social relations, consciousness, common interests, stimulations and feelings.

Question 2.
How will you describe Primary and Secondary groups ?
Answer:
Primary Groups. Charles Hurton Cooley was an Amercian Sociologist who classified social groups into Primary and Secondary groups. Every sociologist accepted this classification in one way or the other. Cooley included very close relations in Primary group like family, neighbourhood, play group etc.

According to him, relations of man in this type of group are of great love, cooperation and respect. Man works in these groups without any hesitation. These groups lack feeling of selfishness. These relations are not of hatredness. Instead of individual feeling community feeling is there in these groups. Man fulfils his basic needs in these groups. Cooley gave his views about Primary groups.

According to Cooley, primary groups are primary in many senses. They are primary because they fulfil the basic human needs. Man keeps contact with society, with the help of these groups., Because of face to face relation, they have the feeling of love, cooperation, personalism and sympathy. Humans bind together in such a way that the feeling of individualism comes to an end and they ignore small things.

If need arises they also help each other. These are also important in the development of personality. According to Cooley,“These are practically universal belonging to all times and all stages of development and are accordingly a chief basis of what is universal in human nature in human ideals.”

According to Cooley, these three groups are important primary groups :
1. Family
2. Play group
3. Neighbourhood.

According to Cooley, these three groups are universal and are selected with every age and area of the society. Exactly after his birth man enters into these groups. Child of a man cannot live by itself after his birth. That’s why family takes care of him. Child’s socialization is possible only in family. Child learns ways of living while living in society. It means that child gets basic education only in family. Man gets culture, customs, traditions in family. In family man has face to face relations and has the feeling of mutual cooperation.

After the family, child is related with neighbourhood because when child comes out of family he goes to the neighbourhood. In this way he gets love from neighbourhood like family. He knows how to respect the elders and how to talk to others. After his contact with neighbourhood he comes in contact with play group. When he joins play group he feels like independent like other children of his age.

In play group he gives creative expressions to his social habits, while playing he cooperates with others and obeys certain rules. He comes to know how to live in discipline. He learns to work according to the behaviour of others. With this his personality develops. These all groups have face to face and close relations. That’s why these groups are known as Primary groups.

Secondary Groups. Cooley gave a detailed description of secondary groups. In present societies man cannot fulfil his needs only by living in primary groups. He needs to depend upon other persons. That’s way secondary groups are of great importance in modern societies and that’s why the importance of primary groups has been decreased. They have been replaced by other institutions. Specially in urban societies, primary groups are declining day by day.

These secondary groups are big in size and members have relations among them, fn secondary groups members are doing functions but still they are connected with each other. Members of these groups have specific objectives which can be fulfilled by mutual cooperation. We can take country, associations, political parties, clubs in the category of secondary groups.

They are large in size. They are formed to meet any specific motive. That’s why all the members of these groups don’t know each other and they indirectly cooperate with each other. To understand modern industrial society it is necessary to get knowledge about secondary groups.

Secondary groups generally develop for any special motive. They are large in size. Man enters into these groups for his personal interests and leaves them after the attainment of his motives. There is no closeness of mutual relations among the members of such groups. It is very difficult to know each of the members personally because of large size.

Except this, members are controlled by formal means of control. Each member has to control his behaviour according to these means. Kimbal Young has given them the name of special interest group. With these, social rules, customs and institutions are also formed.

Question 3.
As a member of society you must be interacting with and in diferent groups. How do you see these from a sociological perspective?
Answer:
We all live in society and while living in the society, we interact with many groups. If we observe from a sociological perspective, we can divide them into many parts. We live in a family, interact with neighbours, sit with a group of friends. These are primary groups because we directly interact with the members of such groups and we like to sit with them.

We are the permanent members of such groups and members have informal relations among them. These groups are of great importance in our lives because we cannot live without them. Wherever we move, family, neighbourhood, and playgroups (primary groups) exist everywhere.

Along with the primary groups, an individual is a member of other groups whose membership is optional and he takes it according to his own will. Such groups are known as secondary groups. Such groups have a formal organisation whose members are elected periodically. He takes the membership of such groups to achieve a particular objective and can leave this membership after attaining it. Political parties, trade unions, etc. are two examples of such groups.

When a common man interacts with different groups, he might not have a different meaning for such groups. But from a sociological perspective, such groups can be divided into different types. Even different sociologists have given different types of groups because we interact with them in different ways.

Question 4.
Man’s life is group life. Discuss with examples.
Answer:
There is no denying the fact that human life is group life because he takes birth in a group and dies in it. When a child takes birth, he comes into the hands of the family i.e. the basic primary group. If we compare a human child with other organisms, we can say that it remains under the protection of his family for most of the time. Family takes care of its child, up brings him and as a result, he loves his family more than anything. Family socializes its children, tells them the ways to live in society, arranges for their education so that they could become good citizens in the near future. So family i.e. a primary group tells him the first lesson of community life.

After family, the next group coming in contact with the child is neighbourhood. A small child is taken to neighbourhood where neighbours show him a lot of affection and love. A child is scolded for displaying wrong behaviour. When a child comes in contact with the children of his locality, they form a playgroup where he learns new rules of life. In playgroup, leadership qualities develop in him which are very much necessary for his social life. Both of these groups are primary groups.

When the same child becomes young, he becomes a member of many other groups which are known as Secondary groups. He takes a job in any office, becomes a member of any club, institution, association, etc. to achieve his objectives. He also takes membership of a political party, trade union, or any other group and he remains a member of any group for the rest of his life. Till his death, he takes many memberships and leaves them at his will. So, from the given description it is clear that there is no time in an individual’s life when he is not a member of a group. So, his life is a group life and in the absence of groups, there is no existence of his life.