What types of social groups are distinguished by scientists. The concept of a social group in sociology

Man is part of society. Therefore, throughout his life he contacts or is a member of many groups. But despite their huge number, sociologists distinguish several main types of social groups, which will be discussed in this article.

Definition of social group

First of all, you need to have a clear understanding of the meaning of this term. Social group - a set of people who have one or more unifying features that have social significance. Participation in any activity becomes another factor of unification. It must be understood that society is not seen as an indivisible whole, but as an association of social groups that constantly interact and influence each other. Any person is a member of at least several of them: family, work team, etc.

The reasons for creating such groups may be the similarity of interests or goals pursued, as well as the understanding that when creating such a group, you can achieve more results in less time than one by one.

One of the important concepts when considering the main types of social groups is the reference group. This is a really existing or imaginary association of people, which is an ideal for a person. The term was first used by the American sociologist Hyman. The reference group is so important because it influences the individual:

1. Regulatory. The reference group is an example of the norms of an individual's behavior, social attitudes and values.
2. Comparative. It helps a person to determine what place he occupies in society, to evaluate his own and other people's activities.

Social groups and quasi-groups

Quasi-groups are randomly formed and short-lived communities. Another name is mass communities. Accordingly, several differences can be identified:

• There is regular interaction in social groups that leads to their sustainability.
• A high percentage of cohesion of people.
• Members of a group share at least one characteristic in common.
• Small social groups can be a structural unit of larger groups.

Types of social groups in society

Man as a social being interacts with a large number of social groups. Moreover, they are completely diverse in composition, organization and pursued goals. Therefore, it became necessary to identify which types of social groups belong to the main ones:

• Primary and secondary - the selection depends on how a person interacts with group members emotionally.
• Formal and informal - the allocation depends on how the group is organized and how relationships are regulated.
• Ingroup and outgroup - the definition of which depends on the degree of belonging to them a person.
• Small and large - allocation depending on the number of participants.
• Real and nominal - the selection depends on the signs that are significant in the social aspect.

All these types of social groups of people will be considered in detail separately.

Primary and secondary groups

The primary group is one in which communication between people is of a high emotional nature. Usually it consists of a small number of participants. It is the link that connects the individual directly with society. For example, family, friends.

A secondary group is one in which there are many more participants than the previous group, and where interactions between people are needed to achieve a certain task. Relations here, as a rule, are impersonal in nature, since the main emphasis is on the ability to perform the necessary actions, and not on character traits and emotional ties. For example, a political party, a work collective.

Formal and informal groups

A formal group is one that has a certain legal status. Relations between people are regulated by a certain system of norms and rules. There is a clearly fixed goal and there is a hierarchical structure. Any actions are performed in accordance with the established procedure. For example, the scientific community, a sports group.

An informal group, as a rule, arises spontaneously. The reason may be a commonality of interests or views. Compared to a formal group, it has no official rules and no legal status in society. Also, there is no formal leader among the participants. For example, a friendly company, lovers of classical music.

Ingroup and outgroup

Ingroup - a person feels a direct belonging to this group and perceives it as his own. For example, "my family", "my friends".

An outgroup is a group to which a person is not related, respectively, there is an identification as “foreign”, “other”. Absolutely every person has their own outgroup evaluation system: from a neutral attitude to an aggressive-hostile one. Most sociologists prefer to use the grading system, the social distance scale, created by the American sociologist Emory Bogardus. Examples: "someone else's family", "not my friends".

Small and large groups

A small group is a small group of people that comes together to achieve some result. For example, a student group, a school class.

The fundamental forms of this group are the forms "diad" and "triad". They can be called bricks of this group. A dyad is an association in which 2 people participate, and a triad consists of three people. The latter is considered more stable than the dyad.

Features of a small group:

1. A small number of participants (up to 30 people) and their permanent composition.
2. Close relationships between people.
3. Similar ideas about values, norms and patterns of behavior in society.
4. Identify the group as "mine".
5. Control is not governed by administrative rules.

A large group is one that has a large number of members. The purpose of the association and interaction of people, as a rule, is clearly fixed and clear to each member of the group. It is not limited by the number of people included in it. Also, there is no constant personal contact and mutual influence between individuals. For example, the peasant class, the working class.

Real and nominal

Real groups are groups that stand out according to some socially important criteria. For example:

• age;
• income;
• nationality;
• marital status;
• profession;
• location.

Nominal groups are singled out according to one common feature for conducting various sociological studies or statistical accounting of a certain category of the population. For example, find out the number of mothers raising children alone.

Based on these examples of types of social groups, one can clearly see that absolutely every person has a connection with them or interacts in them.

Society is a collection of various groups. A social group is the foundation of human society, and society itself is also a social group, only the largest. The number of social groups on Earth exceeds the number of individuals, because one person is able to be in several groups at once. A social group is usually understood as any set of people who have a common social attribute.

A social group is a kind of intermediary between an individual and society as a whole. Not only society as a whole, but also the individual person lives according to the laws of the social group. Many features of a person - the ability for abstract thinking, speech, language, self-discipline and morality are the result of group activity. In the group, norms, rules, customs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies are born, the foundation of social life is laid. Man needs a group and depends on it: people survive only together. Already in primitive society, people lived in social groups: mobile communities of primitive hunters and gatherers numbering 20-30 people, leading a wandering lifestyle, moved across the surface of the planet in search of food. All the variety of social groups can be classified on various grounds.

Social groups are divided into: nominal and real; big and small; formal and informal; primary and secondary.

A nominal group is a set of people artificially identified on some basis who really do not have any connections with each other: voters, buyers of washing powder of a certain brand, people with higher education, etc. Nominal groups are allocated to solve both scientific and practical problems. A real group is a real-life community of people in which there are connections and relationships between members and which interacts with other groups. Family, class, sports team, party, nation are all real groups. An intermediate position between nominal and real groups is occupied by aggregate groups that combine the features of both. The queue, the passengers of the train are groups-aggregates. Such groups are characterized by blurred boundaries, spontaneity of formation, short duration and instability of interactions. A special place is occupied by such groups-aggregates as the audience and the crowd. The audience is a set of people united by interaction (usually one-sided) with a source of information: a lecturer - students, a TV channel - viewers. Crowd - a collection of people united in spatio-temporal boundaries by some common interest.

Depending on the size, large and small social groups are distinguished.

A large group is a large collection of people who do not have direct contacts with each other, but are united by the awareness of belonging to a group, lifestyle, common psychology, customs and traditions: nation, class, estate, ethnic community.

A small group is a small (2-10 people) community of people united by joint activities and in direct personal contact: a family, a friendly company, a production team. The size of the group is directly proportional to the degree of freedom enjoyed by its members: the smaller the group, the more cohesive it must act, the more closely it must hold its members in order to protect its own integrity from the hostile influences of the external environment. According to the nature of intra-group relations, social groups are divided into formal and informal.

In a formal group, the status of its members and intra-group relations are regulated by official rules, interactions are impersonal and functional, and the purpose of the activity is clearly defined. All kinds of social organizations are formal groups.

In an informal group, the status of members and the purpose of the activity are not always clearly defined, interactions are interpersonal and based on mutual sympathy, common interest or habit. Neighbors, friends, "party people" are informal groups. Informal groups can exist both within the framework of formal groups, and separately and independently of them. If the purpose of a formal group is to satisfy a social need, then an informal one satisfies the need of its members for communication.

Social groups perform important social roles for each individual.

1. The instrumental role of the group: groups are formed for the sake of performing certain work, these are working groups, teams. In a social group, a “synergistic effect” arises - the effect of multiplying efforts.

2. The expressive role of the group: groups have the opportunity to satisfy the desire of group members for social approval, respect and trust. Such groups are formed spontaneously with relatively little outside influence. These are groups of friends spending leisure time together. Instrumental groups often perform expressive functions, and in a certain sense, expressive groups can also be considered instrumental, since they are created for a specific purpose - to enjoy human communication.

3. Supportive role of the group. People unite in groups also to receive material and spiritual support, to alleviate unpleasant feelings.

The whole history of people's lives is the history of their relationships and interactions with other people. In the course of these interactions, social communities and groups are formed.

The most general concept is social community - a set of people united by common conditions of existence, regularly and steadily interacting with each other.

In modern sociology, several types of communities are distinguished.

Primarily, nominal communities- a set of people united by common social characteristics that a scientist-researcher establishes to solve his scientific problem. For example, people of the same hair color, skin color, sports lovers, stamp collectors, vacationers at sea can be united, and all these people may never come into contact with each other.

Mass communities- this is a real-life set of people who are accidentally united by common conditions of existence, and do not have a stable goal of interaction. Fans of sports teams, fans of pop stars, and participants in mass political movements are typical examples of mass communities. The features of mass communities can be considered the randomness of their occurrence, the temporality and uncertainty of the composition. One type of mass community is crowd. The French sociologist G.Tard defined a crowd as a multitude of persons gathered at the same time in a certain place and united by feeling, faith and action. In the structure of the crowd, leaders stand out, on the one hand, and everyone else, on the other.

According to the sociologist G.Lebon, the behavior of the crowd is due to a certain infection that provokes collective aspirations. People infected with this infection are capable of ill-conceived, sometimes destructive actions.

How to protect yourself from such an infection? First of all, people with a high culture, well-informed about political events, have immunity to it.

In addition to the crowd, sociologists operate with such concepts as the audience and social circles.

Under audience is understood as a set of people united by interaction with a certain individual or group (for example, people watching a performance in the theater, students listening to a lecture by a teacher, journalists attending a press conference of a statesman, etc.). The larger the audience, the weaker the connection with the unifying principle. Please note that during the broadcast of a meeting of any large group of people, the TV camera may snatch someone from the audience who has fallen asleep, someone who is reading a newspaper or drawing figures in his notebook. The same situation often occurs in the student audience. Therefore, it is important to remember the rule formulated by the ancient Romans: "The speaker is not the measure of the listener, but the listener is the measure of the speaker."

social circles- communities created for the purpose of exchanging information between their members. These communities do not set any common goals, do not undertake joint efforts. Their function is to exchange information. For example, discuss the change in the dollar against other currencies, the performance of the national team in the qualifying round of the World Cup, the reforms planned by the government in the field of education, and so on. A variety of such social circles is a professional circle, for example, scientists, teachers, artists, artists. The most compact in composition is a friendly circle.

Social circles can nominate their leaders, form public opinion, and be the basis for the formation of social groups.

The most common concept in sociology is the social group.

Under social group is understood as a set of people united on the basis of joint activities, common goals and having an established system of norms, values, life guidelines. In science, several signs of a social group are distinguished:

Composition stability;

duration of existence;

Definiteness of the composition and boundaries;

General system of values ​​and norms;

Awareness of one's belonging to a group by each individual;

Voluntary nature of association (for small groups);

The unification of individuals by external conditions of existence (for large social groups).

In sociology, there are a number of grounds for classifying groups. For example, by the nature of connections, groups can be formal and informal. According to the level of interaction within the group, primary groups (family, a company of friends, like-minded people, classmates) are distinguished, which are characterized by a high level of emotional ties, and secondary groups that have almost no emotional ties (work collective, political party).

Let us give an example of the classification of social groups for various reasons in the form of a table.

Table: Types of social groups

This list could go on and on. It all depends on the basis of classification. For example, a certain social group can be considered all users of personal computers, mobile phone subscribers, the totality of subway passengers, and so on.

A rallying, group-forming factor is also citizenship - a person's belonging to the state, expressed in the totality of their mutual rights and obligations. Citizens of one state are subject to the same laws, have common state symbols. Belonging to certain political parties and organizations establishes ideological affinity. Communists, liberals, social democrats, nationalists imagine the future and the correct structure of society in different ways. In this regard, they are very similar to political communities and religious associations (confessions), only they pay more attention not to external changes, but to the inner world of people, their faith, good and evil deeds, and interpersonal relationships.

Special groups are formed by people with common interests. Sports fans from different cities and countries share a passion for their favorite sport; fishermen, hunters and mushroom pickers - search for prey; collectors - the desire to increase their collection; lovers of poetry - feelings about what they read; music lovers - impressions of music and so on. We can easily find all of them in the crowd of passers-by - the clothes of fans (fans) contain the colors of his favorite team, music lovers walk with players and are completely absorbed in their music, etc. Finally, students all over the world are united by the desire for knowledge and education.

We have listed quite large communities that unite thousands and even millions of people. But there are also countless smaller groups - people in line, passengers of the same compartment on the train, vacationers in a sanatorium, museum visitors, neighbors on the porch, street comrades, party participants. Unfortunately, there are also socially dangerous groups - gangs of teenagers, mafia organizations, extortionate racketeers, drug addicts and substance addicts, alcoholics, beggars, homeless people (homeless people), street hooligans, gamblers. All of them are either directly related to the underworld, or are under its scrutiny. And the boundaries of the transition from one group to another are very invisible. A regular casino visitor can instantly lose all his fortune, get into debt, become a beggar, sell an apartment or join a criminal gang. The same threatens drug addicts and alcoholics, many of whom at first believe that they will give up this hobby at any moment if they wish. Getting into the listed groups is much easier than getting out of them, and the consequences are the same - prison, death or an incurable disease.

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The study of society is based on several basic phenomena or approaches that make it possible to simplify and at the same time systematize existing connections. For example, this is the division of society into different social groups. First you need to understand what it is about. So, social groups of the population are a set of people who act as a single subject of action. Moreover, they are distinguished by the presence of a unifying principle: interests, views, needs, values, etc.

Please note that social science highlights social groups and communities. What is the difference? There are several different definitions. But they all agree that social groups are characterized by a certain stability, ideological commonality, more or less regular contacts, and the availability of organizational resources. They are usually formed consciously.

What examples can be given here? These are fans of a particular football club, various professional associations that have appeared to protect members of their interests. Or entrepreneurs who are interested in bringing their products to the market at a lower cost.

At the same time, social communities, as a rule, are much larger (nation, inhabitants of a certain region, etc.). They are formed completely randomly, can be unstable, easily disintegrate. Such social formations often differ in ideological diversity. They do not have any plan of action, development. Much here is chaotic.

Nevertheless, social communities, social groups have common features. The first and second have something in common. Also, they may have the same goals, needs, etc. Let's say that passengers of the same train in the event of an accident face the same difficulties. Like social groups, social communities come in different sizes, and they can also shrink and grow. In many ways, both there and there there is an element of spontaneity. Large and small social groups

Groups are small and large. A normal sociological phenomenon was the transition from one to the other due to merger and disintegration. Sometimes a small formation can be included in a larger one, while maintaining its complete integrity. Large social groups in modern Russian society are the Orthodox, pensioners, fans of Putin's policies.

It can be seen that it is quite easy to confuse large social groups and their types (according to political, religious or age criteria) with communities. Such mistakes are often made even by professionals.

However, large groups are characterized by relative homogeneity and stability. Let's say, if we compare a nation, in which people with very different needs, income levels, interests, life experience, etc., with such a group as "pensioners", then the latter will have more unifying factors. Thus, as a phenomenon of social groups, large social groups in particular have some stability.

And even large social groups are difficult to organize and control due to their size. Therefore, they are often divided into small subgroups for better understanding.

In the general concept of social groups, small social groups are also distinguished. Scientists pay attention to the fact that the phenomenon itself is quite relative in terms of numbers. So, small social groups are 2-3 people (family), and several hundred. Different understanding gives rise to conflicting interpretations.

And one more thing: existing small groups are able to unite into larger formations in order to achieve some goals. Sometimes this creates a single structure. And periodically they retain their heterogeneity, but after the achievement of the task, they again disintegrate.

What are primary social groups?

When considering the concept of social groups, types, different classifications, one cannot ignore the division into primary and secondary. What can be said about the first? They presuppose the presence of direct contacts, mutual assistance, common tasks, a certain equality. These can be friends, classmates, etc.

Secondary ones appear with further socialization. They are more formal (a group of women who gave birth in the same year in the same city, an association of lawyers, a union of dacha owners). The same person can belong to several secondary groups at the same time.

Other types

The main classifications are listed above. However, they are far from the only ones. There is a division according to the method of organization: formal and informal. The former willingly submit to public control, they usually have a plan of action, they are officially registered, they can even act as legal entities. For example, trade unions, official fan clubs of famous sports teams, etc.

Unlike them, informal ones are largely spontaneous. Their representatives themselves classify themselves as one or another group (goths, punks, fans of Hollywood action movies, esoterics), there is no control over the number, as well as a development plan. Such education can spontaneously appear and disappear, losing popularity.

Social science also considers the division according to the principle of belonging of an individual into ingroups and outgroups. The first is closely related to the concept of "mine". My family, school, class, religion, etc. That is, everything with which identification occurs.

The second category is foreign groups, another nation, religion, profession, etc. Attitude can range from indifferent to aggressive. A benevolent interest is also possible. There is also the concept of a reference group. This is a kind of education, the system of values, views and norms of which serve for the individual as a kind of standard, an example. With them, he checks his life guidelines, draws up a plan (admission to a prestigious university, an increase in income, etc.)

Depending on the social significance, real and nominal groups are distinguished. The first category includes those groups that are formed on the basis of socially significant criteria. These are gender, age, income, profession, nationality, residence, etc.

As for the nominal ones, we are talking about a rather conditional division of the population into separate groups. For example, a plan for studying the target audience and its purchasing power suggests that you need to study everyone who purchased detergents in such and such a store. As a result, a conditional category of buyers "Asi" appears in the "Auchan" supermarket.

Nominality does not imply that the members of this group are generally aware that they were assigned to some kind of community. Since only one criterion is being studied, the people who are selected as a result of such a selection may naturally have almost nothing in common, hold different views, have different values, etc.

When studying social groups, one should also take into account such an association as a quasi-group. It may have all or most of the features of such a combination, but in fact it is formed chaotically, it does not last long, but it easily breaks up. Vivid examples are the audience on

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Under social community in modern sociology, all associations of people are understood in which certain social ties are created and maintained, even if for a short period of time.

social group- an association of people connected by common relations, which are regulated by special social institutions, and have common norms, values ​​and traditions.

Some sociologists consider social community as a large mass social group; others define social group as a small social community.

Mass social communities are usually characterized by unstructured and vague composition, organizational amorphism, and insufficiently defined boundaries.

Social groups are distinguished by great stability, a high degree of homogeneity and cohesion, and also by the fact that they can be included in broader social formations as elements.

Possible values social group concepts:

1) in the broadest sense, the concept of a social group covers any social association - from a family and a group of peers to the society of a given country and even all of humanity;

2) in a narrower sense, it denotes a large association of people;

3) a relatively small set of people interacting with each other on the basis of the shared expectations of each member of the group in relation to others.

In the definition social group- is a collection of individuals interacting in a certain way based on the shared expectations of each member of the group regarding others can be seen two essential conditions required for a group to be considered a group:

1) the presence of interactions between its members;

2) the emergence of shared expectations of each member of the group regarding its other members.

Entitled Group should be understood only those communities, whose members have direct social connections. Thus, temporary gatherings of people, for example, a mass of bathers on the beach, cannot be called a group in the full sense of the word. Those. the bonding factor for a social group is social interest, i.e. spiritual, economic or political needs. Belonging to a group implies that a person has some characteristics that are valuable and significant in this group. From this point of view, the core of the group is distinguished - those of its members who possess these characteristics to a greater extent. The remaining members of the group form its periphery.

For the emergence of a group needed internal organization, purpose, specific forms of social control, patterns of activity.

Characteristic features social groups are:

A certain way of interaction between its members, due to their common interests and business;

Awareness of membership or a sense of belonging to a given group, which is manifested in the protection of the interests of the group as a whole;

Awareness of the unity or perception of all members of the group as a single whole, not only by themselves, but also by the people around them.

The groups differ in a variety of ways.

Classification of social groups.

By number: large and small;

By the nature of the interaction: primary and secondary;

According to the method of organizing and regulating interaction: formal and informal;

By the nature of social relations - conditional, nominal (unite people who do not have direct relationships and contacts with each other) and real (really existing associations of people connected by certain relationships and aware of their belonging to it);

By the number of values ​​around which they are united: unilateral and multilateral.

1. By size (number)

small group- a relatively small number of individuals directly interacting with each other and united by common goals, interests and values.

Small groups can be informal (circle of friends, family), but there can also be highly formalized groups, where relationships between individuals are regulated by official regulations (production group or military unit).

In small groups, social relations are carried out through direct contacts of their members. Such groups are more soldered and effective.

large group- a real, significant in size and complexly organized community of people involved in social activities and a system of relevant relationships and interactions (class, territorial, national and other broad communities). These groups are not quantitatively limited and are able to expand. A large group is a community of people identified on the basis of certain social characteristics: class, religious, ethnic, demographic, professional.

There are no direct connections between all members of a large group; mediated interaction acquires the main importance in it, therefore, in a large group, there is a need for institutionalized (organized) regulation of the activities of its members.

In large groups, relations between members develop around certain social values ​​(norms, traditions, dogmas and postulates), while members may not be aware of each other's existence.

small group may be both primary and secondary depending on what type of relationship exists between its members. As for a large group, it can only be secondary.

Small groups different from big not only in size, but also in qualitatively different socio-psychological characteristics. As an example, differences in some of these characteristics are given.

Small groups have:

Actions not focused on group goals;

Group opinion as a permanent factor of social control;

Conformity to group norms (conformism or opportunism - a person changing his behavior in order to outwardly meet the requirements of other people with internal disagreement).

Large groups have:

Rational goal-oriented actions;

Group opinion is rarely used, control is exercised from top to bottom;

Conformity to the policy pursued by the active part of the group.

Let's consider in more detail small group concept.

The modern view of the essence of small groups is best expressed in the definition of G.M. Andreeva: " small group- the group in which social relations act in the form of direct personal contacts". In other words, only those groups in which individuals have personal contacts each with each are called small groups. Imagine a production team where everyone knows each other and communicates with each other in the course of work - this is a small group. On the other hand, the workshop team, where workers do not have constant personal contact, is a large group. About students in the same class who have personal contact with each other, we can say that this is a small group, and about all students of the school - a large group.

Small group - small social group, whose members are united by a common activity and are in direct, stable personal communication with each other, on the basis of which both emotional relationships and special group values ​​and norms of behavior arise.

A generic sign of a small group is an belonging to social groups, specific - direct, sustained personal contact(communication, interaction).

Minimum small group size - two people, maximum - several dozen people. According to socio-psychological studies, the most effective is a small group of 5-7 people.

The position of a person in a small group called status. In different groups (family, work collective) the same person has a different status, a different position - it depends on the content of the group's activities and is characterized by authority and prestige.

In a group a person always plays a role- the role of a family member, the role of an employee, the role of a student, etc. The most important is the role of the leader.

Through group norms, values, certain rules the foundations of joint activity are formed. These norms are necessarily accepted and recognized by all members of the group.

Group puts pressure on the individual.

How a person responds to group pressure:

1) suggestibility - unconscious acceptance of a line of behavior, the opinion of a group;

2) conformism or opportunism (a person changing his behavior in order to outwardly meet the requirements of other people with internal disagreement);

3) active consent (consciously defending the interests of the group), non-conformism (disagreement with the majority, defending one's own interests);

4) non-conformism (disagreement with the majority, defending one's own interests).

By the nature of the interaction

depending on the degree of closeness of personal contacts groups are divided into primary and secondary.

Under primary groups are understood as such groups in which each member sees other members of the group as personalities and individuals. The primary is, as a rule, a small group whose members know each other well or most of its representatives. Such a group has a very strong influence on the person who is part of it, and the relationships in the group are close and dependent on each other. Primary groups usually form a personality, in which it is socialized. Everyone finds in it an intimate environment, sympathy and opportunities for the realization of personal interests. An example of a primary group is a family, a group of friends, etc.

Secondary groups- large social communities united to fulfill some goal or a certain type of activity, the interaction of whose members is impersonal.

In secondary groups, social contacts are impersonal, one-sided and utilitarian. Friendly personal contacts with other members are not required here, but all contacts are functional, as required by social roles. For example, the relationship between the site foreman and subordinate workers is impersonal and does not depend on friendly relations between them. The secondary group may be a labor union or some association, club, team.

Secondary groups almost always contain some number of primary groups. A sports team, production team, school class or student group is always internally divided into primary groups of individuals who sympathize with each other, into those with more or less interpersonal contact.

According to the method of organizing and regulating interaction

Along with primary and secondary groups, there are formal and informal groups.

Groups whose activities are officially recognized by the relevant institutions of society and formalized in them properly are called formal. Most often this targeted groups deliberately created to achieve some goal, such as formal organizations such as enterprises, governments, institutions, etc.

Groups whose activities and norms of behavior are not officially regulated are considered informal. AT the internal communication of whose members is based on informal, "unofficial" principles.

Most primary groups, according to sociologists, are informal, and secondary - formal.

By the nature of social relations

Real group- a set of people united by real social relations or activities (army platoon, football team). Along with them, there are quasi-groups characterized by the randomness and spontaneity of their formation, the short duration of their existence and instability (crowd).

Conditional group- a set of people united according to certain characteristics and being the object of study of sociology. Here individuals have no direct or indirect real interactions with each other. They are conditionally combined for the purposes of scientific analysis - demographic, statistical.

Ingroup and outgroup

In society, people interact with different groups, but they do not identify with all of them. In this regard, there are such types of groups as ingroup and outgroup.

Each individual identifies a certain set of groups to which he belongs and defines them as "mine". It can be "my family", "my professional group", "my company", "my class". Such groups will be considered ingroups. Ingroup- such a social community to which the individual feels his belonging and in which he is identified with others so that he regards other members of the group as a whole.

Other groups to which the individual does not belong - other families, other groups of friends, other professional groups, other religious groups - will be outgroups for him, for which he selects symbolic meanings: "not us", "others". Outgroup- a social group, interaction with which does not lead the individual to identify himself with its other members.