What are social group

s?
Ada banyak kelompok dimana pun kamu berada. Sebagai makhluk sosial,
tentunya kamu punya bermacam-macam kelompok: kelompok angkatan sekolah,
kelompok kelas, kelompok olahraga, geng gang rumah, dll. Kelompok tersebut
dapat disebut kelompok sosial. Kelompok bisa dikatakan sebagai kelompok sosial
apabila ada rasa memiliki pada anggotanya. Itu adalah syarat yang paling
utama.
Kelompok sosial berbeda dengan perkumpulan (aggregate), dimana orang-orang
berkumpul dalam satu ruangan, (mungkin) melakukan hal yang sama, Contoh,
antrean orang-orang mengantre di supermarket atau mungkin di bioskop. Tetapi
mereka tidak mempunyai rasa memiliki, maka perkumpulan tidak memenuhi
syarat untuk disebut kelompok sosial. Selain itu, Kelompok sosial juga berbeda
dengan himpunan (Category). Contoh : kamu berada di himpunan manusia,
kamu punya karakteristik yang sama dengan beberapa manusia seperti tinggi
yang sama, umur, berat badan, kelamin - Tapi kamu belum tentu punya rasa
memiliki satu sama lain. Maka himpunan manusia belum bisa dikatakan sebagai
kelompok sosial.
Charles Horton Cooley membagi kelompok sosial menjadi 2 : kelompok primer
dan sekunder. Masing-masing mempunyai karakteristik sendiri.
Kelompok Primer
Di saat kita masih kecil, keluarga kita mendidik kita agar berperilaku baik. Dan
juga teman-teman kita mendukung perkembangan sikap kita. Teman dan
keluarga termasuk kelompok primer. Kelompok primer memberikan keakraban
dan hubungan yang erat. Keakraban dan hubungan ini sangat penting untuk
membentuk jati diri seseorang.
Dinamakan primer karena sangat penting keberadaannya. Karena kelompok
primer menentukan arah hidup mu. Kelompok primer cenderung bertahan lama,
seperti keluarga dan persahabatan.
P.s. : Hubungan dengan teman sebaya disebut peer-group
Kelompok Sekunder
Kelompok yang satu ini lebih besar dan lebih asing dibanding kelompok primer.
Kelompok sekunder merupakan kelompok jangka pendek. Kelompok ini biasanya
ada berdasarkan ketertarikan, hobi, atau aktivitas yang sama. Contoh: Dalam
liburan nanti, sekelompok siswa ditugaskan dalam mengatur acara liburan.
Sekelompok siswa tersebut merupakan kelompok sekunder.
Sering kali anggota kelompok sekunder berinteraksi berdasarkan status sosial.
Jika kamu adalah seorang siswa, maka kamu bekerja sama dengan siswa lain
dalam kelas, jika kamu guru maka kamu bekerja sama dengan guru lainnya.
Semakin lama kamu berinteraksi dengan kelompok sekunder, bisa saja nanti
kelompok ini berubah menjadi kelompok primer. Contoh : Kamu adalah seorang
pekerja dalam suatu perusahaan, makin lama semakin banyak interaksi yang
dilakukan. Hampir tiap liburan kamu melakukan aktivitas dengan yang lain,
seperti bermain futsal, atau sekedar nongkrong bareng. Kebiasaan ini nantinya
akan mengubah kelompok sekunder menjadi primer

primary group vs secondary group

What groups do you identify with?

If there are so many social groups around you, think about what
groups you identify with and what groups you do not feel attached
to. For example, if you do not like sports, you may find that hanging
out with a group of basketball fans to be very meaningless. On the
other hand, if you like dogs, you may find out that hanging out with
other dog-owners feels significant to you. In other words, you would
identify as being a member of the dog-owner group, but you would
not feel like you are a part of the basketball group. When you
identify yourself as a member of a particular social group, that group
would be an in-group for you. When you do not identify with that
group, it would in contrast be an out-group for you.
Since you identify more with your in-group, there is something
called in-group favoritism, where you may give preferential
treatment to those you perceive are part of your in-group. Studies
have shown that in-group favoritism occur even in in-groups that are
assigned arbitrarily. In other words, you would show preference for
your in-group even if you do not have strong non-arbitrary
characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, or even gender. For
example, in an experiment, researchers had 10 random participants
do a coin toss. Those who chose heads were placed with other
participants that also chose heads as a result. The other group
consisted of the participants who chose tails as a result. These
participants did not know each other before the experiment, and
their grouping (heads or tails) was meaningless. Each participant
were then asked to distribute money between the 9 other
participants who are only identified by their group membership
(Group Heads or Group Tails). Participants are told that after the
money distribution, they would receive the total amount of money
given to them by other participants. Surprisingly, the researchers
found that participants, without knowing anyone personally in their

same group, almost always had a tendency to give more money to

in-group members than to out-group members! In short, the study
shows that sometimes it takes you very little to identify yourself with
a group (your in-group) and be biased against an out-group.

in group vs out group

What are social networks?

There is some organization in our lives because of these social
groups. Within these groups, we have our social networks. When you
hear the term social network, you may immediately think of
Facebook or Twitter. Youre right! Those are types of online social
networks! Lets think offline for a moment though. In the offline
world, social networks refer to the social ties that link us together
with other people. These ties include your family, friends,
acquaintances, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, etc. Can you
think of a spider web? The little lines of the web would represent
social ties extending outwards from you to other people you know.
Look at the diagram below. This is an example of a simple social
network. Each blue circle is called a node. A node represents an
individual. Each line represents a social tie. Of course you may ask,
how can we tell different social ties apart in a social network
graphic? Some ties are strongerlike your family, and friends. Some
ties are more distantlike neighbors or workplace people.

simple social network

Look at the next diagram. Sometimes you will see such visual
representations when trying to differentiate between social ties. For
example, the node with the X on it represents you. The Y node

represents a family member, say, your mother. The Z node

represents a classmate. You can see that the distance from node X
to node Y is shorter than from node X to node Z. You and your
mother represent a close social tie, while you and your classmate
represent a farther social tie. You can also see that the line between
X and Y is thicker than the line between X and Z. This shows that
the strength of the social tie between you and your mother is
stronger than between you and your classmate. This is of course a
very simplified example of a social network! Can you imagine how
your Facebook social network diagram would look like with more
than 1,000 friends?

network strength and distance

So, do birds of a feather flock

together?
Oftentimes by choice, people choose relationships with other people
who have similar characteristics with them. This tendency is referred
to ashomophily. Homophily means love of the same, or simply birds
of a feather flock together! Homophily is present in many social
network study findings. In a social network, homophily means that
individuals with similar traits are more likely to form social ties with
one another, which also often impacts their actions. Similarities
breed connections! For example, networks studies have found that if
people in your immediate social network make unhealthy food
choices, you are also much more likely to make unhealthy choices!
Particularly, spouses have a very significant effect on your food
selection, and of all foods, youre most likely to share snacks and
alcohol consumption patterns with your peers!