社会团体的类型

机翻,未校对

生活将我们置于与他人关系的复杂网络中。我们的人性源于社交互动过程中的这些关系。此外,我们的人性必须通过社会互动来维持——而且相当持续。当一个关联持续足够长的时间以使两个人通过一组相对稳定的期望联系在一起时,它被称为关系。
人们在关系中受到两种纽带的约束:表达纽带和工具纽带。表达性联系是当我们在情感上投入并致力于他人时形成的社会联系。通过与对我们有意义的人交往,我们获得了安全感、爱、接纳、陪伴和个人价值。工具性纽带是当我们与他人合作以实现某个目标时形成的社会联系。有时,这可能意味着与竞争对手合作而不是对抗。更多的时候,我们只是与他人合作以达到某种目的,而没有赋予这种关系更大的意义。
社会学家建立在表达联系和工具联系之间的区别之上,以区分两种类型的群体:主要和次要群体。一个主要群体包括两个或两个以上的人,他们彼此享有直接、亲密、有凝聚力的关系。表达联系在初级群体中占主导地位;我们将人民视为自己的目的,并以其自身的价值而著称。次要群体包括两个或两个以上的人,他们参与了非个人的关系,并且为了一个特定的、实际的目的而聚集在一起。工具性关系在次要群体中占主导地位;我们认为人是达到目的的手段,而不是目的本身。有时,主要群体关系是从次要群体关系演变而来的。这发生在许多工作环境中。工作中的人经常与同事建立密切的关系,因为他们来分享抱怨、笑话、八卦和满足感。
许多条件增加了初级群体出现的可能性。首先,群体规模很重要。当人们在大群中四处游荡时,我们发现很难亲自了解他们。在小组中,我们有更好的机会与他们建立联系并建立融洽的关系。其次,面对面的接触使我们能够评估他人。近距离地看到和交谈使思想和感受的微妙交流成为可能。第三,随着我们频繁和持续的接触,我们发展初级群体债券的可能性增加。随着时间的推移,我们与人的互动往往会加深我们与人的联系,并逐渐形成相互关联的习惯和兴趣。
初级群体是我们和社会的基础。首先,初级群体对社会化过程至关重要。在他们内部,婴儿和儿童被介绍到他们的社会方式。这些群体是我们获得规范和价值观的温床,这些规范和价值观使我们能够适应社会生活。社会学家将初级群体视为个人与更大社会之间的桥梁,因为它们传播、调解和解释社会的文化模式,并提供对社会团结至关重要的一体感。
其次,主要群体是基础,因为它们提供了我们满足大部分个人需求的环境。在其中,我们体验到陪伴、爱、安全感和整体幸福感。毫不奇怪,社会学家发现一个群体的主要联系的强度对群体的运作有影响。例如,一个运动队的主要团体联系越强,他们的记录就越好。
第三,初级群体是基础性的,因为它们是社会控制的有力工具。他们的成员指挥并分配了许多对我们至关重要的奖励,这让我们的生活看起来很有价值。如果奖励的使用失败,成员通常可以通过拒绝或威胁排斥那些偏离主要群体规范的人来获胜。例如,一些社会团体采用回避(一个人可以留在社区中,但其他人被禁止与该人互动)作为一种手段,以使行为超出特定群体允许范围的个人保持一致。更重要的是,初级群体通过构建我们的经验为我们定义了社会现实。通过为我们提供情境定义,它们从我们身上引出符合群体设计意义的行为。因此,初级群体既是社会规范的载体,也是它们的执行者。

原文

Types of Social Groups
Life places us in a complex web of relationships with other people. Our humanness arises out of these relationships in the course of social interaction. Moreover, our humanness must be sustained through social interaction—and fairly constantly so. When an association continues long enough for two people to become linked together by a relatively stable set of expectations, it is called a relationship.
People are bound within relationships by two types of bonds: expressive ties and instrumental ties. Expressive ties are social links formed when we emotionally invest ourselves in and commit ourselves to other people. Through association with people who are meaningful to us, we achieve a sense of security, love, acceptance, companionship, and personal worth. Instrumental ties are social links formed when we cooperate with other people to achieve some goal. Occasionally, this may mean working with instead of against competitors. More often, we simply cooperate with others to reach some end without endowing the relationship with any larger significance.
Sociologists have built on the distinction between expressive and instrumental ties to distinguish between two types of groups: primary and secondary. A primary group involves two or more people who enjoy a direct, intimate, cohesive relationship with one another. Expressive ties predominate in primary groups; we view the people as ends in themselves and valuable in their own right. A secondary group entails two or more people who are involved in an impersonal relationship and have come together for a specific, practical purpose. Instrumental ties predominate in secondary groups; we perceive people as means to ends rather than as ends in their own right. Sometimes primary group relationships evolve out of secondary group relationships. This happens in many work settings. People on the job often develop close relationships with coworkers as they come to share gripes, jokes, gossip, and satisfactions.
A number of conditions enhance the likelihood that primary groups will arise. First, group size is important. We find it difficult to get to know people personally when they are milling about and dispersed in large groups. In small groups we have a better chance to initiate contact and establish rapport with them. Second, face-to-face contact allows us to size up others. Seeing and talking with one another in close physical proximity makes possible a subtle exchange of ideas and feelings. And third, the probability that we will develop primary group bonds increases as we have frequent and continuous contact. Our ties with people often deepen as we interact with them across time and gradually evolve interlocking habits and interests.
Primary groups are fundamental to us and to society. First, primary groups are critical to the socialization process. Within them, infants and children are introduced to the ways of their society. Such groups are the breeding grounds in which we acquire the norms and values that equip us for social life. Sociologists view primary groups as bridges between individuals and the larger society because they transmit, mediate, and interpret a society’s cultural patterns and provide the sense of oneness so critical for social solidarity.
Second, primary groups are fundamental because they provide the settings in which we meet most of our personal needs. Within them, we experience companionship, love, security, and an overall sense of well-being. Not surprisingly, sociologists find that the strength of a group’s primary ties has implications for the group’s functioning. For example, the stronger the primary group ties of a sports team playing together, the better their record is.
Third, primary groups are fundamental because they serve as powerful instruments for social control. Their members command and dispense many of the rewards that are so vital to us and that make our lives seem worthwhile. Should the use of rewards fail, members can frequently win by rejecting or threatening to ostracize those who deviate from the primary group’s norms. For instance, some social groups employ shunning (a person can remain in the community, but others are forbidden to interact with the person) as a device to bring into line individuals whose behavior goes beyond that allowed by the particular group. Even more important, primary groups define social reality for us by structuring our experiences. By providing us with definitions of situations, they elicit from us behavior that conforms to group-devised meanings. Primary groups, then, serve both as carriers of social norms and as enforcers of them.

来源 TOEFL TPO 13 R-01