Sociological Theory

a paper submitted to Webber International University in partial fulfillment for the
Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration

By: Sandu Florea
Date: October 25, 2012
Course: Sociology and
Anthropology of Tourism
Semester: Fall 2012 Instructor: Ian David
Sociological Theory Scientists define a social group as two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity. We were asked to observe and document the behavior of a small social group to which we are associated and document when behaviors associated with consensus, conflict or social action theory occur. Social groups are one of society’s main and most important social institutions. It helps to make individuals fulfill one of the basic psychological needs for survival, belonging. They also provide friendships, communication and support; much needed for the human- a social creature. As with all institutions, social groups consist of roles, statuses, values and a set of norms which are organized to help the overall society in specific ways. Family is viewed differently in different sociological theories: consensus, conflict and social action theory. To understand the differences between the groups, I studied my friends from my hometown: Adrian, Roman, Greg, Ian and me.
In this paper I will examine the similarities and differences of the theoretical views and their influence on the group actions: * Decision Making * Roles and Characteristic * Agreement and Conflict * Discussions and Social Action * Deviance * Labeling Theory * Rituals

Decision Making Group decision making is a situation when the group must make a decision from the alternatives before them apart from individual. In my group we always target a consensus and trying to make a decision that would please everybody like what we going to do today, where we going to go and when we are going to leave. Although we usually reach consensus sometimes a member can decide to do something else and this is considered a deviant act by the group, but if the decision is supported by other(s) it is considered as an alternative and sometimes the group can mold to that decision to reach consensus. There are clear leaders and followers, and the group always aspects the leaders to come with the idea of what the group should do, the planning and the organizational part as well as the final decision falls on the leaders’ shoulders
Roles and Characteristics In all of the many social groups that we as individuals belong to, we have a status and a role to fulfill. Status is our relative social position within a group, while a role is the part our society expects us to play in a given status. Social group membership gives us a set of statuses and role tags that allow people to know what to expect from each other-they make us more predictable and show us what are we expected to do and how to behave. In my social group everybody has their own role to play. Roman is passionate about music, he knows all the latest hits and he also knows a lot about technology. We always ask advice from him when we need a recommendation on a gadget or something related to technology, what is the best and where to get the best price. He fixes everybody’s computer or phone and gives advices related to them. Greg is the comedian of the group. He likes to make funny comments about everybody around him, and even sometimes he can be a little harsh, we like to have him in our company because he provides us the daily need of laughter and we feel his absence when his not present. Ian has a romantic type personality and he really represents the artistic personality stereotype. He usually takes picture of the group and really has information about cultural events in the town. We contact him to get