Have you ever stopped to consider the number of groups you are a part of? Or, how about the role groups play in your life? Broadly speaking, a group is made up of people who identify and interact with one another. Sometimes, this interaction is quite intimate, and other times, it is removed with no sense of true connection. Throughout your life, you will be a member of countless groups. Let’s take a few minutes to explore some of them.
A person’s first group of significance is generally their family. Regardless of its makeup, families fall under the rubric of a primary group because they involve small-scale, intimate, face-to-face, long-lasting associations. At a young age, family is the group that knows you most intimately. Family members have seen you happy and sad. They have seen you healthy and sick. They have seen you with zit cream all over your face. They know you so well they can tell how your day was just by the way you say “Hello.”
Over time, you move beyond only having family interactions to other types of in-group associations made up of social units to which an individual belongs and feels a sense of “we.” In junior high or high school, this might include being a member of Boy or Girl Scouts, Math Club, choir, or a sports team. In college, this could mean participating in Student Government, Greek life, or the Sociology Society. With in-groups, individuals identify with the group and feel a strong sense of connection.
