Societies have transformed over time through major social revolutions linked to new technologies. Hunter-gatherer societies transitioned to pastoral/horticultural societies after the domestication revolution approximately 10,000 years ago. The invention of the plow then led to agricultural societies, and the Industrial Revolution brought about industrial society. The computer chip has ushered in postindustrial/information society. Social inequality has risen with each transition as food surpluses allowed divisions of labor and accumulation of goods and power. Groups within societies include primary groups providing identity and intimacy, and larger, more impersonal secondary groups. Developments in communication technology have enabled new electronic communities. Experiments demonstrate how groups can influence individuals through peer pressure and obedience to authority.

1. Societies to Social Networks
Important text is in orange this time.

2. Societies and their Transformation
• Sociologists use many definitions of groups,
but, in general, groups consist of people who
interact with one an- other and think of
themselves as belonging together.
• Societies- when people share a culture and
territory . Societies are the largest and most
complex group that sociologists study

3. Societies and their Transformation
• On their way to postindustrial society, humans
passed through four types of societies. Each
emerged from a social revolution that was
linked to new technology.

4. Societies and their Transformation
• The domestication revolution (approximately
10,000 years ago), which brought the
pasturing of animals and the cultivation of
plants, transformed hunting and gathering
societies into pastoral and horticultural
societies.

5. Societies and their Transformation
• Then the invention of the plow ushered in the
agricultural society, while the Industrial
Revolution, brought about by machines that
were powered by fuels, led to industrial
society.

6. Societies and their Transformation
• the computer chip ushered in a new type of
society called postindustrial (or information)
society.
• Another new type of society, the biotech
society, may be emerging.

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The Social Transformations of Society

8. Societies and their Transformation
• A summation: preindustrial to post-industrial
societies… so bad it is kind of funny

9. Societies and their Transformation
• Social equality was greatest in hunting and
gathering societies, but as societies changed
social inequality grew.
• The root of the transition to social inequality
was the accumulation of a food surplus, made
possible through the domestication
revolution.

10. Societies and their Transformation
• This surplus stimulated the division of labor,
trade, the accumulation of material goods, the
subordination of females by males, the
emergence of leaders, and the development
of the state.

11. Avatar Fantasy Life…

12. Avatar Fantasy Life…music video

13. Groups within Society
• Sociologists distinguish between aggregates,
categories, and groups.
• An aggregate is made up of individuals who
temporarily share the same physical space but
do not have a sense of belonging together.
• A category is a collection of people who have
similar characteristics (a statistic).
• Unlike groups, the individuals who make up
aggregates or categories do not interact with
one another or take each other into account.

16. Groups within Society
• Sociologists divide groups into primary
groups, secondary groups, in-groups, out-
groups, reference groups, and networks.

17. Groups within Society
• The cooperative, intimate, long-term, face-to-
face relationships provided by primary groups
are fundamental to our sense of self.
• Secondary groups are larger, relatively
temporary, and more anonymous, formal, and
more impersonal than primary groups.

20. Groups within Society
• In-groups provide members with a strong
sense of identity and belonging.
• Out-groups also foster identity by showing in-
group members what they are not.

21. Group Identity: in-groups and out-
groups

22. Groups within Society
• Reference groups are groups whose standards
we refer to as we evaluate ourselves.
• Social networks consist of social ties that link
people together.
• Developments in communications technology
have given birth to a new type of group, the
electronic community.

23. Group Dynamics
• A dyad, consisting of two people, is the most
unstable of human groups, but it provides the
most intense intimate relationships.
• The addition of a third person, forming a triad,
fundamentally alters relationships.
• Triads are unstable, as coalitions (the
alignment of some members of a group
against others) tend to form.

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The Effects of
Group Size
on Relationships

25. Group Dynamics- Bystander Effect

26. Group Dynamics
• A leader is someone who influences others.
• Instrumental leaders try to keep a group
moving toward its goals, even though this
causes friction and they lose popularity.
• Expressive leaders focus on creating harmony
and raising group morale. Both types are
essential to the functioning of groups.

27. Group Dynamics
• Authoritarian leaders give orders (An
authoritarian style appears to be more
effective in emergency situations)
• democratic leaders try to lead by consensus
(works best for most situations),
• laissez-faire leaders are highly permissive
(style is usually ineffective ).

28. Group Dynamics
• The Asch experiment was cited to illustrate
the power of peer pressure

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Asch’s Cards

30. Group Dynamics
• the Milgram experiment to illustrate the
influence of authority.

31. Group Dynamics
• Both experiments demonstrate how easily we
can succumb to groupthink, a kind of
collective tunnel vision.
• Preventing groupthink requires the free
circulation of diverse and opposing ideas.