Terms Concepts and their use in Sociology Class 11 Sociology Notes

Please refer to Terms Concepts and their use in Sociology Class 11 Sociology Notes and important questions below. The Class 11 Sociology Chapter wise notes have been prepared based on the latest syllabus issued for the current academic year by CBSE. Students should revise these notes and go through important Class 11 Sociology examination questions given below to obtain better marks in exams

Terms Concepts and their use in Sociology Class 11 Sociology Notes and Questions

The below Class 11 Terms Concepts and their use in Sociology notes have been designed by expert Sociology teachers. These will help you a lot to understand all the important topics given in your NCERT Class 11 Sociology textbook. Refer to Terms Concepts and their use in Sociology Notes below which have been designed as per the latest syllabus issued by CBSE and will be very useful for upcoming examinations to help clear your concepts and get better marks in examinations.

Aggregate/Quasi Group
Aggregates are simply collections of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time. They do not have definite connection with one another. For example, Passengers waiting at a Railway Station, Airport or bus stop, etc.
A quasi group is an aggregate which lacks structure or organisation and whose members may be unaware of the existence of groupings. Social classes, status groups, age and gender groups, crowds are the examples of quasi group.

Social Group
Social group refers to a collection of continuously interacting persons who share common interest, culture, values and norms within a given society.

Characteristics of Social Group
(i) Persistent interaction to provide continuity
(ii) A stable pattern of these interactions
(iii) A sense of belonging to identify with other members
(iv) Shared interest
(v) Acceptance of common norms and values
(vi) A definable structure

Types of Social Groups
The following are the main types of Social Groups:

Primary and Secondary Social Groups
Primary group refers to a small group of people connected by intimate and face-to-face association and co-operation. Family, village and groups of friends are the examples of primary groups.
Secondary groups are relatively large in size, maintain formal and impersonal relationships.
Secondary groups are goal oriented rather than person oriented. Schools, government offices, hospitals, student’s associations etc. are the examples of secondary groups.

Community and Society or Association
The term community refers to human relationships that are highly personal, intimate and enduring. Society or association refers to everything opposite of community. Society is marked by impersonal, superficial and transitory relationships of modern urban life.

In-Groups and Out-Groups
A sense of belonging marks an in group. The feeling of ‘us’ or ‘we’ separates in group from other groups. The children belonging to a particular school form an in-group. Out-Group is a group which the members of an in-group do not belong. The members of an out group can face hostile reactions from the members of in-group. Migrants are an example of out-group.

Reference Group
The groups whose life styles are imitated are known as reference groups. Reference groups are important source of information about culture, life style, aspiration and goal attainments.

Peer Groups
peer groups are usually formed between individuals of of similar age or interests or in a common professional group, they can be described as group of equals. Class mates at school are an example of peer group.

Social Stratification
Social stratification refers to the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society. Historically four systems of stratification have existed in human societies:
1. Slavery
2. Estate
3. Caste
4. Class

Caste
In caste system, the position of an individual is determined by birth. In traditional India, different castes formed a system of hierarchy. the caste structure was based on the concept of purity and pollution. In the caste structure Brahmin or priestly castes are superior to all other castes. Panchamas who were often described as out castes, were inferior to all other castes. The social structure in traditional India was based on the four fold Varna system. It consisted of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The caste system in India has undergone considerable changes over the years. Changes brought in by  banisation inevitably challenged this. It completely altered caste system.

Class
A social class is an aggregate of people having more or less equal status in a given society. Scholars have made several attempts to explain class.
Marx defined classes on the basis of their relation with the means of production. According to him the industrial society consisted of two classes: the capitalist class and working class.
Weber defined class on the basis of life chances. He argued that the inequality was based on economic relations,  The Study Materials prepared by our Hsslive team can be downloaded free for study purpose by the students. Linking this with other sites except Hsslive.in and commercial use of this are strictly prohibited. Prior permission has to be sought from Hsslive.in for such things. prestige and political power. The functionalist theory believes that no society is classless. They accept the reality that society is stratified.

Difference between Caste and Class

Status and Role
Status and role are twin concepts. Status is simply a position an individual has in society or in a group. Status refers to social positions. Role is the dynamic or behavioural aspect of status. Status is occupied while role is played. There are two types of status:

(1) Ascribed status
(2) Achieved status
Ascribed status is a position which a person occupies by birth. For example, the positions occupied through age, caste, race etc. Achieved status is a social position that a person  ccupies voluntarily by personal ability, achievements and choices. The most common bases of achieved status are educational qualification, income and professional expertise.
Role conflict is the disagreement among roles corresponding to one or more status. Role conflict occurs from contrary expectations arising from two or more roles. Role stereotyping is a process of fixing some specific role for some members of the society. For example, society decides some roles for men and women. Accordingly, men are the bread winners and women are the home maker.

Society and Social Control
Social control is a system of devices where by society brings its members into conformity with accepted standards of behaviour. Each society has its own methods to regulate its members. Social control is essential for the existence of the society.

There are different views among sociologists regarding social control.

According to the functionalist view society is a harmonious one. For functionalist perspective social control refers to :
1. The use of force to regulate the behaviour of individual and groups.
2. The enforcing of values and patterns for maintaining order society.
Conflict theorists argues that social control is mechanism to impose the control of dominant social classes on the rest of society.

Types of Social Control
There are two types of social control:
(i) Formal Social Control
(ii) Informal Social Control

When the codified and systematic mechanism of control is used, it called formal social control. For example, police , law and state.
Informal social control is personal, unofficial and uncodified. They include smiles, making faces, body language, criticism etc.