Basic Concepts: Society, Community, Association, Institution, Social Group, Status and Role
Domain 2: Basic Concepts - Society, Community, Association, Institution, Group, Status and Role
This domain tests precise definitions and the ability to classify a real situation using several concepts at once. Examiners reward correct use of terms, not long definitions copied from a dictionary.
Core distinctions
- Society is the widest web of social relationships; it need not be territorial or formally organised.
- Community is a group sharing territory and a sense of belonging, such as a village; it is broader than an association but narrower than society.
- Association is deliberately formed for a specific purpose, with rules and membership, such as a cooperative or trade union.
- Institution is a stable cluster of norms and procedures around a basic need - family, marriage, education, law. It is not the same as a building.
- Social group involves interaction, shared expectations and a sense of 'we'; a crowd or an age category is not automatically a group.
- Status is a position in a social structure; role is the expected behaviour attached to it. Status can be ascribed (caste, sex at birth) or achieved (doctor, teacher). Role conflict occurs when expectations of two roles clash.
Worked example
A woman doctor in a village occupies an achieved occupational status and ascribed statuses of caste and gender. Her roles include clinician, daughter-in-law and member of a medical association. The village is a community; the medical association is an association; medicine is an institution. When an emergency case conflicts with a family duty, she experiences role conflict.
Traps
Do not equate society, community and association. Do not call a hospital building an institution. Do not use status and role interchangeably. Do not call a statistical category (all voters) a social group.