Basic Concepts: Society, Community, Association, Institution, Social Group, Status and Role
What the exam tests
This domain checks precise definitions and distinctions among elementary sociological concepts. Questions often ask you to differentiate society from community, community from association, and institution from organisation, or to apply status and role to a situation.
Core rules and concepts
- Society is a web of social relationships, not merely a collection of people or a territory.
- Community is a territorial, shared-life group such as a village or a local caste community.
- Association is deliberately formed for a specific purpose, e.g. a cooperative or trade union.
- Institution is an established complex of norms and procedures, such as family, marriage or education.
- Social group involves interaction, shared interests and norms; a crowd is not a group unless interaction and norms exist.
- Status is a position in a group (ascribed or achieved); role is the expected behaviour attached to that status.
Worked example
In a village, residents share territory and everyday life: that is a community. They form a milk cooperative for a specific purpose: that is an association. The family is an institution and a group; a person holds the status of father and performs the role of caregiving. Distinguishing these avoids mixing territory, purpose and norms.
Traps that cost marks
- Defining society only geographically.
- Confusing institution (norms) with association (organised group).
- Mixing status and role.
- Calling a crowd or an aggregate a social group.