10
About friendship and groups

friendship

Friendships arise from shared experiences of deviance, i.e. from behavior that deviates from the norm, said the “inventor” of urban sociology, Gerald Suttles.

Gerald Suttles (1932–2017) was a pioneer in the study of disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, gangs, and ethnic conflicts, thus shaping the discipline of urban sociology.

Friendship = pleasure

Friendship = Benefit

Friendship = gain in virtue

Aristotle saw three aspects of friendship. He considered the friendship of virtue supreme—and since there is no such thing as a single truly virtuous person, there can be no such thing as a single true friend, he concluded. Good, isn't it? That's a tremendous relief.

Platone e Aristotle nel parco divertimenti, Giovanni de Plessieri (the Elder), 1456

Friendship = soul mates

Michel de Montaigne – not yet a romantic – finds intimacy, fusion and soul mateship in friendship.

From Rousseau onward, the essence of friendship was considered to be mutual opening of souls and confessing one's feelings. One also shares one's own fears and self-doubts with one's friend.

Friendship is an abstract, an amorphous concept and yet there are modern definitions for friendship:

A permanent, symmetrical, dyadic, personal private relationship between non-relatives, constructed in voluntary reciprocity, characterized by intimacy and emotional closeness and based on the expectation of generalized reciprocity.

Schobin, Janosch; Leuschner, Vincenz; Flick, Sabine; Alleweldt, Erika; Heuser, Eric Anton; Brandt, Agnes. Friendship Today: An Introduction to the Sociology of Friendship (Cultures of Society 22) (p. 28). transcript Verlag. Kindle version.

Are they all just frenemies?

We identify your closest friend based on scientific recommendations and assess the value of distant friends and people who aren't friends at all, but rather relatives, colleagues, and people in your network. How can you be a good friend to a friend? Why don't you treat more people like you would a friend?

The Railway Ladies' Club, New Borslow, 1945, German emigrants playing together on the H0 track

Groups

A group consists of at least two people who are connected to each other in a “socially significant way” (Steins/Bitan/Haep 2014, 131).

Groups often work towards a common goal.

Groups develop common values and norms, ways of communication and symbols.

Groups of up to 20 people are small groups.

Even in small groups, subgroups form.

Philosophy: asks about the nature and meaning of groups

Aristotle:
Saw man as zoon politikon – a "political being." This means that humans find fulfillment only in community. The group is a prerequisite for a good life.

Hegel:
Groups (family, civil society, state) are “morality” – the place where the individual attains freedom in the first place.

Psychology: examines dynamics and dysfunction in relationships.
Dysfunctional group processes

Groupthink (Groupthink, Irving Janis)

Characteristics: pressure to conform, illusion of infallibility, exclusion of alternatives, devaluation of critics.

Consequences: bad decisions, misjudgments (classic example: Bay of Pigs invasion, Challenger disaster).

Social loafing

Individuals make less effort because responsibility is distributed.

Typical: “free riders” in teams.

Deindividuation

In groups, inhibitions can fall away and the individual feels anonymous (e.g. violence in mobs, online shitstorms).

Zimbardo & Stanford Prison Experiment: Role and group membership can lead to extreme behavior.

Group polarization

Groups tend to shift opinions to more extreme positions (“risky shift” or “cautious shift”).

Effect: radicalization, extremes in political movements.

Scapegoat mechanisms

Groups strengthen cohesion by devaluing “outsiders” or “strangers.”

Can lead to discrimination, exclusion or bullying.

Sociology: considers groups as structures in the fabric of society – and their dysfunctions as part of power, norms and social change

Emile Durkheim:
Social groups create collective ideas (“collective consciousness”), which support and shape the individual.

Max Weber:

Distinction between Communitization (emotional attachment, e.g. family, friends) and Socialization (rational, purpose-bound groups, e.g. companies).

Dysfunction: when bureaucratic groups become rigid → “steel-hard casing” of bureaucracy.

Georg Simmel

Emphasis on Forms of socialization: Dyad (relationship between two people), triad, clique.

The larger the group, the more abstract the bond.

Dysfunction: Alienation of the individual in large, anonymous groups.