UNIT SOCIAL PROCESSES

Contents
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Social Interaction
3.3 Forms of Social Interaction
3.4 Social Control
3.5 Let Us Sum Up
3.6 Key Words
3.7 Suggested Readings
3.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

This unit seeks to help you to understand the nature and meaning of social
processes, which are an integral part of our social behaviour. Afte; studying
the unit you will be able to:
bndersiand the social processes conflict, competition and co-operation;
know the interrelationship between different types of social processes;
and
understand the meaning of social control and related ideas.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
The term 'social processes' refers to repetitive forms of behaviour, which are
commonly found in social life. One of the most extensive treatments of social
processes is found in Park and Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology
(1921). This highly influential textbook of an earlier period is primarily devoted
to the classification and analysis of social processes. In recent decades
sociologists have become less interested in social processes themselves and
more interested in intensive analysis of behaviour in specific institutional and
cultural settings. Yet it remains important for students to be aware of the major
social processes found in all groups and societies. The most frequent
classification of major social processes is in terms of Cooperation, Competition,
Conflict, Accommodation and Assimilation.

3.2 SOCIAL INTERACTION

Much of the thinking about society is in terms of social relationships. One
thinks of the relation between father and son, employer and employee, leader
and follower, merchant and customer; or, of the relation between friends,
between enemies, between children, etc. Such relationships are among the
most obvious features of society and consequently it seems an elaboration of
(he obvious to inquire into their nature. Social relationship represents
fundamental ways of organizing social data. In short, a society may be viewed,
if one wishes, as a system of relationships.
 In analyzing social relationships one soon finds them more complicated than Social Processes
they first appear. They involve reciprocal obligations, reciprocal statuses, and
reciprocal ertds and means between two or more actors in mutual contact.
They refer to form or pattern of interaction between individuals.
Any society contains hundreds and perhaps thousands of socially defined
relationships. The immediate family alone may contain as many as fifteen' .
How many relationships a society utilizes is simply a matter of how many
criteria it takes into account in defining behaviour between individuals? The
fifteen relationships of the immediate family rest on three criteria - age, sex
and generation. Outside the family, an infinite number of criteria may be used,
so there is no limit to the number of possible relationships.
It follows that to catalogue all the meaningful relationships in which human
beings are involved would be a never-ending task. Instead, they may be
classified and dealt with as general types. Any classification, however, must
have some point to it. In social sciences, as in all sciences, classification is
wol-thless unless it seizes upon traits that are significant, traits that facilitate
" causal analysis. For this reason, social relationships have been classified and
discussed in terms of the kind of irzteraction they manifest. The most important
kinds of interaction singled out for consideration here are conflict, competition
and cooperation. Each of these has several sub-types, but mention of the main
a ones alone is enough to demonstrate that a proper understanding of the forms
of interaction is essential to the understanding of society.
Social interaction by definition involves contact, and contact necessarily requires
a material or sensoly medium. It need not of course require the impingement
of one body directly upon another, but it does require the occurrence of direct
1 or indirect sensory stimulation between the interacting parties. The material
medium, however, is only a necessary, not a sufficient basis of contact.
Individuals can be in material contact without being in social contact. For
example, two tribes living on opposite sides of swamp and having nothing to
do with each other may nevertheless be bitten by mosquitoes that continually
carry malaria from one tribe to another. It is not merely physical contact that
counts, but meaningful or symbolic contact. Good will may be expressed by
either handshake or a spoken phrase, a letter or a smile. Added to the sensory
stimulus is a meaningful stimulus. A dead man's will is an indirect and tenuous
material link with his heirs, but its physical character is far less important than
it's meaning. Until material or sensory contact acquires meaning for the
subjective selves of the persons concerned, it is not social in the human senses.
The social behaviour of human beings consists of acquired responses to the
meaningful responses of others. Human interaction in other words, is
communicative interaction. The social behaviour of human beings consists of
acquired responses to the meaningful responses of others. Human interaction,
in other words, is communicative interaction.
The essential feature of communication is that one person infers from the
behaviour of another (whether speech, gesture or posture) what idea or feeling
the other person is trying to convey. He then reacts not to the behaviour as
such but to the inferred idea or feeling. The other person then reacts to his
response in terms of the idea or feeling-the meaning behind it. When a girl
receives flowers she looks at them and smells them, but her main interest is in
the person who sent them and why. Were they sent to end a quarrel, to mark
Introduction to Society an an~liversary,to cement a promise, to say fakewell, to brighten an illness?
Unless she can answer such questions she will feel a loss, not knowing what
to do. It is the meanings behind the behaviour that are involved in the system
of mutual expectations previously described as being present in the interacting
situation.
It should now be clear that a significant classification of the kinds of interaction
must keep in view the meaningful character of social contact.
Check Your Progress I
Note : .a) Use the space provided for your answer.
b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of this unit.
1) Comment "social relationships are best described in terms of kinds of
interaction" they manifest?

3.3 FORMS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

Conflict
The conflict process is little praised but widely practiced. It develops whenever
a person or group seeks to gain a reward not by surpassing other competitors,
but by preventing them from effectively competing. It is formally defined as
the process of seeking to obtain rewards by eliminating or weakening the
competitors.
Conflict is an ever-present process in human relations. It may be solved at one
level as when there is agreement on ends and break out afresh over the question
of means. You may raise a profound question as to why conflict is such a
constant feature of human society. The answer lies in the basic nature of human
society. Human society is not a tightly compressed affair but instead has a
loose integration. The integration is not on a biological but on a mental level.
It must be renewed and maintained constantly through psychological processes
such as indoctrination, inspiration and repetition. It must somehow rest on the
possession of common and extra-personal ends on the part of its members.
These ends cannot come from man's biological but only from communicative
contact with his fellows. Accordingly therefore they differ greatly from one
society to another because they are associated with differences of culture. This,
then, gives first basis of conflict - ethnocentrism - the dislike of people with
different culture and different ultimate ends from one's own. Those with the
same set of ultimate ends cling together and identify themselves with one
another, while those with a different set of ends also do the same. A social
group, furthermore, has a corporate character a name, a common leadership, a
 determinate structure, a sense of familiarity. Individuals identify themselves Social Processes
with this corporate entity and conceive their ultimate duty as loyalty to it,
whether it be a clan, a tribe, a city-state, a religious sect, or a nation.
Types of Conflict
Conflict expresses itself in numerous ways and in various degrees and over
eveiy range of human contact. Its niodes are always changing with changing
social and cultural conditions. "Social Conflict" includes all activity in which
men contend against one another for any objective. Its two fundamental types
are direct and indirect conflict.

i) Direct Cortflict: When individuals or groups thwart or impede or restrain

or injure or destroy one another in an effort to attain some goal, direct
conflict occi~rs.Milder thwarting or frustration of goal attainment is involved
in such forms as litigation, polemic, propagandistic activity and much of
the struggle of the organized economic groups for larger stakes.

ii) Indirect Cortflict: When individuals or groups do not actually impede the
efforts of one another but nevertheless seek to attain their ends in ways
which obstruct the attainment of the same ends by others, indirect conflict
occurs. Competition is impersonal conflict between individuals for
attainment of any objects of desire that are limited in supply, whether
income or academic honours or beautiful women for social prestige. The
competition does not as such directly' interfere with the efforts of another
to attain such goals but only indirectly with the other person's success.
In distinguishing these two forms, the reader should note that not all struggles
in which man is engaged is social conflict of either type. We are struggling to
master difficulties, to overcome obstacles, to achieve ends in ways other than
through conflict with our fellows. m ' s "battle" with the physical environment

I is a case in point. Social conflict, inan against man or group against group,
reveals itself wherever there is society. But unless co-operation penetrates
deeper than conflict, society can not endure.
1 1 Mechanisms to Deal with Conflict
There are of course social mechanisms that smoothen conflict. One of these is
humour, which removes the tension that might otherwise expend itself in
physical violence. Another is social distance or avoidance. A third is sentiment
formation, which overcomes the conflict of interests of the antagonistic parties.
A fourth is variety,and change, for an existing situation is more tolerable if it
is known that it will not last long. A fifth is organized rivalry, which provides
an opportunity for simulated battle, for intense group loyalty, for the
manifestation of prowess in vanquishing others, and yet because the interaction
has a set form and definite conclusion, it allows the energies to be expended
either harmlessly or to the advantage of the society.
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It is clear however that such mechanisms are not universally successful. Humor,
! social distance, noble sentiments, social change, organized rivalry - these may
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on occasion provoke rather than prevent conflict. The truth is that there are
1 elements of conflict in all situations, because the ends of different individuals
I are always to some extent mutually exclusive. Conflict is a part of human
\ society because of the kind of entity that human society is.
Introductior: to Society Check Your Progress I1
Note : a) Use the Space provided for your answer.
b) Check your answers with the model answers provided at the
end of this unit.

1) Explain meaning of term 'conflict' in your own words and discuss why it
is ever present in human society ?

Competition
In contrast to conflict, which aims to destroy or do away with the opponent,
1
competition simply aims to out-do the competitor in achieving some mutually
desired goal. It is thus a modified form of struggle. It implies that there are
rules of the game to which the competitors must conform and that behind
these rules, justifying and maintaining them, is a common set of values superior
to the competitive interest. It also implies an absence of coercion. The rules
are so arranged that the ends must be obtained by other methods than fraud or
physical force. Consider an example: if a chain stores take business away
from the local merchants by offering goods at cheaper piices that is competition.
If on the other hand, the small merchants induce the government to tax the
chain stores out of existence, that is not competition because state is then
exercising its power of coercion. The rules of competition limit the means that
may be used to gain the competitive end; they tend especially to eliminate
force and fraud. When competition breaks through the rules it transforms itself
into conflict.
Competition is the struggle for possession of rewards, which are in limited
supply: money, goods, status, power, and love- anything. It may be formally
defined as the process of seeking to obtain a reward by surpassing other rivals.
While competition is present to some degree in all the societies, it differs greatly
in degree from society to society. The fiercely competitive Kwakiutl and the
relatively non-competitive Zuni offer a striking contrast. The Kwakiutl work
very hard to accumulate wealth, which is used primarily to establish status
rather than to provide material comfort. The competition for status reaches its
height at the famous "potlatch," in which the chiefs and leading families come
with each other to see how much they can give away or destroy. A family
'may spend lifetime accumulating wealth, then bankrupt themselves in a single
potlatch, thereby establishing the social status of their children. Members of a
family who persisted in keeping their wealth would be criticized for their
unwillingness to do "anything" for their children. The Zuni on the other hand,
disdain any emphasis on the accumulation of wealth or the delllonstration of
individual skill. Most wealth is owned by the entire cominunity and it is bad
to demonstrate individual superiority of any kind. Thus the Zuni child does
 not grow up believing that he should make the most money, get the highest Social Processes
grades or run the fastest race.
Even such strong encouragement of competition as is found among the
Kwakiutl does not mean that cooperation is completely absent. As the
anthropologist Margaret Mead points out-
Nevertheless, izo society is exclu.sively compelitive or exclusively cooperative.
The very existeizce of highly competitive groups implies cooperatio~lwithin
the groups. Both competitive and cooperative habits must exiSt within the
society,
Variability of Competition
An essential part of any social system, competition varies as to scope, intensity
and type from one system to another system. Soviet Russia has plenty of

t
competition. So does the United States but in a different way. The American
variety has molded the economic institutions of private property, contract and
the open market, the political institutions of representative government. These
not only define the type of competition but give it great scope as well. They
open the door to the pursuit of wealth through entrepreneurial ability.
I
Competition in a Contemporary Society
Competition is extremely dynamic. It stimulates achievement by lifting the
level of aspiration, by threatening failure as well as promising success, and by
adding an element of rivalry. For this reason, it becomes particularly strong in
complex and changing societies. Present day society is characterized by
excessive amount of competition. Today man overlooks the institutions and
rules, which alone make competition to work- the protection of property, the
enforcement of contracts, the prevention of fraud. He overlooks the common
ends and values which are not competitive but which are superior to those
that are. He forgets that competition can be vicious as well as beneficent, that
it can lead to starvation in the midst of plenty, to fear and insecurity, to instability
and panic. Today we have forgotten that unlimited competition leads inevitably
to monopoly, that the very success of strong leads to gigantic power over the
weak and creates such inequality that a mockery is made of free contract.
Check Your Progress 111
Note : a) Use the space provided for your answer.
b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of this unit.
,

1) What do you understand by term Competition and how it is different

from conflict?

2) Discuss the nature of competition in contemporary society?

Introduction to Society

Co-operation
Cooperation is derived from Latin words, co meaning together and operari
meaning to work. It may be formally defined as joint activity in pursuit of
common goals or shared rewards. Cooperation may be found in groups as
small as a dyad (group of two persons) and as large as United Nations.
Cooperation implies a regard for the wishes of other people and is often
regarded as unselfish, but human may also find that their selfish goals are best
served by working together with their fellows.
Men cannot associate without co-operating, without working together in the
pursuit of like or common interests. The many modes of cooperation in social
life may be divided into two principal types:
i) Direct Co-operatiorz: Under this category we include all those activities
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in which people do like things together-play together, worship together,
till the fields together, labour together in myriad ways. In such activities,
there may be minor diversities of task-you wash, 1 will dry-but their
essential character is that people do in each other's company the things
which they can also do separately or in isolation. They do them together,
either because the face-to-face situation is itself a stimulus to the
performance of the task or because it brings some other social satisfaction.
Direct cooperation is exemplified also when people perform together tasks
that would be difficult for one of them to perform alone as when they
pull together on a line or together storm a barricade.
ii) Indirect Co-operation: Under this category we include all those activities I

in which people do unlike tasks but directed towards a single end. Here
the principle of the division of labour comes into play, a principle that is :
embedded in the very nature of social life. The division of labour is
revealed in the procreation of life in the upbringing of a family. It is
revealed whenever people pool their differences or for common ends. In
industry, in government, in scientific research, even in recreational
activities, functions tend to become more and more specialized. This
process is more manifest in urban than in rural life, but the disappearance
of the "husking bees" and "thrashing rings" signal the fact the people
have to satisfy in other ways the need for social stimulation formerly
satisfied through direct co-operation.
The replacement of direct by indirect cooperation has accompanied our great
technological advances, which clearly require specialization of skills and
functions. But in terms of human needs, this is not all gain. It is often claimed
that the individual of modern industrialized and urbanized society, increasingly
separated from face-to-face co-operative modes of activity and more and more
a "specialist" detached from close ties of intimate community life, tends to
take on the highly individualized, neurotic characteristics as depicted by a
growing number of writers.
 Co-operation is commonly believed to be the opposite of competition. This is Social Processes
not true if it means that in a given situation one necessarily excludes the other.
A cooperating group is one that is working together to accomplish a goal that
all desire. In many case it is realized that competition will aid the attainment of
this goal and so a system of competition is allowed or deliberately instituted.
The Soviet government learnt early in its history that competition for high pay
has a stimulating effect on productivity. Since Russia's great need was to
increase production by leaps and bounds, it developed an ingenious system of
"socialist competition".
Unless competition enhances the overall goal of the society it will find critics
aplenty. So long as it is controlled and institutionalized, it is presumably a
means by which the cooperation of all is accomplished. In reality it is conflict
rather than competition that is the opposite of cooperation. Yet cooperation
i may occur without making internal use of competition and between two
competitors the overarching elements of cooperation may be lost from sight.
In fact, each of two competitors trying to outstrip each other may view his
organization as cooperating within itself but not cooperating at all with the
other organizations. Often, therefore the ultimate cooperative effect of
competition escapes awareness; the closer and more intimate cooperation of
the organized group is the center of attention. This is what gives the illusion
that competition and cooperation are necessarily opposed.
The Interrelation of the Forms of Interaction
It should be clear that the forms of interaction discussed here-conflict,
competition and cooperation-are all interdependent. They are ever-present
aspects of human society. Any social system, in fact any concrete situation,
will manifest all three in a complex and intertwined manner. There is no
cooperating group, no matter how harmonious, which will not contain the
seeds of suppressed conflict. There is no conflict, no matter how bitter, which
will not have some hidden basis of compromise. There is no competition, no
matter how impersonal and ruthless, which cannot claim some contribution to
a larger cooperative cause.
It should also be clear that any analysis of social behaviour in terms of the
forms of interaction is an indispensable mode of approaching social
phenomenon.
Assimilation
Whenever groups meet, some mutual interchange or diffusion of culture takes
place. Even groups who seek to prevent such diffusion do not fully succeed
in protecting their culture from all cultural interchange. This process of mutual
cultural diffusion through which persons and groups come to share a
common culture is called assimilation. It is always a two-way process with
each group contributing varying proportions of the eventual blend, depending
upon respective group size, prestige and other factors.
The assimilation process is nicely illustrated in the Arnericanisation of European
immigrants. Arriving in great numbers between 1850 and 1913, many of them
settled, in immigrant colonies in the Northern cities. Within these ethnic
colonies-Little Italy, Little Poland and so on-they practiced much of their
native European culture while absorbing some of the American culture. The
Introduction to Society immigrant parents often sought to transmit European culture to their children,
while the children generally sought to become American as rapidly as possible.
This conflict often caused parental anguish, family disorganisation, and loss
of parental care, so that many second-generation immigrants became confused,
rebellious and delinquent. As the third generation matured, the assimilation
difficulties generally subsided; Americanisation became fairly complete, and
the ethnic colony disappeared as the descendents scattered over city and suburb
(Thomas and Znaniecki, 1927).
Assimilation reduces group conflicts by blending differing groups into larger,
culturally homogenous groups. The bitter riots against the Irish and the
discrimination against Scandinavians in the United States have disappeared as
assimilation has erased the group differences and blurred the sense of separate
group identity. Anything, which binds people into a larger group, will tend to
reduce rivalry and conflict between them. This is strikingly illustrated by an
experiment, which involved the experimental formation of different groupings
at a summer camp (Sherif and Sherif, 1953). The boys were all from the same
community and were similar in religion, social class, status, age and national
background. For the first experimental period they were treated as single group,
and they showed no signs of incipient social conflict. In the second experimental
period they were divided into two groups who were housed separately and
encouraged to develop separate programmes of activities. The groups took the
names of "Red Devils" and "Bull Dogs." Group antagonism quickly developed
and physical violence between the groups reached the point where it had to
be suppressed by the adult leaders.
This experiment shows how, even when there are no real differences or issues
to fight over, conflict tends to develop wherever separate group identity is !
recognized. Assimilation removes, some but not all possible pressures toward
conflict.
Check Your Progress IV
I
1
Note : a) Use the space provided for your answer.

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of this unit.

1) Explain meaning of term assimilation and how it reduces group conflict

in your own words?
I

SOCIAL CONTROL
Social control means the way in which the entire social order coheres and 1
maintains itself-how it operates as a whole, as a changing equilibrium. 1
!
 The study of social control - the means through which people are led to fill Social Processes
their roles as expected - begins with the study of social order within which
people interact. Consider, for example, the orderly arrangements, which underlie
.the bustling confusion of a great city. Tens of thousands of people take their
places and perform their tasks with no apparent direction. Thousands of vehicles
butt their way through clogged lanes, missing by inches, but seldom actually
colliding. Thousands of kinds of merchandise arrive at the proper places in
the proper amounts at the proper times. Ten thousand people whom an
individual never sees will labor on this day so that meals will be ready for him
when needed, drinking fountains will flow, drains will carry off the wastes,
bulbs will blink and glow, traffic will part to let him pass, and various
conveniences, will meet his other needs. A hundred people may serve him
within an hour, perhaps without a word from him to any of them.
This is what is meant by social order-a system of people, relationships and
customs operating smoothly to accomplish the work of a society. Unless people
know what they may expect from one another not much will get done. The
orderliness of a society rests upon a network of roles according to which each
person accepts certain duties towards others and claims certain rights from
others.

1 How is this network of reciprocal rights and duties kept in force? Sociologists
use the term social control to describe all the means andprocesses whereby a
group or a society secures its members' conformity to its expectations.
How does a group or a society cause its members to behave in the expected
manner? In a number of ways, whose relative importance is difficult to measure.
Following are different modes of social control:
1) Social Control Through Socialisation
People are controlled mainly by being socialised so that they fill their roles in
expected ways through habit and preference. How do women in our society
tend to give greater emphasis on their family? How do men tend to shoulder
responsibility of their offspring? Mainly by cultivating within them a set of
roles sand responsibilities. Socialisation shapes our customs, our wishes and
our habits. The members of a society are schooled in the same customs and
tend to develop much the same set of habits. Thus habits and customs are
great standardisers of behaviour within a group. If all members of society
share similar socialization experiences, they will voluntarily and unthinkingly
act in very much the same ways. They will conform to the social expectations
without any conscious awareness that they are doing so.
2) Social Control Through Group Pressure
Most social scientists see social control as primarily a process of growing out
of the individual's need for status within his primary groups. Lapiere (1954)
claims that these groups are most influential when they are small and intimate,
when the individual expects to remain in the group for a long time, and when
he has frequent contacts with them. All the authorities agree that our need for
acceptance within the intimate groups is the most powerful lever for the use of
group pressure towards group norms.
Introduction to Society Social psychologists (Sherif, 1935; Bovard, 1951) have made a number of
experiments, which show how a person tends to bring his expressions in line
with those of the group. The method in such experiments usually consists of
asking the members for individual estimates, attitudes or observations on a
topic, then informing them of the group norm, and finally asking for a new
expression from each n~ember.Many of the informants modify their second
expression in the direction of the group norm. Schachter (195 1) has also shown
experimentally how the member who sharply deviates from the group Oorms
in opinion is rejected by the group.
We often notice that a new niember of a group is more carefully conformist
and more fiercely loyal than the old members. Meticulous conformity is a tool
for gaining acceptance and status within a group, while rejection is the price
of nonconformity.
a) Zizformal Primary-Group Corztrols
Groups are of two kinds, primary and secondary. For our present
discussion, it is sufficient to note that primary groups are small, intimate,
informal, face-to-face groups like the family, clique or play group, while
secondary groups are larger, more impersonal, more formal and more
utilitarian like a labour union, trade association, church congregation or
student body.
Within primary groups, control is informal, spontaneous and unplanned.
The members of the group react to the actions of each member. When
a member irritates or annoys the others, they may show their disapproval
through ridicule, laughter, criticism or even ostracism. When a member's
behaviour is acceptable, a secure and comfortable "belonging" is his usual
reward:
Informal modes of Social control -The folkways and mores represent
, the norms o; modes of procedure in a society or in a group-they present
to us the most frequent or most accepted or most standardized ways of
doing this or that. They are regulative, exerting pressure upon individual
and group to conform to the norms. Following are the general functions
of mores in social life-

i) The mores determine. much of our individual behaviour. They are

the cdmpblling and forbidding apparatus of the social world that
constantly exerts pressure on every member.

ii) The mores identify individual within the group. If on the one hand,
the mores exert a pressure upon the individual to conform to the
ways of his community or social class or sex, the individual, on the
other, gains identification with his fellows by conforming. He thus
maintains those social bonds that are clearly essential for satisfactory
living.
In traditional Indian society, three social institutions used to exercise
great control over conduct of its members are joint family, caste
system and panchayat. Earlier on, in all three contexts a 'non-
conformity used to be a rare phenomenon. Now with the advent of
industrialization and urbiinization these social institutions have started
 disintegrating and informal social'contsol is gradually replaced by formal Social Processes
social control.
b) Secondary Group-Control
As we shift from primary to secondary group situations, we also shift from
informal to formal modes of social controls. Secondary groups are generally
larger, more impersonal and specialised in purpose. We do not use them to
meet our needs for intimate human response, but to help us to get certain jobs
done. If a secondary group does not meet our needs, we can generally withdraw
with no greater anguish, for our emotional lives are not deeply involved. To
maintain our status in the seccndary group is desirable but not a desperate
emotional necessity as it is in the primary group. True, it is possible in our
society for people to change their primary groups-leave their families, divorce
their mates, find new friends-but the process is generally painful. The
secondary group is a less compelling control agency than the primary group.
The secondary group is still an effective control. Some of the informal controls
still operate in the secondary groups.'No normal person wants to appear
ridiculous at the union meeting or as. the Chamber of Commerce banquet.
Such informal~controlsas ridicule, laughter, gossip and ostracism operate in
secondary group settings but generally with a reduced impact. Meanwhile, '
other more formal controls are characteristic of secondary groups-
parliamentary rules of order, official regulations and standardised procedures,
propaganda, promotion and titles, rewards and prizes, formal penalties and
punishments etc.
.c) Control Through Force

Many primitive societies succeeded in controlling the behaviour of individuals

through the mores, reinforced by the informal controls of the primary group,
so that no formal laws or punishments were necessary. But with larger
populations and .more complex cultures, formal governments, laws and
punishments are developed. Wherever it becomes possible for the individual
to get lost in the crowd, informal controls are inadequate and formal controls
are necessary. For example, in joint family, it is practical enough to exercise
control over conduct of each and every member and punish himher in case of
any misconduct on hislher part. But in a town of thousands of people, it would
be impossible to keep tab on each person informally. Some system of assigning
work and distributing rewards becomes necessary. Thus, with larger populations
and cultural complexity comes a shift to impersonal secondary group controls-
laws, regulations and formalised procedures.
When the individual does not wish to follow these regulations, the group tries
to compel him to do so. In such larger groups, he is too anonymous for informal
grqup pressures to be brought upon him. Furthermore, in larger groups with
complex cultures, some subcultures that conflict with the culture of the majority
are also likely to develop. The individual who rejects the conventional
regulations of the society may find emotional support from other persons who
think and act as he does. Although he is still subject to group pressure, it now
comes from a non-conforming group, which insulates him from the pressures
of conventional society. So, conventional society uses force upon him-force
in the form of laws and formal punishments-to compel his conformity.
Introduction to Society
LET US 3UM UP
Social processes discussed above are found in all the societies, although there
is great variation in emphasis. cooperation may be personal or impersonal,
deliberate or symbiotic in character. Primary groups demand highly personalized
cooperation; secondary- group cooperation is found in most organized social
groups.
Competition serves the function of allocating scarce rewards among the
competitors. It has the additional function of stimulating both individual and
group activity in a manner to increase the total productivity, but it also
discourages the efforts of those who regularly fail.
Conflict develops when attention shifts from the contest itself to an effort to
eliminate rivals. Different mechanisms of eliminating social conflict have been
discussed in preceding pages. Assimilation is also one mechanism of reducing
conflict between two conflicting groups through fusion of two cultures.
Further, social control has been discussed in great detail as one of the
mechanism of maintaining social order - how it operates as a whole, as a
changing equilibrium. Further there are different modes of maintaining this
social control. Individuals are led to conform to social norms through
socialization and also through group pressure. In primary groups, informal
modes of social control play prominent role such as ridicule, laughter, folkways
and mores etc. As we move on to the secondary groups these informal modes
of social control cease to play important role. Here informal modes of social
control are replaced by much formal modes such as formalized rules,
regulations, laws and punishment etc.

KEY W O R ~ S
Social Control : Social control may be defined as any social or cultural
means by which systematic and relatively consistent
restraints are imposed upon individual behaviour and
by which human beings are persuaded and motivated
to behave in accordance with the traditions, patterns
and value framework thought necessary for the smooth
functioning of a group or society.
Social order : A condition/situation of a societylgroup characterized
by the predominance of harmonious social
relationships.
Human behaviour : Any response or reaction of an individual i.e. anything
an individual does, says, thinks or feels.

3.7 SUGGESTED READINGS

Davis,K. (1954), "Human Society ", McGraw-Hill Book company, New York
MacIver, R.M. and Page (1964), "Society: An Introductory Analysis'
Macrnillan Press Ltd. London.
 Social Processes
3.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress I

1) Any society contains hundreds and perhaps thousands of socially defined

relationships. The immediate family alone may contain as many as fifteen.
How many relationships a society utilizes is simply a matter of how
many criteria i t takes into account in defining behaviour between
individuals? The fifteen relationships of the immediate family rest on
three criteria-age, sex and generation. Outside the family an infinite
number of criteria may be used, so there is no limit to the number of
possible relationships.
It follows that to catalogue all the meaningful relationships in which human
beings are involved would be a never-ending task. Instead, they must be
classified and dealt with as general types. Any classification, however,
must have some point to it. In social sciences, as in all natural and physical
sciences, classification is worthless unless it seizes upon traits that are
significant traits that facilitate causal analysis. For this reasons, social
relationships have been classified and discussed in terms of the kind of
irtternctwrt they manifest.
1
1
Check Your Progress I1
'1) Contlict is formally defined as the process of seeking to obtain rewards
by eliminating or weakening the competitors.
Conflict is an ever-piesent process in human relations. It may be solved
at one level, as when there is agreement on ends, and break out anew
over the question of means. One may raise a profound question as to
why conflict is such a constant feature of human society. The answer lies
in the basic nature of human society. Human society is not a tightly
compressed affair buYinstead has a loose integration. The integration is
not on a biological but on a rnentai level. It must be created anew and
constantly maintained through psychic processes such as indoctrination,
inspiration and repetition. It must somehow rest on the possession of
comrnon and extra-personal ends on the part of its members. These ends
cannot come from man's biological but.only frorn communicative contact
with his fellows; they thus differ greatly from one society to another
because they are associated with differences of culture. This, then, gives
first basis of conflict- ethnocentrism- the dislike of people with different
culture and different ultimate ends from one's own.
Check Your Progress 111

1) In contrast to conflict, which aims to destroy or liquidate the opponent,

competition simply aims to out-do the competitor in achieving some
mutually desired goal. It is thus a modified form of struggle. It implies
that there are rules of game to which the competitors must conform and
that behind these rules, justifying and maintaining them, is a common set
of values superior to the competitive interest. It also implies an absence
of coercion. The rules are so arranged that the ends must be obtained by
other methods than fraud or physical force.
Introduction to Society Present day society is characterised by excessive amount of competition.
Today man overlooks the institutions and rules, which alone make
competition work-the protection of property, the enforcement of contracts,
the prevention of fraud. He overlooks the common ends and values which
are not competitive but which are superior to those that are. He forgets
that competition can be vicious as well as beneficent, that it can lead to
starvation in the midst of plenty, to fear and insecurity; to instability and
panic. Today we have forgotten that unlimited competition leads inevitably
to monopoly, that the very success of strong leads to gigantic power over
the weak and creates such inequality that a mockery is made of free
contract.
Check Your Progress IV
1) Whenever groups meet, some mutual interchange or diffusion of culture
takes place. Even groups which seek to prevent such diffusion do not
fully succeed in protecting their culture from all cultural interchange. This
process of mutual cultural diffusion through which persons and groups
come to share a common culture is called assimilation.
Assimilation reduces group conflicts by blending differing groups into
larger, culturally homogenous groups. The bitter riots against the Irish
and the discrimination against Scandinavians in the United States have
disappeared as assimilation has erased the group differences and blurred
the sense of separate group identity.Anything, which binds people into a
larger group, will tend to reduce rivalry and cbnflict between them.