Membership groups Definition and characteristics

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Robert Johnston
Membership groups Definition and characteristics

Learn about membership groups It can be important to understand some aspects of the human being as being gregarious. With this concept we refer to social groups of which we all belong by choice or involuntarily.

We involuntarily belong, for example, to a country, a family, or a religious belief until we have the ability to choose.

Electively we belong to the groups of things that we love and choose to build throughout our lives.

Next we are going to talk about them and the importance they have, how they influence us and how we influence them.

What are membership groups?

The membership groups are the groups of people that are formed by certain characteristics of affinity between them and that make them feel recognized and valued as part of something.

This affiliation can be given in different ways: family, territorial, by religious beliefs, politics, sports that are practiced or sports teams of preference, for recreational reasons (with whom we like to go for a walk, go out to party), artistic, etc..

The same person tends to interact with different groups of belonging, and this participation is fundamental in the formation of their identity, a subject of special importance among adolescents. 

Importance of membership groups

The importance of the groups of belonging is based on the fact that they determine many behaviors of the human being, affect the development of the personality, in the way in which we relate to each other, the way we dress, preferences, aversions, the values ​​and also the antivalues.

The first group to which we belong is the family group. The identity that we acquire in our first years of life is related to our parents and siblings.

We learn from them how the different roles behave, how to relate to our peers, the models of future relationships from there until adulthood.

Often times, the sense of belonging and value that groups offer strengthens self-esteem and provides a sense of life by allowing an individual to recognize himself as a fundamental part of a whole, as a participant and member of something that, without him, would be incomplete. 

This characteristic of needing to be part of something, of feeling accepted and recognized, It is particularly important in adolescence when almost all of us break with the family nucleus and look for others with whom to identify., more akin to our newly discovered awakening of the senses and self-determination.

At this point there is a great risk, especially if family support has been deficient and has left gaps in self-esteem, traces of abuse or identification patterns fed by soap operas or video games in which the law is frequently idolized. the strongest, gang members and easy money. 

If these are the bases that define the choice by a group, it may happen that young people allow themselves to be seduced into criminal behaviors to gain acceptance, which is unfortunate in the construction of the personality of an individual and a society. 

It should also be noted that man is a gregarious being by nature, is born defenseless and vulnerable and is always in relationship and dependence on others to grow, learn, communicate, function in life.

Associating with others allows you to achieve greater goals than you can achieve alone and by doing so you learn to work as a team, to take responsibility, to delegate and to trust others, tools that are of great importance for life in community..

Types of membership groups (social groups)

According to sociology, social groups are classified according to the degree of closeness that exists between the people who compose them. From this concept, two large groups are born: primary and secondary.

Primary groups

Primary groups are those in which close ties are woven between their members. They tend to be of few people and their ties are very close and long-lasting..

The term "primary" is coined because They are the primary source of relationships and spaces for socialization of individuals. In them, through affection, the first lessons of care, security and trust are given.

These are also the ones that mark values, attitudes towards life, determine beliefs about how we should be in front of the world, how others should be and how we believe and create the world around us.. 

The most important primary group is the family, however, as we grow, we very often choose other groups that fulfill these functions and that may even replace the blood family, since not always the place where we were born offers coincidences with our values.

Some groups that can become primary are the groups of close friends.. Throughout life we ​​choose other siblings from different mothers and fathers and we come to share deeper things about our being, with them, than with the family nucleus, which passes to another plane and with which we can lose affinity.

And even if we lose affinity with the family group, it will continue to be a group of unbreakable ties and rarely displaceable from its “primary” name, as it will continue to unconsciously mark the relationships we build throughout life and our behavior..

Secondary groups

Secondary groups are those in which there is not much closeness between their members. They can be large or small, and are limited by a common goal, spatial and temporal.

An example of this type of group is belonging to a soccer team, a school, a university, a political party, a church..

In some of these groups it is possible that people come to forge close ties, however, these tend to dissolve when the circumstances that unite them end, as happens with most of the classmates.

Of course, some of these can become part of the primary groups and maintain close relationships that last for a long time..

We hope that with this explanation it has become clear to you what membership groups are and how they influence our development.


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