groups!

Last weekend, I found myself thinking sociologically when i was at my softball tournament. My sociological thinking had to do with groups. Groups, or three or more people connected by need, interest, or relationship, were visible everywhere you could look. During my tournament, I noticed several different types of groups. Whether it was standing in line to buy a t-shirt or working together as a team to win a game, there were many different groupings going on.

My softball tournament this past weekend is connected to sociology because we are discussing groups in society. My team portrays a primary group because we are close, have a lot of face-to-face contact, socialize frequently, and support each other as well. In addition, my team is also a secondary group because we work and interact together as a team, and we were all working together in order to win. Also, each team in the tournament was a reference group because each team compared itself to the other teams in the competition. There were a few kinship groups present as well because some girls' relatives came to watch them play as well as social aggregate groups like the people standing in line for the concession stands and buying t-shirts. Lastly, each team would be an interest group because everyone in the tournament was aiming for a common goal; winning. These were some of the groups that I noticed this weekend, and there are visible ones in everyday society.

One time when I was with my brother and my aunt in Chicago, her wallet was stolen from her purse by a thin, shady looking man. A few people standing around witnessed him steal her wallet.Immediately following the theft, nobody did anything. It wasn't until the man had already started to leave the scene that someone finally stepped in. A man bigger than the thief confronted him and demanded he give the wallet back to my aunt. After the thief returned it and made a quick exit, a few people came up to my aunt and told her they were about to step in but the man beat them to the punch.

This is an example of "will the kindness of strangers stop theft." The kindness of the one man saved my aunt from getting her wallet stolen from her. He may have stepped in because he was not threatened by a man smaller than him or simply because it was the right thing to do. If the thief had been bigger than the man, maybe he would have gotten away with the theft. The other people who came up to my aunt and said they were about to step in may have been telling the truth or just trying to look like good Samaritans. This shows that people may say they'd help but act in the opposite manner.