Groups in a Sociological Sense

This past week in sociology we did an activity based on the 1957 movie titled Abandon Ship. In the activity we analyzed the process by which seven of the passengers of a life boat were chosen to be set adrift due to the limited space on the boat. Through this activity we saw the underlying groups that influenced the decisions, and the reasoning behind them. The criteria tended to be whether or not you were healthy and how useful you were. People like the college student who was epileptic and the traveling poet who did not bring anything to the table in terms of survival were set a drift because of these reasons. This helps us see the groups formed on both a macro level and on a micro level. The macro groups created the reasoning behind which the decisions were made, (ie: health, family, age, usefulness, etc.) However the micro groups were not as easily seen as the macro groups. The micro groups are the level of outspokenness of a person, where people sit, who is a leader/follower, etc. Through the micro groups, the criteria for which macro groups to set a drift was created. This relates the everyone because everyone belongs to certain macro and micro groups. For instance in terms of macro groups I am a high school student, a student at Stevenson, and seventeen years of age just to name a few. And in terms of micro groups I am a little more reserved, opinionated, and like to sit in the back of the room. The groups we are in also tend to affect the decisions we make for instance since I am a member of the Swiech family my decisions are affected by the morals my family has taught me, and since I am friends with a particular groups of people my tastes tend to mirror theirs. The groups we are in shape our overall lives, and how we are raised. They shape our decisions, our likes, and also what is expected of us.