Social Groups

Social Group Functions
•Physical: satisfy needs of food, shelter, protection.
•Psychological: cope with stress by getting comfort and reassurance, approval, friendship, recognition and power.
•Material: To supply economic needs.
•Cultural: Join with people of similar beliefs, backgrounds and customs.
•Other: personal attraction.
Characteristics of Social Groups
•Age of members
•Sex (gender)
•Size
•Methods of determining members
•Initiation ceremonies
•Visual methods of showing membership
•Other methods of showing membership
•Aims or Goals
•Rules and Social norms
•How members are rewarded
•How members are punished
•Reasons for joining
•Reasons for leaving
•Structure of members and leaders

Click here and see if you can identify some common groups http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/words/Activities/subcultures.html
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Subcultures for list of sub-cultural groups
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescent_Subcultures for young subculture groups