Class #13, September 24 Classnotes
Luhman Ch 6: Groups Process in Bad Dads

 

Terms

boundary maintenance
closed group
in-group
out-group
primary group
reference group
secondary group
social group

1. Begin class discussing the film we viewed on Monday, Bad Dads
   1. Draw the link to the concept of deviance and particularly to the idea of punishment
      1. Do we think of punishment as paying a debt or as a way of removing dangerous people that we do not want to have in our midst?
      2. Do we believe in personal change and rehabilitation such that we trust people to become sufficiently different that they no longer are fundamentally criminal? Is criminal an "essential" category or a role that can be changed?
   2. The program we were watching is called Hope for Life and it seems to produce dramatic changes in inmates. What produces those changes?
      1. What are the changes?
      2. What group processes are at work that impact the inmates?
         1. We want to talk about how the group is created and defined.
         2. We want to talk about the use of boudaries to create a sense of who has permission to be part of the group and who is outside.
         3. We want to recognize the way that "bargaining" to become a member requires that inmates at least voice a different definition of self
         4. Role playing and role taking play an important role
            1. The intervention makes some assumptions about EVERYONE having certain primary group and role experiences that are deeply and personally significant
            2. The intervention makes the further assumption that inmates and delinquents usually have had abusive family relationships that were painful and shaped their ways of relating to other primary relationships and to the law.
            3. The group gains impact by causing people to formally acknowledge and to assume these primary group roles as the condition for being part of the group
            4. Then the group builds and enhances the feelings people have kept hidden as a way of getting people committed to an agenda for personal change.
         5. For the role taking process to work there has to be some tough practice in terms of getting people to want to be part of the group and to accept group discipline.
      3. One of the reasons the tape is striking is that we have certain stereotypes or assumptions about what inmates and delinquents are like
         1. That is, we think of them as members of a social category whose members have certain attributes
            1. Toughness and rejection of sympathetic emotions
            2. A willingness to impose their will on others through force without sympathy for the feelings of others
            3. Little cognitive ability to critically examine their own behavior as a way to achieve change.
            4. Little willingness to change
2. This leads into a discussion of the contrast between social groups and social categories, which is the topic for next time.