Sociological study relies on the ability to classify the people being studied in order to arrive at correct conclusions. Classifications include groups, aggregates, and categories.
Groups
A group consists of two or more people who are distinct in the following three ways:
- Interact over time.
- Have a sense of identity or belonging.
- Have norms that nonmembers don’t have.
Example: A class of students is a group. Classes by definition consist of more than two people, meet at least a few times a week for an entire semester, and identify themselves on the basis of what classes they are taking. Students in a class must follow that professor’s class and test schedule, as well as rules for behavior and contribution in class.
Many different types of groups exist in industrialized societies, including school classes, social clubs, sports teams, neighborhood associations, religious communities, and volunteer organizations. Within any group, it is not uncommon for a few people to have an especially close relationship and form a clique, which is an internal cluster or faction within a group.
Aggregate
The word group is sometimes confused with the word aggregate. An aggregate is a collection of people who happen to be at the same place at the same time but who have no other connection to one another.
Example: The people gathered in a restaurant on a particular evening are an example of an aggregate, not a group. Those people probably do not know one another, and they’ll likely never again be in the same place at the same time.
Category
A category is a collection of people who share a particular characteristic. They do not necessarily interact with one another and have nothing else in common.
Example: Categories of people might include people who have green eyes, people who were born in Nevada, and women who have given birth to twins.
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- Definitions of Aggregate
- Examples of Aggregate
- Aggregate Pronunciation
- Usage Notes
- Related Quotation
- Related Video
- Additional Information
- Related Terms
- Reference
- Works Consulted
- Cite the Definition of Aggregate
Definitions of Aggregate
- (noun) A collection of anonymous individuals who are temporarily in the same physical location, with minimum interaction and influence on each other and without a sense of group solidarity.
- (noun) A collection of individuals that share a commonality and are combined to create a category for study.
Examples of Aggregate
- Definition 1:
- shoppers at a mall; 2. drivers on the same road; 3. people standing in a line to buy tickets to a show
- Definition 2:
- ethnic groups; 2. people on the “left” and “right” of politics
Aggregate Pronunciation
Pronunciation Usage Guide
Syllabification: ag·gre·gate
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /A-gri-gayt/
- British English – /A-grigit/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈæɡrəɡət/
- British English – /ˈaɡrᵻɡət/
Usage Notes
- Plural: aggregates
- Not to be confused with crowds.
- To break down an aggregate into its constituent parts you (verb) disaggregate it through the process of (noun) disaggregation.
Related Quotation
- “When we think of a crowd, many of us think of aggregates, . . . a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time but who share little else in common. However, the presence of a relatively large number of people in the same location does not necessarily produce collective behavior” (Kendall 2011:659).
Related Video
Additional Information
- Word origin of “aggregate” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
- case study
- collective behavior
- crowd
- ecological fallacy
- group
- groupthink
- individual
- population
- primary group
- secondary group
- socialization
Reference
Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Works Consulted
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2011. Sociology: The Core. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ritzer, George and J. Michael Ryan, eds. 2011. The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Shepard, Jon M. 2010. Sociology. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Shepard, Jon M., and Robert W. Greene. 2003. Sociology and You. New York: Glencoe.
Stolley, Kathy S. 2005. The Basics of Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Thompson, William E., and Joseph V. Hickey. 2012. Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology. 7th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Tischler, Henry L. 2011. Introduction to Sociology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (//en.wiktionary.org).
Cite the Definition of Aggregate
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “aggregate.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved October 11, 2022 (//sociologydictionary.org/aggregate/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
aggregate. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from //sociologydictionary.org/aggregate/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “aggregate.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed October 11, 2022. //sociologydictionary.org/aggregate/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“aggregate.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2022. <//sociologydictionary.org/aggregate/>.