dominant group

(noun)

a sociological category that holds the majority of authority and power over other social groups

Related Terms

  • proletariat
  • dominant
  • subordinate

Examples of dominant group in the following topics:

  • The Conflict Perspective

    • Conflict theory suggests that men, as the dominant gender, subordinate women in order to maintain power and privilege in society.
    • According to conflict theory, society is defined by a struggle for dominance among social groups that compete for scarce resources.
    • Therefore, men can be seen as the dominant group and women as the subordinate group.
    • While certain gender roles may have been appropriate in a hunter-gatherer society, conflict theorists argue that the only reason these roles persist is because the dominant group naturally works to maintain their power and status.
    • According to conflict theory, social problems are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups.
  • Minorities

    • The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has less power (whether political or economic) than a dominant group.
    • A majority is that segment of the population that outnumbers all others combined or one that is dominant.
    • The assimilation of minority groups into majority groups can be seen as a form of racism.
    • In this process, the minority group sheds its distinctive traits and is absorbed into the dominant group.
    • Voluntary assimilation is usually the case with immigrants, who often adopt the dominant culture established earlier.
  • Prejudice

    • Prejudice is a baseless and usually negative attitude toward members of a group.
    • Negative prejudice is rarely seen in response to one's own group, or ingroup.
    • Researchers have found that ingroup favoritism, or preference for members of the group one belongs to, can occur even when the group had no prior social meaning.
    • Another example of this phenomenon was noted in a study in which researchers asked 90 sorority members to judge the degree of within-group similarity for their own group and two other groups.
    • When in competition for scarce resources, such as housing or employment, dominant groups create prejudiced "legitimizing myths" to provide moral and intellectual justification for their dominant position over other groups.
  • Evolution of Reptiles

    • Dinosaurs and pterosaurs diverged from early amniotes and dominated the Mesozoic Era.
    • These groups remained inconspicuous until the Triassic period when the archosaurs became the dominant terrestrial group due to the extinction of large-bodied anapsids and synapsids during the Permian-Triassic extinction.
    • The dinosaurs were a diverse group of terrestrial reptiles with more than 1,000 species identified to date.
    • Dinosaurs dominated the Mesozoic Era, which was known as the "Age of Reptiles."
    • The dominance of dinosaurs lasted until the end of the Cretaceous period, the end of the Mesozoic Era.
  • Seedless Vascular Plants

    • The vascular plants, or tracheophytes, are the dominant and most conspicuous group of land plants.
    • The diploid sporophyte is the dominant phase of the life cycle , while the gametophyte is an inconspicuous, but still-independent, organism.
    • Throughout plant evolution, there is a clear reversal of roles in the dominant phase of the life cycle.
    • This life cycle of a fern shows alternation of generations with a dominant sporophyte stage.
  • Organization of Interest Groups

    • Interest groups can come in varied forms and organize under different methods.
    • Public policy, in general, is a dynamic interplay of decisions between the President, Congress and interest groups.
    • Neo-Pluralism: This is based on the concept of political communities in that pressure groups and other similar bodies are organised around a government department and its network of client groups.
    • Corporatism: Some pressure groups are backed by private businesses that have heavy influence on the legislature.
    • Discuss the theories behind interest groups and their effects on government
  • Leadership in Groups

    • While leadership styles vary, effective group leaders are characterized by group involvement, mutual respect, and excellent communication.
    • A group leader must be responsible for not only participating in the group and ensuring that the group's goal is attained, but also for motivating the team, delivering success, and being a resource that group members can reach out to for help.
    • When working in a group, it is important to have a common goal around which group members can unite.
    • When leaders find that they have particularly strong-willed group members who seem to dominate the conversations, or several group members who do not seem to get along, communication can often be the key to resolving the conflict.
    • Effective leaders both participate in the group and work to achieve the overall goal of the group, guiding members in the right direction.
  • Authority

    • Authority is the legitimate or socially approved use of power that a person or a group holds over another.
    • Authority, by contrast, depends on subordinate groups consenting to the use of power wielded by superior groups.
    • Max Weber, in his sociological and philosophical work, identified and distinguished three types of legitimate domination (Herrschaft in German, which generally means 'domination' or 'rule').
    • These have sometimes been translated to English as types of authority, because domination is not seen as a political concept.
    • Weber defined domination (authority) as the chance of commands being obeyed by a specifiable group of people.
  • The Punnett Square Approach for a Monohybrid Cross

    • The dominant seed color is yellow; therefore, the parental genotypes were YY (homozygous dominant) for the plants with yellow seeds and yy (homozygous recessive) for the plants with green seeds, respectively.
    • If the pattern of inheritance (dominant or recessive) is known, the phenotypic ratios can be inferred as well.
    • They are grouped together.
    • If the dominant-expressing organism is a homozygote, then all F1 offspring will be heterozygotes expressing the dominant trait.
    • A test cross can be performed to determine whether an organism expressing a dominant trait is a homozygote or a heterozygote.
  • Alternatives to Dominance and Recessiveness

    • An example of codominance is the MN blood groups of humans.
    • The variant may be recessive or dominant to the wild-type allele.
    • In cases of multiple alleles, dominance hierarchies can exist.
    • In this case, the wild-type allele is dominant over all the others, chinchilla is incompletely dominant over Himalayan and albino, and Himalayan is dominant over albino.
    • Discuss incomplete dominance, codominance, and multiple alleles as alternatives to dominance and recessiveness
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