Meera belongs to her housing society's cleanliness committee in Pune. Its twelve members do not all meet in person; several of them only send and read updates on a phone chat. At each Sunday meeting, Mr. Rao writes the minutes, Meera collects funds and two members check the lanes, and each does the same job every week. Everyone comes on time and stays until the work list is read; a late member gets disapproving looks. Last month a cleanliness drive failed. The other members asked the secretary, the committee's chief, to explain the failure, and none of them saw it as their own lapse.
Everyone comes on time and stays until the work list is read, and a late member gets disapproving looks. The shared standards behind this behaviour of the members are called:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Norms
Option (1) Roles — Incorrect. Roles are the jobs members do each time the group meets, such as Mr. Rao writing the minutes. Coming on time is expected of every member, whatever job he or she does.
Option (2) Cohesiveness — Incorrect. Cohesiveness is the togetherness and mutual attraction among members. It tells how closely members are bound.
Option (3) Status — Incorrect. Status is the position or rank a group gives to a member.
Option (4) Norms — Correct. Norms are the group's unwritten standards. They tell members how they ought to behave and what is expected of them. Coming on time, and the disapproving looks at a late member, show a norm at work.
NCERT (2026-27): “Introduction … “• A gathering of individuals who interact with one another either directly or indirectly.” “• A collection of individuals whose interactions are structured by a set of roles and norms. This means that the group members perform the same functions every time the group meets and the group members adhere to group norms. Norms tell us how we ought to behave in the group and specify the behaviours expected from group members.” |