Group Dynamics: How is group behavior structured?

This is the sixth lecture in a series of senior level undergraduate lectures on group dynamics that I created and have been teaching for many years. We all have an intuitive sense about how our society is structured but we don't often think very deeply about it or question it. We all know what roles are and what social norms are but how are they created and maintained and why are they necessary in the first place. We'll explore the incredible psychological constraints that societies use to organize group behavior and look at how you can start gaining insight into these processes. This lecture was edited to remove personal information and student questions (I do not have permission from students to include their responses in a published forum).