You Are the Judge

1. (Social Groups) Briefly describe the ant colony by using the following sociological concepts. Be sure to define the concept, and then provide your example/description.

a) Primary groups

b) In-groups

c) Reference groups

In the movie A Bug's Life, the ant colony can easily be defined as a primary group. A primary group is a group of close friends and family that have intimate, face-to-face interactions and provide a sense of belonging and worth. The ant colony was a large group of ants that were related as friends and family and created such an environment. When Flick, an imaginative character is not successful in his inventions or ideas, he feels an intense emotion of shame for letting down his peers because of this primary group bond. This colony is very tight, in that they harvest food together, eat together and even get bullied together. They view their way of life the same and live the same morals and perceptions.

Another type of group that could easily be associated with the ants would be an in-group. An in-group is a group that members feel a loyalty to. In this film, Princess Atta had a sense of loyalty to her colony to be a great leader. Flick also displayed loyalty by risking his life to help his comrades.

Reference groups are those that we use as a measuring tool to evaluate ourselves. A bug's Life portrays elements of these types of group qualities when Flick is consistently trying to make things better for his group of ants. He has inventions and ideas and he uses his peers as a frame of reference to evaluate his performance.

2. (Social Groups) Describe why the grasshoppers would be considered the out-group.

The grasshoppers would likely be considered an out-group because they would be antagonistic to the ants' colony. They bully the ants to harvest their food and are the opposite in their morals and values. They also are a group that does not live near or with the ants.

3. (Leadership) A leader is someone who influences the behaviors, opinions, or attitudes of others. As the upcoming leader of the ant colony, Princess Atta displays several different leadership styles throughout the movie. Choose a style (authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire) that she displayed in the movie, and in your own words, define the leadership style.

Princess Atta displays a democratic leadership style very often throughout the film. Although, she shows elements from multiple leadership styles, I believe her most frequent is democratic. The democratic leadership style is one in which the leader will try to find a reasonable approaches to tasks by gaining multiple perspectives. When Princess Atta grants Flick's wish to leave the ant island, she converses with her peers to gain a consensus of the group. She also had discussed ideas with