ABSTRACT
This chapter describes three groups, the Bank Wiring Observation Room, the Norton Street Gang, and the Tikopia family. It discovers nothing new in the relationships between the elements of behavior. The chapter shows that as the activities the members of the group perform in the external system decrease in number, their interaction in the external system necessarily decreases. It emphasizes the environment at the expense of the others, it is not the only set of "given" factors. Yet though the internal system always elaborates on the external, the "given" factors may still set limits on the distance the development can go. The study of equilibrium was bridge to the study of social change. As the frequency of social interaction decreases, the norms of the group become less well defined and less strongly held, and, since social rank is determined by the degree to which a man lives up to the norms, social rank also becomes less firmly established. The student of human affairs must always remember that his search is at its beginning, not its end.
