Group Dynamics

• Group


  Two or more individuals who are connected by and within social relationships
• Four basic types/varieties of groups

  • Primary groups
  • Social (Secondary) groups
  • Collectives
  • Social Category
• Primary groups


  • Relatively small, personally meaningful groups that are highly unified
  • ex: families, good friends
• Social (Secondary) groups


  • Larger and more formally organized
  • Memberships tend to be shorter in duration and less emotionally involved
  • ex: work groups, clubs, and congregations, interact with one another over an extended period of time
  • Key source of members' social capital
• Collectives


  • Relatively large aggregations or groups of individuals who display similarities in actions and outlook
  • ex: crowds watching a building burn or audiences seated in a movie theater
• Social Category


  • Shares some common attribute or are related in some way
  • A collection of individuals who are similar to one another in some way
  • ex: Citizens of Ireland are Irish or Americans whose ancestors were from Africa are African Americans
• Characteristics of a group

  • Composition
  • Boundaries
  • Size
  • Interaction
  • Interdependence
  • Structure
  • Goals
  • Origin
  • Unity
  • Entitativity
• Composition


  Who belongs to the group? Person who belongs to a group defines, in part, the nature of the group
• Boundaries


  Who does NOT belong? Groups' boundaries define who is a member and who is not, although open groups and social networks are more permeable than closed groups
• Size


  How large is the group? The number of possible relations in a group increases exponentially as groups increase in size
• Interaction


  What do members do? Bales' Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) system distinguishes between task interaction and relationship interaction
• Task interaction


  The conjointly adjusted actions of group members that pertain to the group's projects, tasks, and goals
• Interdependence


  Do the Members Depend on Each Other? Mutual dependence, as when one's outcomes, actions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences are influenced, to some degree, by other people
• Structure


  How Is the Group Organized? Group interaction is patterned by group structure, including roles, norms, and interpersonal relations
• Goals


  What Is the Group's Purpose? Groups seek a variety of goals, such as those specified by McGrath (1984): generating, choosing, negotiating, and executing
• Origin


  • Planned groups (concocted and founded)
  • Emergent groups (circumstantial and self-organizing)
• Planned groups


  Deliberately formed
• Emergent groups


  Come into existence gradually over time
• Concocted groups


  Planned by individuals or authorities outside the group
• Founded groups


  Planned by one or more individuals who remain within the group
• Circumstantial groups


  Emergent, unplanned groups that arise when external, situational forces set the stage for people to join together
• Self-organizing groups


  Emerge when interacting individuals gradually align their activities in a cooperative system of interdependence
• Unity


  How Cohesive Is the Group? Group cohesion, or cohesiveness, is the unity of a group
• Entitativity


  Does the Group Look Like a Group? To describe the extent to which a group seems to be a single, unified entity—a real group
• Group dynamics


  The interpersonal processes that occur in and between groups over time
• Group dynamics processes


  • Formative processes
  • Influence processes
  • Performance processes
  • Conflict processes
  • Contextual processes
• Formative processes


  The need to belong to and affiliate in groups, contextual factors that promote the formation of groups, and the development of group cohesion
• Influence processes


  Aspects of group structure (norms, roles, relationships), conformity and dissent, social power, obedience to group authority, and leadership
• Performance processes


  Group productivity, social motivation, working in teams, and collaborative decision making
• Conflict processes


  When conflict occurs in a group, the actions or beliefs of one or more members of the group are unacceptable to and resisted by one or more of the other members
• Contextual processes


  Dependent on the group's physical setting and specific purpose, including change-promoting groups and large collectives
• Reasons to study groups and their dynamics


  • To understand people
  • Understanding Social World
  • Application to Practical World
• The field's basic assumptions and procedures, termed a paradigm by Kuhn (1970), were shaped by such early researchers as Le Bon (1895), Wundt (1916), Durkheim (1897), and Allport (1924)
• Paradigm


  Scientists' shared assumptions about the phenomena they study; also, a set of research procedures
• Level of analysis


  The focus of study when examining a multilevel process or phenomenon, such as the individual-level or the group-level of analysis
• Group fallacy


  Explaining social phenomena in terms of the group as a whole instead of basing the explanation on the individual-level processes within the group
• Group mind (or collective consciousness)


  Individuals often attribute mind-like properties to groups
• Lewin's (1951) field theory assumes groups are often greater than the sum of their parts
• Lewin's law of interactionism


  Group processes are a function of both the person and the environment; B = f(P, E)
• A multilevel perspective recognizes that individuals are nested in groups, and these groups are usually nested in larger social aggregations, such as communities and organizations