MODULE: (PREL-PSY9) – GROUP DYNAMIC

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION TO GROUP DYNAMICS

A. Identify the key theoretical frameworks in group dynamics,

B. Develop an open-minded attitude towards learning about
group dynamics,
C. Participate in a role-playing activity simulating the stages of
group formation.

Welcome to the study of groups and their dynamics.

The theories, research findings, definitions,
case studies, examples, tables, and figures that
fill this book’s pages have just one purpose: to
describe and explain all things related to people
and their groups.
Why do we join groups? What holds a group
together? Do our groups change over time?
How do groups influence us and how do we
influence them? When does a group become a
team? Why do some groups get so little done?
What causes conflict in and between groups?
What are groups, and what are their essential
qualities?
These are just a few of the questions asked,
explored, and answered in Group Dynamics.

A group is more than just a collection of people. There is a difference between the people
who are in a park,the work group that is assembling a product, and the team playing football. To

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define the differences between collections of people, groups, and teams, researchers use several
approaches that vary depending on which features are considered important.
From a psychological perspective, two processes define a group: social identification
and social representation (Hayes, 1997).

➢ Social identification refers to the recognition that a group exists separately from others. It
is the creation of a belief in “us versus them.” Identification is both a cognitive process
(classifying the world into categories) and an emotional process (viewing one’s group as
better than other groups).
➢ Social representation is the shared values, ideas, and beliefs that people have about the
world. Over time, belonging to a group changes the ways its members view the world. The
group develops a shared worldview through member interactions.
A group: two or more individuals who are connected by and within social relationships.
Two or More Individuals Groups come in a staggering assortment of shapes and sizes,
from dyads (two members) and triads (three members) to huge crowds, mobs, and assemblies
(Simmel, 1902).
Sociologist John James was so intrigued by the variation in the size of groups that he took
to the streets of Eugene and Portland, Oregon, to record the size of the 9,129 groups he
encountered there. He defined a group to be two or more people in “face-to-face interaction as
evidenced by the criteria of gesticulation, laughter, smiles, talk, play or work” (James, 1951, p.
475).
He recorded pedestrians walking down the city streets, people shopping, children on
playgrounds, public gatherings at sports events and festivals, patrons during the intermissions at
plays and entering movie theaters, and various types of work crews and teams. Most of these
groups were small, usually with only two or three members, but groups that had been deliberately
created for some specific purpose, such as the leadership team of a company, tended to be larger.
His findings, and the results of studies conducted in other settings (e.g., cafeterias, businesses),
suggest that groups tend to “gravitate to the smallest size, two” (Hare, 1976, p. 215; Jorgenson &
Dukes,1976; Ruef, Aldrich, & Carter, 2003).
Who Are Connected Definitions of the word group are as varied as groups themselves,
but a commonality shared by many of these definitions is an emphasis on social relations that link
members to one another.
By and Within Social Relations The relations that link the members of groups are not of
one type. In families, for example, the relationships are based on kinship, but in the workplace,
they are based on task-related interdependencies. In some groups, members are friends, but in
others, the members are linked by common interests or experiences.

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Varieties of Groups
Primary Groups Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley (1909) labeled the small, intimate
clusters of close associates, such as families, good friends, or cliques of peers, primary groups.
These groups profoundly influence the behavior, feelings, and judgments of their members, for
members spend much of their time interacting with one another, usually in face-to-face settings
with many of the other members present. Even when the group is dispersed, members
nonetheless feel they are still “in” the group, and they consider the group to be a very important
part of their lives.
Social (Secondary) Groups In earlier eras, people lived most of their lives in primary
groups that were clustered together in relatively small tribes or communities. But, as societies
became more complex, so did our groups. We began to associate with a wider range of people in
less intimate, more public settings, and social groups emerged to structure these interactions.
Social groups are larger and more formally organized than primary groups, and memberships tend
to be shorter in duration and less emotionally involving.
Collectives Some groups come into existence when people are drawn together by
something— an event, an activity, or even danger—but then the group dissolves when the
experience ends. Any gathering of individuals can be considered a collective, but most theorists
reserve the term for larger, less intricately interconnected associations among people (Blumer,
1951).
Categories A social category is a collection of individuals who are similar to one another
in some way.
As social psychologist Henri Tajfel (1974) explained, members of the same social category
often share a common identity with one another. They know who is in their category, who is not,
and what qualities are typical of insiders and outsiders. This perception of themselves as members
of the same group or social category—this social identity—is “that part of an individual’s self
concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups)
together with the emotional significance attached to that membership” (Tajfel, 1974, p. 69).
Characteristics of Groups
1. Composition: Who Belongs to the Group? To understand a group, we must know
something about the group’s composition: the qualities of the individuals who are members
of the group.

2. Boundaries: Who Does NOT Belong? The relationships that link members to one another
define who is in the group and who is not. A group’s boundary may also be relatively
permeable. In open groups, for example, membership is fluid; members may voluntarily
come and go as they please with no consequences (and they often do), or the group may
frequently vote members out of the group or invite new ones to join. In closed groups, in
contrast, the membership roster changes more slowly, if at all.

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3. Size: How Large Is the Group? A group’s size influences many of its other features,for a
small group will likely have different structures, processes, and patterns of interaction than
a larger one. A group’s size also determines how many social ties—links, relationships,
connections, edges—are needed to join members to each other and to the group.

4. Interaction: What Do Members Do? Groups are the setting for an infinite variety of
interpersonal actions. Sociologist Robert Freed Bales (1950, 1999), intrigued by the
question “What do people do when they are in groups?” spent years watching and recording
people in relatively small, face-to-face groups.

• Task interaction includes all group behavior that is focused principally on the
group’s work, projects, plans, and goals.But groups are not simply performance
engines, for much of what happens in a group is relationship interaction (or
socioemotional interaction).The conjointly adjusted actions of group members that
relate to or influence the nature and strength of the emotional and interpersonal
bonds within the group, including both sustaining (social support, consideration) and
undermining actions (criticism, conflict).

5. Interdependence: Do the Members Depend on Each Other? The acrobat on the trapeze
drops to the net unless her teammate catches her outstretched arms. The assembly line
worker is unable to complete his work until he receives the unfinished product from a worker
further up the line.This interdependence means that members depend on one another; their
outcomes, actions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences are partially determined by others
in the group.

6. Structure: How Is the Group Organized? Group members are not connected to one
another at random, but in organized and predictable patterns. The regularities combine to
generate group structure—the complex of roles, norms, and intermember relations that
organizes the group. Roles specify t he general behaviors expected of people who occupy
different positions within the group. The roles of leader and follower are fundamental ones
in many groups, but other roles—information seeker, information giver, and compromiser—
may emerge in any group (Benne & Sheats, 1948). Group members’ actions and
interactions are also shaped by the group’s norms that describe what behaviors should and
should not be performed in a given context.

7. Goals: What Is the Group’s Purpose? Humans, as a species, seem to be genetically ready
to set goals for themselves—“what natural selection has built into us is the capacity to
strive, the capacity to seek, the capacity to set up short-term goals in the service of longer-
term goals” (Dawkins, 1989, p. 142)—and that tendency is only amplified in groups. Groups
seek a variety of goals, such as those specified by McGrath (1984): generating, choosing,
negotiating, and executing.

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8. Origin: Planned groups (concocted and founded) are deliberately formed, but emergent
groups (circumstantial and self-organizing) come into existence gradually over time (Arrow,
McGrath, & Berdahl, 2000).

9. Unity: Group cohesion, or cohesiveness, is the unity of a group. Group cohesion is the
integrity,solidarity, social integration, unity, and groupiness of a group.

10. Entitativity: The perception of entitativity (groupness), according to Campbell (1958a), is

substantially influenced by common fate, similarity, and proximity cues within
anaggregation. Social psychologist Donald Campbell (1958a) coined the term entitativity
to describe the extent to which a group seems to be a single, unified entity—a real group.

Research conducted by Lickel and his colleagues (2000) suggests that people
spontaneously draw distinctions among primary groups, social groups, collectives, and
more general social categories.

The Thomas Theorem, applied to groups, suggests that if individuals think an

aggregate is “real”—a true group—then the group will have important interpersonal
consequences for those in the group and for those who are observing it (Thomas &
Thomas, 1928).

Groups that are high in entitativity are assumed to have a basic essence that defines
the nature of their members (essentialism).

What are group dynamics?

The word dynamic comes from the Greek dynamikós,which means to be strong,
powerful, and energetic. Dynamic implies the influence of forces that combine, sometimes
smoothly but sometimes in opposition, to create continual motion and change. Group
dynamics, then, are the influential interpersonal processes that occur in and between
groups over time.

1. Group dynamics are the interpersonal processes that occur in and between groups over
time, including the following:

• Formative processes, such as 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, including aspects of group structure (norms, roles,
relationships), conformity and dissent, social power, obedience to group authority,
and leadership

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• Performance processes, such as group productivity, social motivation, working in

teams, and collaborative decision making
• Conflict processes within groups—intragroup conflict—and between groups—
intergroup conflict .
• Contextual processes that are dependent on the group’s physical setting and
specific purpose, including change-promoting groups and large collectives
2. Tuckman’s (1965) theory of group development assumes that over time most groups move
through five stages: forming, storming,norming, performing, and adjourning.

Why study groups and their dynamics?

1. Lewin (1951) first used the phrase group dynamics to describe the powerful processes that
take place in groups, but group dynamics also refers to the scientific study of groups
(Cartwright & Zander, 1968).
2. Individuals are commonly members of groups rather than isolated from them, so to
understand people one must understand groups.
• Due to the fundamental attribution error, the influence of groups on individuals is
often underestimated, particularly by individuals raised in more individualistic,
Western cultures.

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• Groups alter their members’ attitudes, values, and perceptions. Triplett’s (1898)
study of group performance demonstrated the impact of one person on another, but
some groups (primary groups, cults, etc.) influence members in substantial and
enduring ways.
• A review of 25,000 studies indicated that hypotheses about groups yielded clearer
findings than studies of other social psychological topics.

3. Groups influence society.

• Groups mediate the connection between individuals and society at large (Fine,
2012).
• Hofstede’s theory of national cultures identifies the key dimensions of variation that
influence groups and their members, including power distance, individualism,
masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede et al., 2010).

4. Applied studies of groups and their dynamics yield solutions to a number of practical
problems making the study of groups relevant to many professional and scientific fields of
study(Hare et al., 1955).

5. Despite the many problems caused by groups (competition, conflict, poor decisions),
humans could not survive without groups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xNTuj7Q0ns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL6x99-VSBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPcb5mgixgQ

Understanding Group Dynamics by Donelson R. Forsyth

www.cengageasia.com