



Class Exercise
What is a group?

Members of groups interact




Groups have structure
Groups have goals
Members identify themselves as a group
Groups have two or more members
History of group dynamics

Late 19 th Century & LeBon



Psychological Perspective
Sociological Perspective
Today’s Group Dynamics
Dracula Exercise


1) List everything you do in a typical day from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep.
 2) Write at least ten different answers to the following question:
Who am I?

3) Count on your list all of the activities you perform with groups and those you perform alone.
Calculate a percentage of group activities.

4) Count on your list descriptions that include information about the groups we belong to (and those that don’t). Calculate a percentage.

 Groupness



Size
Interdependence
Temporal pattern
 Groups are ‘groupier’ when they are small, able to interact on a variety of issues, and have a past and envision a future

 Group structure




Norms
Roles
Status Systems
Communication structure
Structure

 Goals




Generating
Choosing
Negotiating
Executing
 Tension between 2 goals:


Task accomplishment
Socioemotional needs

Members Identify Themselves as a Group
 If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
 “a group exists when two or more people define themselves as members of it and when its existence is recognized by at least one other”
(Brown, 1988)

 Dyad
 2 person group
 Group
 Two or more interacting, interdependent people

th
 Study of groups began in late
1800s
 Collective mind (LeBon)

Contagion
 Roots in psychology and sociology

 Social facilitation
 Triplett (1898)

Noticed bicyclists performed better when riding with others



Study with children performing simple task either alone or with others.
Results:

Children performed better when in the presence of others compared to when alone
But groups aren’t real…


“There is no more magic behind the fact that groups have properties of their own, which are different than the properties of their subgroups or their individual members, than behind the fact that molecules have properties which are different from the properties of the atoms or ions of which they are composed.” -Lewin
 Field theory


B = f (P, E)
Lifespace
 Research Center for Group
Dynamics

Adapted experimentation to the problems of group life
 Groups could be studied scientifically

 Groups of 10- and 11-year- old boys to meet after school to work on various hobbies.
 Each group included a man who adopted one of three leadership styles

Autocratic, democratic, or laissez-faire
 Results:
 Autocratic: worked more only when leader watched; more hostile
 Democratic: worked even when leader left
 Laissez-faire: Worked the least

 Lewin: Theoretical and applied research should go hand in hand
Theory
Practice

 Experimental model- trying to gain respect
 Study of small groups, in the lab, with undergraduates, manipulating one factor

Cause-effect
 Research in the 60s and 70s





Conformity
Group polarization
Helping
Social facilitation
Group aggression

 Bystander Effect
(Latane & Darley,1970)
 Study in Beverage Center

Staged robberies in stores
 When clerk went to back, 2 robbers stole merchandise
 Conditions:

Stole with only one other shopper

Stole with a few other shoppers
 Results:
 Alone shoppers more likely to report theft!

 Cannot mimic the complex environment
 Cannot mimic ebb and flow of groups over time

 In 1950s sociologists looked at groups as miniature social systems
 Forefathers of sociological thought:



Durkheim
Cooley
Mead
 New Measurement techniques:

Sociometry
 Interaction Process Analysis

 Today, research is conducted by a variety of disciplines
 Psychologists, communication researchers, social workers, sociologists…
 Today group dynamics researchers use a variety of research methods
 Much research focuses on real world groups


This problem solving exercise will be a good introduction to group dynamics.

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
TASKS:
Read situation sheet
Individually create a plan
Individually rank items from most important to least important
1)
2)
As a group, rank items again
Score your own and your groups ranking
Use answer sheet and compute absolute values
The lower the score the better!










Answer the following questions.
What is the group’s goal
What were the patterns of communication?
How did leadership emerge in the group?
What determined how influential each member was?
What method of decision making was used and how effective was it?
Why/why didn’t members challenge each other?
What conflict arose and how were they managed?
What actions by the group members helped/hurt the team?