Understanding Group Dynamics

• Group dynamics are influential actions, processes, and changes with and between groups over time, scientifically studied.
• Group dynamic's purpose involves studying how individuals in a group interact to achieve a goal, improve collaboration, resolve conflicts, enhance decision-making, increase performance, and improve satisfaction.

Nature of Groups

• Fish swimming in synchronized unison are called a school.
• A pack of foraging baboons is a troupe.
• A threesome of crows cawing in a meadow is a murder.
• A gam is a group of whales.

What is a Group?

• A group consists of two or more individuals connected by social relationships.
• A group can range in size from two to thousands of members.
• Dyads, triads, mobs, crowds, and congregations all belong to groups.
• Georg Simmel studied group sizes back in 1902.

Purpose of Groups

• Groups help to accomplish a goal and share a common interest.
• Groups advocate for a cause and give a sense of belonging, support, and resources.

Benefits of Joining Groups

• Improved communication
• Better collaboration
• Decision-making
• Developing trust
• Learning new skills
• Providing social support

Key Group Terminology

• Membership means part of, or included in, a social group.
• Network is a set of interconnected individuals/groups linked by relational ties.
• Social identity refers to aspects of self-concept derived from group relationships/memberships, qualities held in common by group members.

Types of Group Interactions

• Relationship interaction refers to actions influencing emotional and interpersonal bonds within groups, including both positive (support, consideration) and negative actions (criticism/conflict).
• Task interaction refers to actions related to the group's projects, tasks, and goals.

Model of Group Tasks

• The Circumplex Model of Group Tasks is a conceptual taxonomy by Joseph McGrath organizing group tasks in a circular pattern.
• The tasks are based on continuums: cooperative-competitive and conceptual-behavioral.
• Interdependence refers to the degree of dependence on other people.
• For example, one's outcomes, actions, feelings, and thoughts are determined by others to varying degrees.

McGrath's Task Circumplex Model: Task Division

• Groups that are generating will concoct strategies to achieve goals (Type 1: planning tasks) or create new ideas (Type 2: creativity tasks).
• Groups that are choosing will make decisions about issues with correct solutions (Type 3: intellective tasks) or questions with many answers (Type 4: decision-making).
• Groups that are negotiating will resolve differences of opinion (Type 5: cognitive conflict tasks) or competitive disputes (Type 6: mixed-motive tasks).
• Groups that are executing do things, take part in competitions (Type 7: contests/battles/competitive tasks), work together (Type 8: performance/psychomotor tasks).

Group Structure Defined

• Group structure is the underlying pattern of roles, norms, and relations among members that organizes groups.
• A "role" represents a coherent set of behaviors for people occupying specific positions within a group.
• A "norm" represents a consensual standard describing what behaviors should/should not be performed in a given context.
• Cohesion refers to the strength of bonds linking individuals to, and in, the group.
• Entitativity refers to the extent an assemblage of individuals is perceived as a group in itself, and not just a collection of unrelated, independent individuals.

Primary Groups (Type 1)

• Small, long-term, face-to-face interaction. Examples include families and friendship cliques, which have high levels of solidarity, interdependence and identifying to one another.
• Charles Cooley believed primary groups shape the attitudes, values, and social orientation of members by acting as a source of socialization.

Social Groups (Type 2)

• Small groups of moderate duration characterized by moderate levels of interaction over longer periods, often in goal-focused contexts.
• Examples include sports teams, fraternities, coworkers, task forces, crews, expeditions, and study groups.

Collectives (Type 3)

• Aggregations of individuals that spontaneously form, last briefly, and have permeable boundaries.
• Examples include audiences, bystanders, crowds, mobs, and waiting lines.

Categories (Type 4)

• Aggregations of individuals similar to one another such as nationality, ethnicity, religion or gender.
• Examples include Asian Americans, US Citizens, physicians, New Yorkers, and women.

Thomas Theorem in Real-World Examples

• Thomas Theorem states that an individual's understanding of a social situation determines how one will act, even if incorrect.
• "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Thomas & Thomas, 1928, p. 572).
• Essentialism is believing that all things, including individuals and groups, have a basic nature that makes them unique.
• This basic nature is relatively unchanging and gives rise to surface qualities.

Characteristics of Groups

• Interaction: Groups create, organize, and sustain task/relationship-oriented interactions among members.
• Goals: Groups have instrumental purposes and facilitate the achievement of aims/outcomes.
• Interdependence: Group members depend on each other, influencing and being influenced by one another.
• Structure: Groups are organized, individuals are connected in a pattern that include relationships, roles, and norms.
• Unity: Groups consist of cohesive arrangements of individuals that perceivers consider unified wholes.

Formal Group Dynamics

• Characterized by specific norms, rules and values.
• Examples include the army and school.

Informal Group Dynamics

• Not strictly defined; flexible rules and regulations.
• Common examples are social clubs and play groups.

Organized Group Dynamics

• These groups have specific purposes and are formed after careful planning.
• Examples of this group are family and school.

Spontaneous Group Dynamics

• Usually are formed suddenly and without prior planning.
• Examples are music audiences or sports spectators.

Task Group Dynamics

• Involve people gathered to achieve a common task within a time frame.
• An example is a special task force.

Functional Group Dynamics

• Formed when a group of people join together to accomplish a certain task within an unlimited time.
• These groups continue to exist even after the goals are achieved.

Group Study Terminology

• Paradigm relates to scientists' shared assumptions about phenomena and associated research procedures.
• Level of Analysis means specific study focus from a graded sequence of possible foci.
• Individual-level analysis examines individuals in the group.
• Group-level analysis focuses on the group as a unit.
• Organizational-level analysis examines the individual nested in the group, which is nested in the organizational context.
• Collective Conscious refers to a unifying mental force that links group members together and unites individual consciousness.
• Groupmind is a supra-individual level of consciousness linking members in a psychic, telepathic connection.
• Action Research, term created by Kurt Lewin, describes scientific inquiry that expands knowledge and identifies solutions to significant social problems.

Stages of Group Development

• Forming: The initial stage for establishing ground rules.
• Storming: Characterized by conflict as members assert opinions and compete for roles.
• Norming: The group builds cohesion and cooperates effectively.
• Performing: The team focuses on achieving goals with clear roles and collaboration.
• Adjourning: Final stage involving wrapping up/reflecting on the experience.

Multilevel Perspective: Levels of Analysis in Group Settings

• The multilevel perspective examines group behavior from different levels of analysis.
• These include individual level (micro), group level (meso), organizational/societal level (macro.).

Measurement of Group Dynamics

• Refers to the methods used to quantify and asses various aspects of group behavior, interaction, and performance.

Types of Measurement

• Observation (Qualitative: Observational data and in-depth insights)
• Self-report (Quantitative: Self-report measures and numerical data)

Observations in Group Dynamics

• A measurement method that involves watching and recording individual group actions.
• Direct observations involve researchers watching interactions/behaviors.
• Participant observation involves watching recordings while taking part in the social process.

Observations: Covert vs. Overt

• Covert observation involves watching/recording group behavior without the participants' knowledge.
• Overt observation means openly watching/recording behavior, the researcher makes no attempts to conceal their purposes.

Advantages & Limitations of Observation

• Advantages: Real-time, direct data collection; captures non-verbal cues/interactions.
• Limitations: Observer bias, Hawthorne Effect and being resource-intensive.

Structured Observation for Analyzing Dynamics

• Structured observation involves using specific guidelines/coding schemes to record behaviors systematically.
• Behavioral coding: Coding group members' behaviors (e.g., who speaks when).
• Interaction analysis: Examining how often and in what way members interact.
• Structured observations can miss subtler group dynamics, but it is consistent.

Key Elements of Self-Reports

• A research procedure that classifies (codes) group members' actions into defined categories.
• Involves questionnaires and surveys designed with perception-based questions.
• Likert Scales rate statements (e.g., “I feel my ideas are valued in the group”).
• Interviews are structured and the questions are about experiences and observations.

Important Measurement Factors

• Reliability refers to the degree to which a measurement technique yields consistent results over time.
• Validity refers to the degree to which a measurement method assesses what it was designed to measure.

Sociometry Methods of Measurement

• Sociometry is a research technique from Jacob Moreno that summarizes patterns of intermember relations graphically and mathematically.
• Sociograms give a graphic representation of intermember relations, depicted symbolic by types of relationships, and shows various capped lines.

Observation versus Self-Report

• Real-time data collection versus observer bias are part of observations
• Capturing non-verbal cues versus Hawthorne effect is part of observations
• Can be unobtrusive versus resource intensive
• Easy to administer to large groups versus Social desirability bias are part of the self-report
• Measures individual perceptions versus limited depth in understanding dynamics as part of the self-report
• Can be structured or unstructured versus may not accurately reflect actual group dynamics

Theories Explained

• Theories provide a way of turning fragmented factual information into organized knowledge.
• Theories share basic assumptions with types of outcomes.

Motivations (Psychological mechanisms)

• Psychological mechanisms that give purpose and direction to behavior.
• Group affective tone theory studies emotion-drive approaches.
• Jennifer George studied the theory of group in terms of happiness.
• Positive influences lead to increased pro-group actions, including helping out.

Emotions (Feelings)

• Feelings of happiness/sadness/satisfaction that influence how people act in groups.

Key Behaviorism Theories

• Behaviorism is built on two assumptions.
• Psychologist B.F. Skinner studied that psychological processes may shape reactions in groups, but difficult to index.
• Behavior are consistent with the law of effect which dictates behaviors will change positively, and negatives will disappear over time.

Exchange Theory

• Social exchange theory extended Skinner's behaviorism to groups.
• Economic models shows that individuals seek relationships that offer them many rewards while exacting few costs.

Systems Theory Perspectives

• Assumes groups are complex, adaptive, dynamic systems consisting of interacting individuals.

Systems Theory Models

• Systems theories put emphasis on inputs that trigger processes within a group who works on a task.
• Also looks at the outputs generated by the system.

Cognitive Approaches to Group Dynamics

• A group's dynamics become understandable through the cognitive processes.
• Members gather information, make sense of it; and then act on the results of their mental appraisals.
• Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) from John Turner (1991,1999).

Self-Categorization Theory (SCT)

• Cognitive mechanisms align self-conceptions with how they align to groups.

Perspectives on Biology

• This shows that the human species evolved socially, as well as physically in the last 15 million years.
• Evolutionary psychology shares insight into group processes, conflict, and aggression.

Selecting a Theoretical Perspective

• Some of these theories trace group processes back to psychological processes, motivations, their conception of their environments, instincts, and proclivities.