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UnwaveringFunction

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Batangas State University

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group dynamics social psychology group behavior interactionism

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This PDF document, titled "Chapter 2: Studying Groups," explores various aspects of group dynamics and behavior. Key topics covered include multilevel perspectives, measurement techniques such as observation. Concepts from social psychology are analysed, like individual and group level analysis. The content appears suitable for undergraduate students studying social sciences.

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COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF GROUP Ms. Aleah Faye L. Cuenca, RPm...

COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF GROUP Ms. Aleah Faye L. Cuenca, RPm [email protected] COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact 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. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE GROUP COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact GROUP-LEVEL ANALYSIS- recognized that humans are the constitutive elements of groups and that groups and their processes have a profound impact on their members. INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ANALYSIS- focused on the person in the group. Researchers who took this approach sought to explain the behavior of each group member, and they ultimately wanted to know if psychological processes such as attitudes, motivations, or personality were the true determinants of social behavior COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Sociologist Émile Durkheim (1897/1966) - traced a highly personal phenomenon—suicide—back to group- level processes. Durkheim strongly believed that widely shared beliefs—what he called collective representations—are the cornerstone of society. He wrote: “emotions and tendencies are generated not by certain states of individual consciousness, but by the conditions under which the social body as a whole exists” COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Psychologist Floyd Allport (1924) - Allport believed that “the actions of all are nothing more than the sum of the actions of each taken separately”, he thought that a full understanding of the behavior of individuals in groups could be achieved by studying the psychology of the individual group members. Groups, according to Allport, were not real entities and warned of the group fallacy. 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; ascribing psychological qualities, such as will, intentionality, and mind, to a group rather than to the individuals within the group. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact GROUP MIND (OR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS) A hypothetical unifying mental force linking group members together; the fusion of individual consciousness or mind into a transcendent consciousness. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact LEWIN AND INTERACTIONISM - Lewin (1951) believed that a group is a unified system with emergent properties that cannot be fully understood by piecemeal examination. Adopting the Gestalt dictum, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” - His field theory is premised on the principle of interactionism, which assumes that the actions, processes, and responses of people in groups (“behavior”) are determined by the interaction of the person and the environment. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact LEWIN AND INTERACTIONISM B= f(P,E) The law of interactionism that states each person’s behavioral, cognitive, and emotional reactions (“behavior”), B, are a function of his or her personal qualities, P, the social environment, E, and the interaction of these personal qualities with factors present in the social environment. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact MULTILEVEL PERSPECTIVE The view that recognizes that a complete explanation of group processes and phenomena requires multiple levels of analysis, including individual (micro), group (meso), and organizational or societal (macro) level. THE MULTILEVEL PERSPECTIVE COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact MEASUREMENT COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact OBSERVATION- A measurement method that involves watching and recording the activities of individuals and groups. Overt observation- Openly watching and recording information with no attempt to conceal one’s research purposes. Covert observation- Watching and recording information on the activities of individuals and groups without their knowledge. Participant observation- Watching and recording group activities as a member of the group or participant in the social process. Hawthorne effect- A change in behavior that occurs when individuals know they are being observed or studied. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact QUALITATIVE STUDY- A research procedure that collects and analyzes nonnumeric, unquantified types of data, such as verbal descriptions, text, images, or objects. STRUCTURED OBSERVATIONAL METHODS- Research procedures that create a systematic record of group interaction and activities by classifying (coding) each overt expression or action into a defined category. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact QUANTITATIVE STUDY- A research procedure that collects and analyzes numeric data, such as frequencies, proportions, or amounts. Interaction Process Analysis (IPA)- A structured coding system used to measure group activity by classifying each observed behavior into one of 12 categories, such as “shows solidarity” or “asks for orientation” (developed by Robert F. Bales). COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG)- A theoretical and structured coding system for recording the activities of a group and the overall behavioral orientation of members (developed by Robert F. Bales). COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Reliability- The degree to which a measurement technique consistently yields the same conclusion at different times. For measurement techniques with two or more components, reliability is also the degree to which these components yield similar conclusions. Interrater reliability- The degree to which two or more raters agree. Validity- The degree to which a measurement method assesses what it was designed to measure. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Self-report measures- Assessment methods, such as questionnaires, tests, or interviews, that ask respondents to describe their feelings, attitudes, or beliefs. Sociometry- A method for measuring the relationships among members of a group and summarizing those relationships graphically (developed by Jacob Moreno). Sociogram- A graphic representation of the patterns of intermember relations created through sociometry. In most cases, each member of the group is depicted by a symbol, such as a lettered circle or square, and relations among members (e.g., communication links and friendship pairings) are indicated by lines from one member to another. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Social network analysis (SNA)- A set of procedures for studying the relational structure of groups and networks mathematically and graphically. Using information about the relationships (ties, edges) linking members (nodes, vertexes), the method yields member-level indexes (e.g., centrality and betweenness), group- level indexes (e.g., density and cohesiveness), and a graphic representation of the unit. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact RESEARCH METHODS IN GROUP DYNAMICS COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Case study- A research technique that draws on multiple sources of information to examine, in depth, the activities and dynamics of a group or groups. Groupthink- A set of negative group-level processes, including illusions of vulnerability, self-censorship, and pressures to conform, that occur when highly cohesive groups seek concurrence rather than objective analysis when making a decision (identified by Irving Janis). Bona fide groups- Naturally occurring groups, such as audiences, boards of directors, clubs, or teams, compared to ad hoc groups created for research purposes. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Correlational study- A research design in which the investigator measures (but does not manipulate) at least two variables and then uses statistical procedures to examine the strength and direction of the relationship between these variables. Reference group- A group or collective that individuals use as a standard or frame of reference when selecting and appraising their abilities, attitudes, or beliefs; includes groups that individuals identify with and admire and categories of noninteracting individuals. Correlation coefficient- A standardized statistic that measures the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables. Often symbolized by r, correlations can range from–1 to +1. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Experiment- A research design in which the investigator (1) manipulates at least one variable by randomly assigning participants to two or more different conditions, (2) measures at least one other variable, and (3) controls the influence of other variables on the outcome. Independent variable- Something that the researcher changes in an experimental study while holding other variables constant and measuring the dependent variable; the causal mechanism in a cause–effect relationship. Dependent variable- The resultant outcomes measured by the researcher; the effect variable in a cause–effect relationship COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Motivational Perspectives Motivations- are psychological mechanisms that give purpose and direction to behavior. These inner mechanisms can be called many things— habits, beliefs, feelings, wants, instincts, compulsions, drives—but no matter what their label, they prompt people to take action. Emotion- A subjective state of positive or negative affect often accompanied by a degree of arousal or activation. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Behavioral Perspectives Behaviorism- A theoretical explanation of the way organisms acquire new responses to environmental stimuli through conditioning (learning). Social Exchange Theory- An economic model of inter personal relationships that assumes individuals seek out relationships that offer them many rewards while exacting few costs. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Systems Perspectives Systems theory- A general theoretical approach that assumes that complex phenomena are the result of the constant and dynamic adjustments that occur between and among the interdependent parts of the whole. Applied to groups, systems theory assumes that groups are open systems that maintain dynamic equilibrium among members through a complex series of interrelated adjustments and processes. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Systems Perspectives Input–Process–Output (I–P–O) model- Any one of a number of general conceptual analyses of groups that assumes raw materials (inputs) are transformed by internal system processes to generate results (output). For example, an I–P–O model of group performance assumes that group-level processes mediate the relationship between individual, group, and situational input variables and resulting performance outcomes. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Cognitive Perspectives Cognitive processes- Mental processes that acquire, organize, and integrate information including memory systems that store data and the psychological mechanisms that process this information. Self-reference effect- The tendency for people to have better memories for actions and events that they are personally connected to in some way. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Cognitive Perspectives Group-reference effect- The tendency for group members to have better memories for actions and events that are related, in some way, to their group COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Biological Perspectives Biological perspectives, including Blascovich’s (2014) Biopsychosocial (BPS) Model of Challenge and Threat, examine how physiological mechanisms influence group behavior by shaping individuals’ responses to social and environmental stressors. This model helps explain how people physiologically and psychologically adapt to different social situations, particularly in group dynamics, leadership, and cooperation. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact Biological Perspectives Hormonal and Neurological Influences Cortisol (stress hormone): Elevated in threat states, leading to avoidance behaviors and interpersonal tension in group settings. Testosterone and dominance behaviors: Challenge states are linked to assertiveness and leadership emergence, while threat states may lead to passivity or aggressive responses. Oxytocin and social bonding: Challenge states encourage trust and teamwork, whereas threat states can reduce social connectedness. COMPANY NAME Home About us Services Blog Portfolio Contact THAT’S ALL!

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