Chapter 1: Defining Groups PDF

Chapter 1 **Defining groups** **Group:** Two or more people who are connected by and within social relationships \- "in face-to face interaction, criteria; laughter, smiles, talk, play or work -groups tend to gravitate to the smallest size of 2 -social relations that link members to one another...

Chapter 1 **Defining groups** **Group:** Two or more people who are connected by and within social relationships \- "in face-to face interaction, criteria; laughter, smiles, talk, play or work -groups tend to gravitate to the smallest size of 2 -social relations that link members to one another Collection of humans: eye colour, fav sport team, birth date - A family is a group because the member are connected not by just blood but social and emotional connection Family- based on kinship Work-place- based on task-related interdependencies A diagram of groups of people Description automatically generated Primary groups: A small, long term group characterized by frequent interaction, solidarity and high levels of interdependence- that influence attitudes, values, and social outcomes - Adventure groups go on so many expeditions that they are more like family - They transform individuals into social beings - Protect members from harm, care for them when ill, provide shelter ans sustenance - They also create connection Social (secondary) groups - Are larger and more formally organized than primary groups and memberships tend to be shorter in duration - Less emotional involving (work) - Boundaries are more permeable, can leave and join new groups - Know as association groups, task groups, gesellschaften - Americans are higher in voluntary associations - Canadians, Scandinavians, Dutch are groupie Collectives - Formed when people are drawn together by something - Event, activity or even danger -- groups dissolve when the experience ends - Reserve term for larger collective - A relatively larger aggregation or group of individuals who display similarities in action and outlook - Street crowd, line of people, a panicked group escaping a fire - Watching abuilding burn gatherings of collage students protesting - Social movements dispersed over a wide area - Joined by common interest or shared actions - Happenstance, convenience, short lived experience Social capital; the degree to which individuals, groups, or larger aggregates of people are liked in social relationships that yield positive, productive benefits; analogous to economic capital (fiscal prosperity) Categories - Social category - A collection of people who are similar to one another in some way - Citizen of Ireland are Irish, Iranians are Persian - Men who like men, gay - If they have no social implication, then it just describes features in common - if these categories set in motion personal or interpersonal processes - st. Patrick day cause they are Irish - people responding differently to black people - then category might be transformed into highly influential group - they share common identity with one another - they know who is in there category and who's not - SOCIAL CATEGORY; perception of themselves in a members of the same group or social category - Derived from relationship and memberships in groups: - Those aspects of self that are assumed to be common to most or all of the members of the same group or social category - Can create division between people "we/ us" vs "them/they" - Stereotypes: a socially shared set of qualities, characteristics and behavioural expectation ascribed to a particular group or category of people Characteristics of groups - Composition: who belongs to the group? - The individuals who constitute a group - Groups my be more than the sum of their parts but each part defines the whole - Boundaries: who does not belong - The relationship that links members to one another - Psychological sense; those who are included in the group are recognized as members and those who are not part of the group are excluded outsiders - Sometimes publicly acknowledged: both member and non-members know who belong or not; - Honor society, a rock band, or a baseball team - Sometime boundaries are only known to the group members - A secret society would not revel its existence to outsiders - A groups boundary may be permeable - In open group, membership is fluid: members may voluntary come and go as they please with no consequences - Group may vote members out, invite new ones - Open groups unlikely to reach states of equilibrium, bc people may leave or come back any time - - Closed groups: membership roaster roster changes more slowly, if at all - More cohesive as competition for membership is irrelevant - Closed group is more likely to focus on collective nature of the group and to identify with group - How large is the group? - Two person group is so small that ceases to exist when one leaves - Dyads; lovers, best friends - Emotional bond so intense that they belong in their own category - Social ties; links, connections, edges- are needed to join members to each other to the group - Number of social ties = n(n-1) /2 - Large groups break up into smaller amounts - What do members do? - Groups are setting for infinite variety of interpersonal actions \\ - Two types - Those focused on the task the group was dealing with - Those that sustained, strengthen, or weakened interpersonal relationship within the group - Task interaction - Includes all group all group behaviour that is focused principally on the groups work, projects, plans and goal - Members must coordinate their various skills, resources and motivations so they can make a decision - Relationship interaction (socioemotional interaction) - If group members weaken and need support; others will gas them up with kind words and other forms of help - If group members disagree with other they are often roundly criticized and made to feel foolish (criticism, conflict) - Compliments or criticism sustain or weaken emotional bonds linking the members to one another and to the group - Interdependence: do the members depend on each other - Mutual dependence, as when ones outcomes, actions, thoughts, feelings experience are influenced to some degree, by other people - There actions (line work) outcomes, thoughts feelings and experiences are partially determined by others in the group - Some are made for interdependence; store line ups, audience members at movies - Can reach goal on their own - Gangs , family, sports team and military squads =high levels of interdependence - Examples of interdependence among group members  b\) Business where boss determines how people spend their days, vacation days c\) Employees have an influence on boss, but boss still influences them on a greater extent d\) outcomes are determined by other person How is the group organized? - Groups are not connected to one another at random, but organized and predictable patterns - Patterns and regularities emerge to determines the kinds of actions that are permitted or condemned - Who talks to whom, who likes who and who dislikes whom, who can be counted on to preform particular task, who you look for guidance for - Group structure- the complex of roles, norms, and intermember relations that organize the group - Roles; specify the general behaviours expected of people who occupy different positions within the group, - Leader, follower (fundamental ones) - Information seeker, information giver, compromiser - Groups actions are shaped by group norms - What behaviour should or should not be performed in a given context - More climbers reached the top of the mountain with a hierarchal culture - But more people also died in these groups Goals: What is the groups purpose? - Humans as species are genetically ready to set goals for themselves - A study group wants to help members get better grade, a jury makes decision about guilt or innocence - The members of groups pursue their own goal but because of their goals are interdependent, groups promote the pursuit of other members goals and group-level goals - Groups pursue approach - Classification and judgment tasks - 3 categories: production, discussion and problem-solving goals - JOSEPH MCGRATH Third model four basic group goals; generating, choosing, negotiating, executing - Generating (when we were brainstorming ideas for the product) - Choosing (when we were choosing which ones to use) - Negotiating (when we were trying to see which one is the best one to show the teacher) - Executing (when we showed/ preformed the idea to the teacher) Origin founded or formed? - Groups naturally fall into two categories - Planned groups - Deliberately formed by it members or authority - Task focused and formal; legislative bodies, sports, juries, military - They know who's in the group and isn't - Under a set of bylaws, contacts, regulations - Lack emotional substance - Considerable routines, ceremonies, and procedures lack warmth - Emergent groups - Comes to existence spontaneously when individuals join together in the same physical location or gradually over time as individuals repeatedly interacting with the same subset of individuals (GYM) - Audience at events, gangs, families, friendship networks in work settings, waiting in line - Not planned/organized; develop elements of structure as members expect what type of behaviours are expected - Come and go - No rules- unwritten norms - People don't join to gain some goal - Is the groups made by internal or external origins? - Concocted groups; - are planned by individual or authorities outside of groups (teachers making groups) - Founded groups: - Are founded by one or more individuals who remain withing a group - Study group, small internet start-up - Circumstantial groups: - Are emergent, unplanned groups that arise when external forces set s stage for people to join usually temp - Self-organized groups - Emerge when interacting individuals gradually align their activities in a cooperative system of interdependence - Surfers waiting off-shore for waves, drivers leaving a parking lot in single exit - Half a dozen adolescents who hang - Unity; How cohesive is the group? - Group cohesion: \\ - The integrity, solidarity, social interrogation, unity, and groupness of the group Entitativity: Does a group look like a group - Donald Campbell; (1958s) The extent a group seems to be a single, unified entity- a real group - Grounded in the perception of group entitativity rather than actual group unity or cohesion - Cue people rely on when perceptually organized objects into unified, well- organized wholes (gestalts) - Influenced by similarity, proximity, an common fate as well as such perceptual cues as pragnanz (good form) - First see certain physical features in common, age, skin , colour or clothing - Emotional displays would provide information about there entitativity - Proximity, the smaller the distance separating individuals= more group like - Common fate; all members begin to act in similar ways or move in coordinated fashion - Campbells theory - Groups in 4 categories ( know name and order for chart) A table of characteristics and characteristics Description automatically generated **What are group dynamics?** **Dynamic group processes** - The influence of force that combine, sometimes smoothly but sometimes in opposition to create continual motion and change - Group dynamic : interpersonal processes that occur within and between groups; also the scientific study of those processes - Determine the groups inherent nature and trajectory - Groups become more cohesive over time, large groups become smaller Formative processes Influence processes - People in a group; must find there place, comply with groups leaders and learn how to best influence one another - The host of a group processor; operate to transform individuals with own personal motives, inclinations and preferences, into socially coordinated smooth-functioning collective - Distinctive networks of communication and influence often develop in groups - Some members of the group enjoy strong, positive interpersonal ties with others in the group but others capacity to influence other atrophies Performance processes - Peoples performance in groups outperform individuals when interpersonal processes boost members motivation Conflict processes - When conflict occurs in group, the actions or beliefs of one or more members of the group are unacceptable to and resisted by one or more members - Undermines the cohesiveness, specific relations weaken or break - Competition mostly happens: power struggles, disagreement over resources, uncertainty and disagreement over decision, personal antipathies - Member against member, group against group Contextual processes - All groups are embedded in a social and environmental context - Physical Environment, growth and change - **Why study groups?** Stages of group development 1. understanding people Fundamental attribution error (Fae) - Perceivers are more likely to attribute a person's actions to personal individual qualities rather than external, situational forces People behave differently in a group rather than alone -People when in groups conform to group pressures, and as results engage in all sorts of behaviours that they would never do alone -cults/ religious- permanent changes to persons beliefs and behaviour Understanding the social world - Group dynamics; understanding people but also understanding organization, communities and society itself The value of groups - Some oof the world's worst mistakes were made NOT by lone, misguided individuals but groups of people Satirical suggest eliminate all groups Through memberships in groups we define and confirm our values, and beliefs, and take on or refine our social identity When we face uncertainty; we join groups to gain reassuring info about our problems and security - Emotional intelligence (Salovey and Mayer, 1990) \*Know their names for exam\* - The ability to monitor one's own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide ones thinking and action - Models of EI - Self awareness- your own emotions - Social awareness: can you understand your own emotion - Self- managements - Relationship management A diagram of a self-awareness system Description automatically generated MSCET Ability model of emotional intelligence 1. perceive or identify 2. Facilitate/ using- cognitive emotion 3. Understand- describe and understand the different emotion 4. Manage-