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What is a Group? History of Groups Outline

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Title: What is a Group? History of Groups Outline


1
What is a Group? History of GroupsOutline
  • 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 19th Century LeBon
  • Psychological Perspective
  • Sociological Perspective
  • Todays Group Dynamics
  • Dracula Exercise

2
Class Exercise
First...
Then...
  • 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 dont). Calculate a percentage.

3
Members of Groups Interact
  • 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

4
Groups Have Structure
  • Group structure
  • Norms
  • Roles
  • Status Systems
  • Communication structure

Structure
5
Groups Have Goals
  • Goals
  • Generating
  • Choosing
  • Negotiating
  • Executing
  • Tension between 2 goals
  • Task accomplishment
  • Socioemotional needs

6
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)

7
Groups Have Two or More Members
  • Dyad
  • 2 person group
  • Group
  • Two or more interacting, interdependent people

8
History of Group Dynamics Late 19th Century
LeBon
  • Study of groups began in late 1800s
  • Roots in psychology and sociology
  • Collective mind (LeBon)
  • Contagion

9
Psychological Perspective
  • 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 arent real

10
Kurt Lewin
  • 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
  • Groups could be studied scientifically
  • Field theory
  • B f (P, E)
  • Lifespace
  • Research Center for Group Dynamics
  • Adapted experimentation to the problems of group
    life

11
Lewin, Lippit White
  • 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

12
There is nothing so practical as a good theory
  • Lewin Theoretical and applied research should go
    hand in hand

Practice
Theory
13
Rodney Dangerfield Era
  • 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

14
Research Example
  • 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!

15
Limitations of Lab Experiments
  • Cannot mimic the complex environment
  • Cannot mimic ebb and flow of groups over time

16
Sociological Perspective
  • In 1950s sociologists looked at groups as
    miniature social systems
  • Forefathers of sociological thought
  • Durkheim
  • Cooley
  • Mead
  • New Measurement techniques
  • Sociometry
  • Interaction Process Analysis

17
Todays Group Dynamics
  • 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

18
Dracula Exercise
  • This problem solving exercise will be a good
    introduction to group dynamics.
  • TASKS
  • Read situation sheet
  • Individually create a plan
  • Individually rank items from most important to
    least important
  • 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!

19
Dracula Exercise
  • Answer the following questions.
  • What is the groups 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 didnt members challenge each other?
  • What conflict arose and how were they managed?
  • What actions by the group members helped/hurt the
    team?
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