What are the basic concepts of group dynamics? - Chapter 1

Introduction

Most people spend their lives in groups even though they are capable of surviving on their own. Almost all human activities occur in groups and people belong to various groups. To understand people it is important to understand the groups they are part of. Group dynamics consists of the actions, processes and changes that take place both within as between groups.

Groups

There are many ways to define a group (table 1.1). Most of the people defining this term agree on one thing: Groups are created because of people becoming linked to each other by a type of relationship. Groups are never the same and are defined in the book as: (1) two or more individuals (2) connected (3) by and within social relationships.

1. Two or more individuals. There is not standard group size but there are always at least two people in a group. Within larger groups you might find subgroups, whereas people within a dyad (2 people) or a triad (3 people) can often get along with everyone in the group.

2. Connected. People within a group must be connected. This connection can both be strong (families) or weak and easily broken. Some bonds are task related (such as committees) and others are more based on a relation (such as friends). Relations might not always be mutual. The larger the group the more ties it takes to connect its members. The maximum amount of ties can be calculated by the formula: n(n-1)/2. The number of people within the group is represented by the “n”. Whenever the connection is mutual two ties are required, and groups might also have indirect connections.

3. By and within social relationships. There must be social relationships within a group. When people are connected to one another, they can become interdependent and may influence each other. A social relationship suggests a bond created by the presence of others. Membership: people within a group connected to one another due to their being part of the group. A social network is different from a group because the boundaries of members and non-members are less clear. A social network is a collection of inter-personal connected people. To become a member you’ll only need to form a bond with any member of this social network, a bond with one member is sufficient for being a member yourself.

The definition of groups, as explained, would suggest a clear division between non-group members and group members. However in reality the boundary between group member and non-group member is quite vague. Also the definition is limited: the requirements of a group are clear, but it does not provide the answers to the other questions concerning groups.

Online and offline groups

An online group is a group of two or more individuals who interact solely or primarily online, for example by e-mail or instant messaging. An offline group interacts primarily/ solely in face-to-face situations.

Describing groups

There are some similarities to be found in groups, such as:

1) Interaction: Groups are a great setting for interpersonal actions. There are two types of group interaction:

• Task-interaction = interaction focused on a task, goal or project such as a committee or a jury.

• Relation-interaction = interaction focused on an inter-personal relationship.

2) Goals: Most groups exist due to a goal they wish to achieve.

There are several approaches to classify these goals. One of the approaches suggests the intellectual and the judgmental tasks. Another approach is that of the production, discussion and problem-solving goals. A final approach suggests the generating of ideas, choosing options, negotiating solution and executing performance tasks. For a more elaborate explanation you could take a look at table 2 on page 9.

3) Interdependence: members depend on one another which means that their actions, experiences, thoughts et cetera are (partially) determined by other members of the group. This interdependence can occur in the following settings:

• Symmetric interdependence: where two or more members can influence each other equally and with reciprocity.

• Hierarchical interdependence without reciprocity: for example when a boss influences its employees but not the other way around.

• Hierarchical interdependence with reciprocity: when employees can influence their boss and the other way around, even when effects are unequally divided.

• Sequential interdependence without reciprocity: one member influences another who in its turn influences yet another member. Member 1  member 2  member 3.

4) Structure: Group structure consists out of the group roles, norms and intermember relations. A role is an expected behaviour pattern belonging to a specific position in a group. Examples are the roles of the leaders and the followers. Norms are consensual standards describing various appropriate and inappropriate behaviours in a given context. .

5) Cohesiveness: group cohesiveness concerns the power of the bond between members of the group. Group cohesion is the solidarity, integrity and unity of the group.

Types of groups

Primary groups: small intimate clusters of close associates. Examples of such primary groups are families, good friends and cliques of peers. Members spend much time interacting with each other. The members have a high amount of influence on one another. Many individuals become group members involuntarily; because they are born into a family, which is a primary group.

Examples of non-primary groups are the following:

1. Social group: a relatively large and formally organized group. Membership is usually shorter and less emotionally involved. It is also more conventional to join and leave groups than it is with primary groups. Social groups are often task-oriented.

2. Collectives: A collective can be defined as: any form of association amongst people who have a similar behaviour at some point. An example of a collective is an aggregation of people waiting on a bus together.

3. Categories: Categories are groups of individuals similar to one another in some specific way. For example everyone living in the same city or everyone with the same hobby. This category can turn into a group when a social connection is formed

Groups (primary and social ones) and social categories influence the behaviour of its members. Group members share an identity. They know who is in their category and who is not. They are aware of the aspects typical for in and outsiders. Social identity consists out of the self-concept of an individual deriving from the knowledge of membership to a group. A sense of “we” and “them” is created.

Perceiving groups

Entitavity is a term used to “describe the extent to which a group seems to be a single unified entity/ unity” (or a real group). Campell has used principles from the Gestalt psychology for its analysis of group entitavity. These principles described the cues people used when organising objects into unified, organised unities in their perception. These principles are common fate, similarity and proximity.

Common fate: when individuals have a similar idea on their preferred outcome.

Similarity: when individuals have similar kinds of behaviours.

Proximity: how close individuals within a group are to one another.

Licked et al. (2000) examined when people see other people as group members or individuals. His findings suggest that people are more likely to consider an aggregation a group when it is marked by strong bonds and frequent interactions. This is why a primary group received the highest entitavity score, followed by the social groups, categories and collectives.

Thomas theorem states “if men define situations as real they are real in their consequences.”

When applying this to group dynamics, this would suggest that if people will define groups as real, these groups are real in their consequences.

Entitativity changes the perception of people by making people identify with the group and its goals, value membership and bond with other members. This effect is even stronger when people feel uncertain about their selves and their beliefs. When people feel they are part of a high entitativity group, they will believe to have similar values and convictions. Also they will sooner accept the group consequences than individual consequences.

Opinions of outsiders concerning members of high entitavity groups are more influenced by stereotypes. In general members are considered identical and these groups are evaluated more negatively.

Essentialism consists of the belief that these groups have deep unchanging qualities. When people consider an aggregation to be a group they are likely to treat them as a group which only increases the unity of the group.

The nature of Group Dynamics

Cartwright and Zander suggest group dynamics is “a field of inquiry dedicated to advancing knowledge about the nature of groups, the laws of their development, and their interrelations with individuals, other groups and large institutions”.

At the end of the 19^th century, both sociologists and psychologists started to examine groups. While sociology emphasised the role of groups in maintaining social order, psychology focussed on the difference between behaviour of an individual alone and behaviour of an individual within a group.

Some assumptions are made in the paradigm of group dynamics:

• Focus on individual or group level? The level of analysis is disagreed upon by theorists. Usually psychologists prefer the individual level whereas sociologists prefer the group-level.

Group fallacy= when people explain social phenomena in terms of the group instead of the individuals within the group.

• Is there a group mind? Group mind: “a hypothetical unifying mental force linking its group members together.”

Furthermore the law of interactionism is quite important in Lewin’s field theory: Each person’s behaviour (B) is a function of his personal qualities (P), the social environment (E) and the interaction between the latter two (P and E).

• Which group processes are real?

Allport presumed a group mind did not exist, and seems to be correct in that, since no evidence for this phenomenon was found. There is however proof for the existence of group norms, this was verified by Muzafer Sherif.

• Groups are living systems: Tuckman has developed a theory of group development suggesting that a group most likely passes through five specific stages in its development. These five stages are: Forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

Forming: orientation phase, Storming: conflict phase; member search status and group sets its goals, norming: group becomes structured, Performing: group concentrates on the work, adjourning: dissolution phase.

Multilevel approach on group dynamics

When studying groups and individuals the line between individual and group focussed research narrowed and was made a multilevel perspective. This perspective calls for a different type of analysis in which the micro-meso-macro continuum is important. Figure 1.6 provides a clear picture of this continuum).

1. Micro-level: the individual group members.

2. Meso-level: the group

3. Macro-level: the organizational or societal unit in which the group exists.

The significance of groups

Groups have impact on individuals; they can shape and change actions, thoughts and feelings of these individuals. Becoming part of a group can decrease the sense of uniqueness. The power of a group can be enormous as proven by Milgram’s experiments.

Groups also have a lot of influence on society for example through social movements.

Groups can be useful. Consistent with that thought was Lewin’s action research. This is a “scientific inquiry” which combines basic knowledge and applied research which is used to identify solutions for significant social problems. Buys suggests that humans would do better without groups. This is quite extreme but it goes with the perspective of groups being nor good nor bad. They are however many, if not all, researchers stating that groups are essential for humans.

How are groups being studied? - Chapter 2

Measurement in Group Dynamics

Measurement is essential to science. Two important methods to measure in group dynamics are: 1. Observing groups and 2. Question the group members.

Observation is often the first step of researchers studying groups. A group’s activities and interactions are studied. Overt observation is the “openly watching and recording information with no attempt to conceal one’s research purposes”. Covert observation is the same type of observation of groups and individuals but without their knowledge.

Another type of observation is participant observation, in which the observer is a part of the group’s process.

If participants change their behaviour because of their knowledge of being observed this is called the Hawthorne effect.

A qualitative study is a research procedure that collects and analyses descriptive types of data. When using a qualitative study it is essential to have an impartial researcher who is a cautious observer and has the ability to remain objective and unbiased.

Structured observational methods provide a method of increasing the objectivity.

It is a method in which each group's behaviour, action or expression is classified into a defined category. First the behaviours that are to be observed are decided upon. Secondly, clear descriptions are developed for these types of behaviours. And finally, the frequency of these occurring behaviours is decided by observation. Because numerical data is collected and analysed this is an example of a quantitative method.

Sociologist Bales developed two structured coding systems, both used for studying groups.

The first system is the Interaction Process Analysis (IPA). IPA is used to classify behaviour in 12 categories. These categories are divided in 4 groups: social emotional area: positive reactions and negative reaction, task area: attempted answers and questions. (For all of the 12 categories, have a look at figure 2.2)

Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) is a newer version of IPA. Symlog presents a more global picture of group behaviour. This system places its activities within 26 categories on the lines of the following dimensions: 1. Dominance-submissiveness, 2. Friendliness-unfriendliness, 3. Accepting-opposing the task orientation of authority.

Self-report measures such as questionnaires or interviews are all based on the following view: when you wish to know what a group member is thinking, planning et cetera, just ask him/her to report the information that you need directly to you.

Sociometry is a method to measure the relationships amongst members of a group. Afterwards these relationships are graphically summarized. This graphical summary is called a sociogram. An example of this can be found in figure 2.3.

Sociometry is an “early form” of Social Network Analysis (SNA) which is a set of procedures which can be used while studying the relational structure of a group. SNA is a mathematical and graphical method which contains information on member, relational and group level.

Self-report has advantages and disadvantages:

• Advantages: they provide much information from the perspective, perceptions, feeling and beliefs of the participant.

• Disadvantages: improperly formulated question will lead to low validity due to possible misinterpretations. Participants might not be able to answer unbiased or not be willing to answer at all. Furthermore, this type of study is very dependent on the questions they need to ask the group members.

Research methods in group dynamics

Groupthink is a set of processes that occur at group level. It is a negative process which includes illusions of vulnerability, self-censorship and the pressure to conform. It is most likely to occur in highly cohesive groups which seek agreement over analysis.

Group phenomena can be studied in various ways; one of these is by the use of a case study. A case study in group dynamics is an in depth study of one or more groups in order to understand groups in general.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to case studies. Some of the most important advantages are the detailed descriptions and the usage of bonafide groups. Bonafide groups are naturally occurring groups. Disadvantages are the limitations: the groups might be unique, objectivity could be in question due to the qualitative instead of quantitative research, and records may be inaccurate or unavailable.

A scapegoat is an individual or group who is unfairly held responsible for something. This person can become the target of hostilities which cannot be aimed at the actual group leader.

An experiment is a research design in which the researcher 1. Manipulates at least one variable by randomly assigning participants to the different conditions, 2. Measures at least one variable and 3. Controls the influence of other variables on the outcome of the study.

There are advantages and disadvantages to an experimental study.

An advantage is the possibility of finding causal relation. A disadvantage is the difficulty of creating an artificial situation that is not different in its outcome from real situations. An example would be an artificial group that should be similar to a bona fide group.

Individuals often use a reference group for evaluating themselves. A reference group can be any group that plays a significant role in someone’s life

A correlational study is a research method where a researcher measures at least two variables. Afterwards the relation between these variables is calculated on strength and direction. The results can be presented as correlation coefficients, which state the standardised strength and direction. These coefficients are presented as r and can be anywhere between -1 and 1. A disadvantage of this type of study is that it does not provide information on a causal relation.

Theoretical perspectives

There are some perspectives within group dynamics but it is important to remember that they are not per definition mutually exclusive. A lot of theories embrace more than one perspective.

Motivational and emotional perspectives

Motivations are psychological processes that direct behaviour.

Motivation is often accompanied by emotion. Emotions are subjective states of positive or negative affect; this affect is often combined with arousal or activation.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs describes basic human needs and motives. When applying this to groups, it explains why people prefer groups: people can satisfy most of these needs. Groups can provide in many needs from safety and food to a sense of belonging and self-esteem. Group behaviour varies in different cultures.

Behavioural perspectives

Skinner’s behaviorism is based on two assumptions:

1. Psychological processes shape the reactions of people within groups. These processes are too difficult to quantify accurately. However, how people actually behave can be quantified and analysed.

2. Behaviour is related to the law of effect: behaviour with positive consequences will increase while behaviour with negative consequences will decrease.

The social exchange theories explain (using behaviourism) how relationships are initiated and sustained. It is an economic model that assumes individuals seek relationships that offer them the maximal reward for the minimal cost.

System theory perspectives

A system theory is aimed at the assumption that “groups are complex, adaptive, dynamic open systems of interacting individuals.” The members of the group are the units of the system connected by relationships. Just as systems, groups can be created for a specific objective. Groups can be self-creating and adaptable.

The Input-Process-Output models (I-P-O models) are system theories. They are directed at the assumption that raw materials (inputs) are transformed by internal processes (process) to generate results (output).

Cognitive perspectives

Cognitive processes are mental processes which acquire, organize and integrate information. They include memory systems and psychological mechanisms to both store data and process information. Cognitive perspective states an understanding of groups can be created by studying cognitive processes. These next effects will explain why groups have an impact on our cognition.

The self-reference effect is the tendency of people to have better memories for actions and events they were personally connected with.

The group-reference effect is the same as the self-reference effect but for actions and events their group was connected to.

Biological perspectives

The evolutionary psychology states that group processes may be part of humans due to natural selection. Evolutionary psychology is a biological approach and depends on the evolutionary theory. The theory is more difficult to test experimentally. Even though this theory is debatable it does provides an insight into group processes.

How do inclusion and identity influence each other? - Chapter 3

3.1 From isolation to inclusion

People are capable of surviving on their own, however most prefer inclusion over exclusion.

There are positive sides to exclusion such as self-discovery, but generally speaking exclusion is considered negatively. Longer periods of Physical loneliness can cause depression, insomnia, fatigue, fear, confusion and memory lapses. We have a ‘need to belong’ which is a drive to form and maintain a minimum amount of positive, impactful and lasting interpersonal relationships.

Social capital consists out of the degree in which people are linked in social relationships in which the individual gains the positive advantages from these social relationships. An individual with a substantial social capital has a lot of connections. These connections provide this individual with means to accomplish both personal and collective outcomes.

Loneliness

Friendships and love relationships can (when it has reached a level of intimacy and involvement) function as a buffer against feelings of loneliness and isolation. Loneliness is not the same as being alone. Loneliness is an aversive psychological reaction to feeling alone: a perceived lack of relations. Emotional loneliness is caused by a lack of a long-term meaningful and intimate relationship with someone. Social loneliness is caused by a feeling of being cut off from their network of friends, group members et cetera.

A group has the ability to protect against loneliness, however this is not the case when a group consists out of loneliness. Loneliness is more likely to occur when a person is connected to a lonely person. When a person is directly connected to a lonely person there is one degree of separation. A degree of separation entails the number of people in a sequence linking one person to another. Loneliness is depended on this degree of separation. The smaller amount of people in the sequence towards a lonely individual, the more likely the person linked to this individual is to be lonely.

Inclusion and Exclusion

Ostracism occurs when someone is deliberately excluded from the group by reducing or eliminating contact with this individual.

The reactions to exclusions are explained in stages in the temporal need-threat-model from Williams. This model starts with the Minimal signal which is the detection of ostracism. The first stage is the reflexive stage consisting of negative feelings (the experience of stress, disappointment and pain). Afterwards the reflective stage will appear this stage consists of searching for a reason for and meaning to the ostracism. When ostracism is persistent over time the resignation stage will be reached, within this stage depression, loss of self-esteem and helplessness occurs.

The Fight or flight response is a common reaction of people dealing with stressful or threatening circumstances to counter (fight) or escape (flight) a threat. The tend-and-befriend reaction on the other hand is an interpersonal response in which someone initiates or strengthens relationships (befriending) or shows supportive behaviour (tending).

Leary made a sociometer theory which states that self-esteem is based on the inclusion or exclusion from social groups, in this case the self-worth feeling function as a monitor.

The biology of ostracism and inclusion

Inclusion leads to an increase of the hormone oxytocin. This is associated with forms of social behaviour. Oxytocin can reduce the effect of ostracism. Social pain is neurologically seen similar to physical pain.

3.2 From individualism to collectivism

Individualism is a tradition, personal orientation or ideology which emphasizes the individual and its rights, relations and independence. On the other hand collectivism emphasizes the same things but for the group or community.

The optimal distinctiveness theory states that people are looking for a balance between three basic needs: the need to be assimilated by a group, the need to be connected to friends and loved ones and the need for differentiation and autonomy.

Group culture consists of the shared values, rituals, custom, rules, language, norms, practices and knowledge.

Individualists in a group have exchange relationships: interaction to gain rewards for their own well-being. Collectivists on the other hand have communal relationships: interaction to improve the well-being of the group.

The norm of reciprocity is a social norm stating you must give back what others give you. Individualists want this norm to be followed upon very neatly. Collectivists just take what they need without looking at who provided what to begin with Western cultures are usually more individualistic and Asian cultures are usually more collectivistic.

The amount of collectivism and individualism differentiates per region or group.

3.3 From personal identity to social identity

The social identity theory states that groups influence their members’ self-esteem and self-concept. This mostly happens when individual identify themselves with the group.

Social categorization is the classification of people, the self-included, into categories. Stereotypes: socially shared set of cognitive generalizations, in the shape of expectations or beliefs, about the qualities and characteristics of a member of a group or category. Self-stereotyping: accepting the stereotype as accurate to one self.

Social identification is a process in which the group is considered an extension of the self. One’s self-definition will therefore be based on the group’s qualities and characteristics.

Motivation and social identity

When someone becomes member of a group, this persons’ self-concept will be connected to that group. This has an effect on the self-esteem. Collective self-esteem is a persons’ assessment of the part of the self-concept which is based on their relationships with others and their memberships to social groups. The collective self-esteem can be divided into the membership esteem, private collective self-esteem, public collective self-esteem and identity. Examples of these can be found in table 3.3 on page 92.

People will protect their collective self-esteem just as they would protect their individual self-esteem. This can be done by: denying the negative qualities of their group, sustaining an ingroup-outgroup bias (looking more favourably to one’s own group) and social creativity (comparing on different dimensions; for example looking at behaviour instead of talent or skill for a sports team).

BIRGing: basking in reflected glory; people go along with a victory: ,, we won” .

CORFing: cutting off reflected failure; people look away from failure: ,, they lost”.

Stereotype threat occurs when someone is worried for people’s perceptions about them and their achievements due to the stereotypes related to their group. When a group threatens a person’s self-esteem this person could decide to leave the group in order to protect their self-esteem. This change is called individual mobility.

How are groups formed? - Chapter 4

Joining groups

Whether we want to join a group depends on our personality motivations and experiences.

Personality: There is a relation between personality and the tendency to join groups. The Big Five Theory is a model of primary dimensions which structure the differences in personality. Those five dimensions are: Extraversion is the tendency to move toward people rather than away from them. Agreeableness is the tendency to be cooperative instead of competitive. Conscientiousness is the tendency to be organized instead of disorganized. Neuroticism is the tendency to be moody and anxious instead of content. And finally openness to experience is the tendency to be open and creative instead of closed and uncreative. More examples can be found in table 4.1 on page 102.

Gender: Men and women differ in their tendency to join groups. Women are often more extravert than men. Women are higher in relationality which is the degree to which their values, attitudes and outlook emphasize establishing and maintaining connections to other people.

Other studies find less differences between the sexes. Women might value their relationships more than men, but they are not more social. There did appear subtle differences in the kind of groups that were joined; it seems as if women seek membership in smaller informal intimate groups whereas men seek membership in larger, more formal, task-focused groups.

This gender differences are entangled with the role differences and cultural stereotypes.

Social motivation: there are three kinds of social motivation.

The first is a need for affiliation which is a motivating state of tension which can be relieved by joining with other people.

The second is the need for intimacy which is the same kind of state but this one can be relieved by seeking out warm, positive relationships with others. The final one is the need for power which is also a state just like the other two, but which can be relieved by gaining control over other people.

The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO) theory consists out of three basic social motives: Inclusion, affection and control.

Anxiety and attachment

Shyness is the dispositional tendency to feel discomfort and nervousness when dealing with social situations. When shyness escalates it may turn into social anxiety. Social anxiety is a feeling of apprehension and embarrassment when interacting with other people or anticipating the former.

An attachment style is one’s characteristic approach to relationships with others.

There are four basic attachment styles which are secure, preoccupied, fearful and dismissing. Figure 4.1 on page 110 will show you how these styles are defined based on the two dimensions: anxiety and avoidance.

Attitudes, experiences and expectations. People’s attitudes, experiences and expectations are factors that will influence a person’s decision to either join a group or not.

Karau and Elsaid discovered that people with negative beliefs about groups and their effectiveness were less likely to become part of that group. They developed a scale to measure: group preference, effort beliefs, negative performance beliefs and positive performance beliefs. This scale is called the Beliefs about Group (BAG) scale. Table 4.3 in the book on page 111 explains the items from this scale related to the four factors named above.

Affiliation

Affiliation is the gathering of individuals in one location (or when an individual is said to be affiliated with a group it can be considered a formalized relationship).

Social comparison is the tendency to compare one’s qualities and outcomes such as attitudes, experiences and beliefs with those of others. Also, it appears that people who feel miserable, in the case of the study, anxious prefer to be with other people, this will allow them to gain information to deal with their anxiety.

Safety in numbers. In times of trouble people tend to seek out family and friends. This is linked to the fight or flight response. Big groups increase the ability to fight or the likelihood of the success of the flight.

In the case of a long-term threat the group may choose to tend and befriend.

Social support: In times of stress people tend to join a group. A group can provide information and social support. There are several kinds of social support that groups can offer, such as:

4. Inclusive support: confirming the inclusion in a group.

5. Emotional support: expressing their care and concern.

6. Informational support: Providing someone with guidance and advise.

7. Instrumental support: providing with actual resources; a place to stay et cetera.

8. Spiritual support: addressing issues of meaning and purpose to one’s situation

People with stressful circumstances are more likely to develop psychological and physical illnesses. Groups can serve as a buffer against these negative consequences. This is called the buffering effect.

Social comparison and the self

There are different kinds of social comparison.

Downward social comparison: Selecting people who are worse off to compare oneself with.

Upward social comparison: Selecting people who are superior/ better off to compare oneself with.

The Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model of Tesser suggests that people keep their self-esteem up by their choice of association. They do so by associating with individuals who achieve high on areas irrelevant to the individuals self-esteem. And by avoiding association with people that are high-achieving in areas which are important to the individual’s sense of self-esteem.

4.3 Attraction

Attraction is what changes acquaintances into friends.

There are several factors influencing this attraction such as proximity, elaboration, similarity, and complementarity.

Proximity: The proximity principle states that people tend to form interpersonal relations with people that are close by. This is because the proximity creates familiarity which will increase preference. Also, proximity increases interaction which cultivates attraction.

Elaboration: The elaboration principle states that groups tend to expand in size when non-members become part of the group by becoming linked to a group member.

Similarity: The similarity principle entails the tendency for individuals to affiliate with (or be attracted to) individuals which are similar to themselves in some way. This is linked to homophily: the tendency for group members to be similar in some way.

Complementarity. The complementarity principle is the tendency from opposites to attract one another when their dissimilarities are complementary.

Schultz described two kinds of compatibility:

• interchange compatibility: compatibility between members of a group based on their similar needs for inclusion, affection and control.

• originator compatibility: compatibility between members of a group when individuals who wish to express inclusion, affection or control will be matched to those who seek to receive this.

The reciprocity principle entails the tendency for a liking that will go in both ways: person A likes person B and person B will respond positively to this by expressing his liking towards person A. This principle also works in disliking, this is called negative reciprocity.

Minimax principle: a preference for relationships and memberships which provide the maximum number of valued rewards and cost us the fewest.

The economics of membership

The decision to be part of a group depends on two factors according Thibaut and Kelley. These factors are the comparison level (CL) and the comparison level for alternatives (CLalt)

The comparison level (CL) is the standard by which the desirability of group membership is measured. This is made up from the average of outcomes known by the individual. CL only stated whether or not people will be satisfied with the membership of a certain group. To predict whether or not they will join a group, the alternatives need to be taken into account as well. In order to do so the comparison level for alternatives (CLalt) can be used. This is a standard used to evaluate the quality of the other groups that they might join.

Entering or exiting groups is mostly decided by the CLalt.

Satisfaction within a group is mostly decided on CL.

How the decision can be made can be seen in the table below:

What is cohesion and how does it affect groups? - Chapter 5

5.1 The nature of cohesion

Cohesion concerns the power which keeps a group together. Group cohesion can be accomplished in many ways. This is called equifinality. Equifinality is the ability to reach a certain outcome, while using a different strategy and having a different starting point. Cohesion can be interpreted and defined in many ways which is why it is important to consider cohesion as a multi-component process.

Social cohesion is the attraction of group members to one another and to the group. Group level attraction is based on the attraction towards the group as opposed to individual level attraction which is based on the attraction towards individuals.

Task cohesion is the collaboration between group members to reach a goal which can only be accomplished by the collective collaboration between members. Collective efficacy depends on the convictions of group members that a group is capable of reaching their goals and finalizing their tasks. Group potency concerns the optimism about a groups’ chances of being successful. High potency groups tend to select more challenging goals.

Collective cohesion occurs when group members identify themselves with the group. It is based on a shared identity. What if this occurrence will excess? The identity fusion theory suggest that both the personal and the collective self will be reinforced. This could occur when an individual identity would be fused with a group identity. This provides us with an explanation for extreme forms of self-sacrifice.

Emotional cohesion is the emotional intensity of a group and its individuals while they are within this group.

The Relational cohesion theory states that group members create stronger bonds with groups that provide them with positive feelings and weaker bonds with those that provide them with negative feelings. Cohesive groups often become involved with collective activities and rituals which include a necessity for coordination of the behaviour. Mimicry occurs when members perform identical actions. Behavioral synchrony requires properly coordinated movements and actions between members of the group.

Structural cohesion is when a group is a real unity, due to the clarity of the roles, strength of the relationships and normative coherence. An open group is a group where boundaries are not clearly set and people can easily join and leave. A closed group has clearer boundaries and becoming a member of a group is more difficult. There is more cohesion in a closed group and less competition due to the “clearer” memberships.

5.2 Developing cohesion

New groups differ from established ones. Groups develop and undergo change. The five stages in Tuckmans’ successive-stage theory describe the phases in group development.

Forming is the orientation stage where members will become familiar with each other and the group. Storming is the conflict stage where people will disagree over procedures, tensions will develop and dissatisfaction will be expressed. Norming is the structure stage where friendships have been developed and a unity has formed about roles, norms and procedures. Performing is the performance stage where group members will work and achieve goals. Adjourning is the dissolution stage where tasks will be completed and roles terminated. For characteristics of the stages, take a look at table 5.2 on page 147.

Cyclical models is the phenomenon which states that groups do not go through all of these stages only ones but repeatedly. An example of such a model is the equilibrium model of Bales. This model is about group development and stated that the focus of the group switches between the tasks and the inter-personal relationships. The Puntuated equilibrium model states that groups alter through time but that there are switches between periods of fast and slow grow.

5.3 Consequences of cohesion

Cultures differ in their perception of time, these differences influence the speed in which groups develop. There are Polychronic and Monochronic cultures.

• Polychronic cultures (P-time cultures) state time as fluent and a continuum. Members work on several tasks at the same time without the pressures such as deadlines.

• Monochronic cultures (M-time cultures) state time as a source which is to be divided in small units. Members work in a logical order on tasks. Preferably one at a time.

Groups in a P-time culture develop more slowly and do not follow the stages as well as those from a M-time culture.

Adapting of members. Usually people in a high cohesive group are more satisfied than those in a low cohesive group. A downside is that cohesive groups are demanding towards their members. The old sergeant syndrome is a well-known occurrence in cohesive military units. Symptoms of psychological confusion such as depression, fear and guilt might occur when officers have to deal with loss of comrades. Their loyalty will cause them to feel so responsible that people will psychologically withdraw from their group.

Groupdynamics. High cohesive groups will increase their groupdynamics. This might lead to negative consequences when such a group is trying to solve a difficult problem. This is because they will experience inter-personal aggressive behaviour to one another. Groups with less group dynamics will more likely form a coalition which will allow them to work more closely together.

Groupproductivity. The bigger the cohesiveness, the better the groups’ accomplishments? This does not work for every group. It works the best for sportsteams, less for army personnel, less for bonafide groups and even less for artificial groups. Cohesion causes better productivity but a better accomplishing group will gain more cohesiveness as well. The causality works in both ways.

5.4 Explaining initiations

In many groups a test is required to become member. Hazing is a form of initiation which will be discussed below as an example for initiations. Hazing is supposed to safeguard the unity of the group. It is supposed to make the bonds within a group stronger which will increase cohesiveness. It is also supposed to make sure people know it is not easy to be part of the group, and to keep active members.

People within a group might be extra dedicated because of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a feeling we want to avoid, the feeling when we cannot match two existing cognitions. In order to avoid this feeling we are willing to alter our cognition (for example from: this group requires so much, to: this group requires so much but it is worth it) to enable the other one (I have invested in this group). Usually we decrease negative aspects and increase the positive ones.

Hazing is a form of initiation where members go through severe psychological and physical experiences. It has several functions such as bonding & interdependence, executing dominance and power, commitment and tradition.

Bonding and interdependence: Individuals that suffer to become member are more likely to appreciate the group. They will also depend on them more.

Dominance: newcomers will become acquainted with the hierarchy and all the members will get to know their new place in this hierarchy.

Commitment: Hazing requires commitment from the newcomers, it is a way to filter those who are not willing to meet up to the group’s demands.

Tradition: Hazing is sometimes executed because “it has always been done”.

The idea that hazing increase group cohesion is not verified by researchers. Hazing can be aggressive and it is also illegal in several states and countries.

What does a group structure look like? - Chapter 6

Groups are organised systems consisting out of interaction and relationships regulated by group consist out of three different elements: norms, roles and networks.

6.1 Norms

Norms are called the cement of society. They are group standards which provide motivation and direction. There are different types of group norms:

Prescriptive norms: a consensual standard that identifies preferable behaviours which are positively sanctioned.

Proscriptive norms: a consensual standard which identifies prohibited behaviours which are negatively sanctioned.

1. Descriptive norms: a consensual standard which describes how people usually behave, act or feel in a certain situation.

2. Injunctive norms: a consensual standard which is evaluative and describes how one should act, feel or think given a certain situation.

3. Folkway: cultural standards which are taken for granted on how to act within a culture. An example of this is grammar.

4. Mores: strict, moral standards which decide what are and aren’t proper actions within a culture, violations of these standards are morally sanctioned.

Norms are internalised and most of the time implicit standards. They are not only maintained by groups but also by its individuals.

Pluralistic ignorance: when people disagree with the norm, but do not share their opinions with others because they think they are the only one. This is why people will continue to conform to the group norms they do not agree with.

6.2 Roles

A role is a coherent set of behaviours which is expected of people when they are in a specific position.

Role differentiation occurs when there is an increase in the number of roles within a group. This occurrence is accompanied by a decrease in the scope of the individual roles. The roles will become more specialized and narrowly defined than before.

There are both task and relationship roles.

A task role is a role designed for tasks and activities such as the role of a leader. A relationship role is designed for tasks concerning the interpersonal relations of group members such as the role of a motivator.

There are many theories describing roles and role related processes. Such as the functional role theories, the interactionist theories and the dynamic role theories.

1. Functional role theories. These theories describe why roles are developed and emphasize their utility.

2. Interactionist theories. These theories emphasize the generative process of role related actions. By interacting one can work out the details of their roles.

3. Dynamic rol theorieën. This is a controversial theory which is similar to the functional theory. Moxnes suggest that some roles are more based on the group members, and their biological origin, instead of the tasks.

Group socialisation is a term developed by Moreland and Levine, it is a pattern of change in relationships between an individual person and a group. This pattern starts when the individual considers joining the group and ends when this individual leaves the group. This model has five stages of socialization: investigation, socialization, maintenance, resocialization and remembrance. Between these stages there are transition points: Entry, acceptance, divergence and exit. For a clear picture on these stages have a look at page 182 of the textbook.

Role ambiguity is the unclarity of expectations about the behaviour. This unclarity can be caused by a lack of clarity about the role, a lack of consensus about the behaviour associated with the role and uncertainty from the role taker concerning the expected behaviour.

Bij rolambiguïteit is het dus eigenlijk zo dat individuen zich afvragen of ze hun rol wel goed uitvoeren, omdat ze niet weten welke verwachtingen precies samengaan met hun rol.

A role conflict is a state of tension. It can occur when there is inconsistency concerning the expectations of a specific role in a group. There are two types of role conflict: interrole conflict and intrarole conflict. Interrole conflict occurs when when individuals have multiple roles and the expectations of these roles are inconsistent with one another. Intrarole conflict occurs when behaviours within a role are incongruent and therefore problematic resulting in inconsistent expectations of the role-keeper.

Role fit is the degree of congruence between the attitudes of the individual and the demands of the role.

When there is a low role fit people feel like they cannot be themselves in their role. When there is a high role fit (desirable) people feel that they are well suited for their role.

6.3 Intermember relations

SNA is a set of procedures which is used to analyse relations between group members. In this analysis people are represented as circles, their relations are represented by lines and the direction of the relations by arrows. An example of this can be found in figure 6.3 on page 187.

SNA is a multilevel method which contains information on every member within a network (the egocentric network) and the group as a whole (the sociocentric network). SNA describes the position of each member in relation to the other members. Key indexes are centrality, betweenness and closeness.

Degree of centrality consists out of the amount of ties between group members. The group’s degree of centrality consists out of the average of the connections (lines) between the group members.

Betweenness consists out of the degree in which a member’s position in a network is located between other pairs of individuals in a network. It is a different kind of centrality index because it takes more distant ties into account as opposed to the degree of centrality.

Closeness is decided by the distance of the individual towards the other members within the network.

Groups as networks

The egocentric indexes consist out of a value for every individual within a network. The sociocentric network describes the network. Group level features of network include the density, the size, cliques and holes. Density is the degree of connectedness of the group members. Size is the number of individuals connected in the network. This can be calculated as follows: For indirect relations: n(n-1)/2. For indirect relations: n(n-1). Cliques are subgroups within a larger group. Holes are gaps within a network.

Status differentiation

Status differentiation is the gradual rise of group members to higher positions: positions with more authority. This co-occurs with a decrease of authority from the other group-members and their acceptance of this power shift.

Sociometric differentiation

Sociometric differentiation is the development of stronger and more positive interpersonal ties between certain group members. This occurrence is accompanied by the decrease in the quality of relations between other members of the group.

Balance theory

According to the balance theory, which was developed by Fritz Heider, relationships can be balanced or unbalanced. Balanced relationships are without stress whereas unbalanced relationships occur when there are unstable group patterns. This unbalance creates an unpleasant tension. A group is balanced when all the relationships are positive or when an even number of negative relations occurs.

Communication networks

A communication network is a pattern of information exchange which describes who communicates with whom and to what extent they do so.

There are many patterns on how information is exchanged. Examples such as a when network and a comcon or circle network can be found in figure 6.6 on page 193.

An important feature for the communication networks is centralisation. In centralized networks one of the positions within a group is quite central. The hub, person executing ventral communication processing, is placed on this position within the network.

Within a decentralized network each individual is equally central.

Social structures and interactions (SYMLOG)

The ‘Systematic Multiple Level Observations of Groups’ (SYMLOG) from Bales is a theory concerning group structure and processes. Bales states that group activity can be categorised on three dimensions: dominance (dominance Up, submissiveness Down), friendliness (Friendliness Positive, unfriendliness Negative) and acceptance towards authority (Acceptance Forward, nonacceptance Backward)

How does a group influence its members, and the other way around? - Chapter 7

Social influence concerns the interpersonal processes which can alter the behaviours and thoughts of another person.

Majority influence occurs when the social pressure from the majority is being used to put pressure on the minority within a group.

Minority influence occurs when a minority ( one person of a small subgroup) executes their power to influence the members of the majority of the group.

7.1 Majority influence: the power of the many

Conformity is a chage in the opinions, actions or judgements of an individual. This conformity increases this individuals consistency with the expressed actions, judgements or opininions of the other members of the group.

The Asch experiment (as can be seen in figure 7.2 on page 205) delivered proof for the existence of conformity.

There are different ways for people to respond on social influence:

1. Compliance/asquiescence: members will disagree in private but in public they will expres an opinion which matches the opinion expressed by the majority.

2. Conversion/private acceptance: Individuals change their opinion because they consider the group to be correct.

3. Congruence: uniformity, occurs when someone already agreed, in this case there is no need to change their (expressed) opinion.

4. Independence/dissent: Members will publicly express their own point of view, disagree with the majority.

5. Anticonformity/counterconformity: Someone might, with the incentive to challenge the group and their aims, oppose the majority in their opinion, judgement and behaviour.

Why do people conform? When facing a full opposition without any members on your side you will face 100% of the group pressure alone. Therefore, having an ally, can prevent conformity. The bigger the majority, the smaller the minority. Conforming to the majority might prevent embarrassing situations and judgements.

The Social impact theory by Latané states that the impact of any source of influence depends on the strength (S), immediacy (I) and the number of sources (N).Social impact = f(SIN). This theory is also called the lightbulb theory.

The Crutchfield situation is an electronically simulated experiment to study conformity. The difference between this situation and the one created by Asch is that you could not see the other participants. Confomity was lower than in the Asch experiment.

There are several factors that can influence the degree of conformity. People with low self-esteem of intelligence have an increased degree in conformity. Women tend to be likelier to conform than men. There are however some alternative explanations for this final occurrence such as the experiment being face to face and gender biased topics.

Also people in collectivistic cultures tend to conform more than those in individualistic cultures. In general conformity tendency has decreased since 1950.

7.2 Minority influence: the power of the few

Conversion theory states that disagreement within a group can result in conflict. Group members are motivated to reduce conflict by changing their own or other’s opinions. Minorities influence in a different way that majorities. They tend to use a validation process. This process can be seen in figure 7.7 on page 216.

The majority is surprised about the minorities disagreement and therefore interested in their arguments. Minorities tend to join the majority after a comparison process. This process of comparison has more of a direct influence while the validation process might lead to an innovative factor within the process (the new ideas within the decision making proces).

The idiosyncrasy credit is the occurance that people have more leniency towards an individual with a high status who violates a group norm. When a person first contributed to the group he or she gained credit. This credit decreases afterwards when he or shee will deviate from the group norm.

The dynamic social impact theory is an extension tot Latané’s social impact theory which states that influence is a funtion of strength, inmmediacy and number of sources. This influence results into the following processes:

Consolidation: Individuals which interact regularly become more uniform.

Clustering: People will be more influenced by those who are close to them.

Correlation: Over time people that agree on some issues converge, This will make their opinions more correlated.

Continuing diversity: Minorities will shield their opinions from the influence of the majority of the group.

7.3 Sources of group influence

There are multiple kinds of social influece, such as implicit and informational influence.

1. Implicit influence. People tend to imitate each other. In mimicry this is an unconscious act of copying.

2. Informational influence. It consists out of interpersonal processes based on the informational value of the responses of the rest of the group. Say: when 90% wants to choose red over yellow, you will also be likely to choose red instead of yellow. The False consensus effect is when a perceiver tends to assume their beliefs to be common in the general population when in reality this is not the case.

3. Dual process theories of influence identifies wo sources of influence: direct (persuasion) and indirect (imitation).

4. Normative influence consists out op interpersonal processes based on social norms and standards. Individuals tend to interternalize thier group’s norms and this is why they wish to act consistent with those norms. The focus theoriy of normative influence pressumes that both descriptive and injunctive norms influence behavior. However they both work in a different way. Injunctive norms are more demanding of cognitive resources than descriptive norms. Descriptive norms only need to notice what most people do given a situation in order to work

5. Interpersonal influence is a interpersonal proces based on group members encouraging conformity and discouraging nonconformity.

The black sheep effect is the tendency of group members to judge a non-popular group member more negative than the same behaviour from a nonmember.

Bystander effect is the tendency not to help when they know other people are present who are also able to help. People tend to experience this effect for example when they experience diffusion of responsibility by being in a group.

7.4 Application: understanding juries

Hastie, Penrod and Pennington have developed the story model and state that juries tend to follow one of the two ways of decision making: Verdict driven or evidence driven.

• Verdict driven: jurors reach a decision before deliberation: guilty or innocent. They divide the evidence in those two categories.

• Evidence driven: jurors resist judging until they have seen and heard all of the evidence.

Juries can have members with more or less status. Those with more status also have more influence. Jury size can influence group structure, representativeness, majority influence and voting. One example of this influence on group structure is that smaller juries have more equally participating and cohesive members.

It is important to emphasize on unanimity. Without unanimity there is less need for a debate. The verdict would be in twice as fast. There is fear that in this case they would make more mistakes because of their decrease in deliberations.

Some courts allow jurors to take notes, submit questions and discuss the ongoing trial.

Jurors are selected through voir dire: which is the verbal or written questioning of prospective jurors. This is done to uncover prejudices or biases. Until 1970 this voir dire was left up to the judge. Afterwards this was opened up to attorneys.

This is a controversial system because it opens the trails for changes of other forms of biased juries.

What types of power are there and how do they influence a group? - Chapter 8

Social power is the capacity to influence people. Even when these people try to resist this influence.

8.1 Obedience to authority

The milgram experiments are famous obedience studies. He let people punish another person when providing with a wrong answer. People would even give endanger this second person by giving them severe shocks after being told to continue the experiment.

Figure 8,1 on page 244 provides the obedience level of the milgram experiment in several conditions.

Even when the shouting of the victim was clearly heard, in the voice feedback condition, 62,5% of the participants continued the experiment until 450 volts.

When the victim reported having heart conditions 65% of the particitpants stayed obedient until 450 volts (the end of the experiment).

In the proximity condition, where the victim was in the same room, 40 % of the participants stayed obedient.

When the participant had to place the victims hand on a plate, 30 % of the participants stayed obedient.

For a fuller range of effects, have a look at page 245 and 246.

8.2 Social power in groups

Power bases are sources of social power within a group. Tis is including the degree of control over rewards and punishments. It also includes attractiveness, expertise and access to/ control over information which is needed by the members of the group. These bases of power are described in table 8.1 on page 251.

Power tactics

There are several kinds of power tactics. These are specific methods to influence others. There are three dimensions to divide these tactics.

Soft versus hard: hard tactics are coercive: treathening, bullying, enforcing et cetera. Soft tacticts are based on relationship exploitations. This could include collaboration, socializing and friendship.

Rational versus irrational: Tactics which emphasize logic such as bargaining are included in rational tactics. A nonrational tactic would rely on emotionality and misinformation..

Unilateral versus bilateral: Unilateral: demands, disengagement et cetera. Bilateral tactics involve give and take such as negotiation and persuasion.

Examples of power tactics can be found in table 8.2 on page 255.

Compliance tactics are subtle, indirect techniques which are difficult to detect. They are used to influence people.

The foot-in-the-door technique is a method where one first makes a small request after which the target will more likely agree to the more important request.

8.3 Sociale status in groups

Pecking order is a pattern of individual variation in status amongst members of the group.

People differ in their need for power. The Social dominance orientation (SDO) is the neiging to accept/ prefer cicumstances that sustain social inequality.

People with a high SDO prefer membership in the more hierarchical groups. They tend to be dominant over submissive and assertive over passive.

Bullying is often caused by dominance. There are different ways of bullying amongst men and women. Females tend to be relationally aggressive whereas men treat people bad for no reason.

The expectation-states theory provides us with an explanation for how groups decide who will gain status and who will not. The theory states that group members grant status to those they consider competent and full of potential.

Specific status characteristics are indicators of ability at the task which is to be performed.

Diffuse status characteristics are more general qualities which are considered relevant for the members of the group.

Status generalization is the tendency for certain individuals, known for having acquired respect in another context, to also have respect in other settings.

Status hierarchies and stability

Evolutionary theory suggests that dominance is designed to enhance survival by increasing a group’s decision making process and coordination.

The iron law of oligarchy describes a principle of power where the rules fort he majority are made by the few ( a couple of indivuals; the oligarchy).

The interpersonal complementarity hypothesis describles the tendenct for certain behaviours to evoke behabiour in others which are similar to the original behaviour.

Negative behaviour evokes negative behaviour, positive evokes positive. Dominant behaviour evokes submissive behaviour and vice versa.

Hierarchy comes with a price: individuals with a low status might fail to perform to their full potential due to their low motivation and cognitive functioning. High status members might cause more harm than good because they might misuse their authority. However a group with a stable hierarchy is most likely more productive than a group with an unstable hierarchy.

8.4 The metamorphic effects of power

Appoach/inhibition theory: there are two basic types of responses. These responses are approach (action) and inhibition (reaction, self-protection

Positive effects of power

Power increases activity levels and motivates people to take action.
Powerholders tend to experience more positive emotions, and they report higher levels of happiness and satisfaction.

Powerful people are more goal-striving, they maintain higher levels of motivation.

Also power facilitates executive cognitive functioning. It enhances attentional focus, decision making and planning. Power also increase influence, they feel more free to express their ideas and resist conformity.

Negative effects of powert

Power increases risk-taking. Powerful people often receive negative reactions. Powerful people are more likely to misjudge/ misunderstand their subordinates. Power can lead to unrealistically positive self-evaluations. Powerful people tend to use power where it is not needed. Powerful people sometimes treat others unfairly.

Bathsheba syndrome is the tendency for high-status group members to claim unfair and inappropriate honors and privileges.

Reactions to the use of power

There are many reactions to the use of power. One of these reactions, in case of disagreements, is resistance/rebellion. The revolutionairy coalition is a subgroup formed within the larger group seeking to disrupt or change the group’s authority structure.

Kelman states that people have three stages of response when dealing with coercive tactics:

Compliance, Identification and Internalization. In later stages the followers agree more with the powerholder(s). The final stage is needed for extreme acts such as murder. Descriptions of these stages can be found on table 8.3 on page 271.

The agentic state is a state which occurs when subordinates experience such a decrease in autonomy that they feel they are unable to resist the orders received by authority. These people do not feel in control of their actions. This is a state proposed by Milgram.

The power that can be hold by a role was proven in the prison- experiment from Zimbardo. The “guards” started misusing their power. Zimbardo stated the participants were overwhelmed by the power of the situation. Zimbardo called the tendency to be corrumpted to powerful negative group environments the Lucifer effect.

The fundamental attribution error (FAE) is the tendency to estimate the causal influence of dispositional factors of others too high and to underestimate the causal influence of situational factors. In case of a group one might be more likely to blame themselves for something going wrong rather than blaming the group.

What theories about leadership are there? - Chapter 9

Leadership is the guidance of others, often by directing, unifying, coordinating, supporting and motivating their efforts. Also, leadership is the ability to lead others.

9.1 The nature of leadership

Political science James McGregor Burns has defined leadership to be one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.

• Is leadership power?

Leadership is a form of power. It is however not power over the people but power with people. It is about cooperation, not coercion.

• Is a leader born or is a leader made?

Genetics create the biological ability to lead. However the actual leadership potential is determined by the environment.

• Do all groups have a leader?

Even though groups can function without a leader. The role leader usually is the first role to be decided upon.

Leaders generally appear more in big groups, groups who consider their success within their reach, groups who value the possible rewards of success, a group where group effort is required and when someone in the group has experience with the leadership role. Also, men are more likely to decide upon a leader than women.

• Are leaders resisted by followers?

Some scientists state groups would be better off without leaders.

However most people prefer to have a leader than not to have a leader.

Groups tend to be more satisfied and productive when having a leader.

In most groups the value of a leader is recognised. Followers usually do not resist a leader but create or find them.

• Do leaders make a difference?

Leaders have influence on their groups. However this influence can work in both a positive and a negative way.

• Do leaders make all the difference?

The romance of leadership is the tendency to overestimate to power and influence of a leader of his group. It is important to realise that a leader does not make all the difference. There are many other factors that influence a group.

Leadership is a process.

1. It is a reciprocal process, there is a leader-follower relationship of influence.

2. It is a transactional process, leaders and followers work together to increase their joint rewards.

3. It is a transformational process, where a leader changes their followers by motivating them and changing their beliefs and values.

4. It is a cooperative process where the leader has legitimate influence rather than just power. This process includes the expectations that the leader has the group’s interest at heart rather than his own.

5. It is an adaptive goal-seeking process for the leader tries he organise the group members efforts to attain their goals.

Leadership has two categories, Task and Relationship. This is stated in the Task-relationship model of leadership.

1. Task leadership: leadership focussed on the group’s tasks and work.

2. Relationship leadership: leadership focussed on the interpersonal relations within a group. For example to boost morale or reduce conflict.

These two categories are included in the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ).

The leadership substitutes theory is an analysis of factors that eliminate or reduce the need for a leader (substitutes). Neutralizers interfere with or prevent a leader from dealing with the (task and/or relational) needs of the group.

Men tend to be more task focused (agentic) and women tend to be more relation focused (communal). Women give more interpersonal advice and tend to connect more.

In an organizational setting this difference was not found.

9.2 Leadership emergence

Leadership emergence is the process in which an individual is recognised as a leader in a group formally without a leader. This recognition can both be implicit and explicit, formal and informal.

• Trait approach: this approach states that the traits define the leader.

• Situationism: this approach states that situational aspects define the leader.

• Interactional approach: this approach states that leaders are made by both situational factors as traits.

Extraversion is the best predictor for leadership from the Big Five. Conscientiousness is the second one, followed by openness and emotional stability.

Competences of a leader are intelligence, emotional and practical intelligence.

9.3 Theories of leadership emergence

The implicit leadership theory states that people are led by their assumptions concerning a leader and his/her presumed traits and qualities. People are unaware about these assumptions, that is why this is implicit. ILT’s are unique but also have common factors, such as: a leader should be active, influential and determined. ILT’s are also decided per situation and unique for cultures. Lord suggests with the Prototype-Matching Hypothesis that a distinction can be mad between an effective and an ineffective leader and between leaders and followers.

Social identity theory. According to Hogg social identity processes influence several leadership processes such as who is chosen as leader.

The self-definition includes qualities people share with their fellow group members. Group members tend to form an idealised image of a prototypical group member. This is comparable to the implicit leadership theory.

The Social role theory is an analysis about sex differences that states that men and women take on different types of roles in society. These role expectations generates a stereotype for men and women and differences in their behaviour.

The Terror management theory states that humans use implicit processes in order to defend themselves from the (terrifying) knowledge that they are mortal. In the presence of uncertainty and the feeling of mortality the desire for a strong and iconic leader will increase.

The Evolutionary theory suggests leadership is an adaptation. Adaptation enhances ones change of survival. iderschap kan ook vanuit een evolutionair oogpunt worden onderzocht. Eigenschappen die zorgen voor aanpassing blijven bestaan.

Leadership is not the same as dominance. Leadership benefits both leader and follower, whereas dominance only expresses strength.

The Evolutionary mismatch hypothesis states that people favor one type of leader over the other. These preferences are influenced by genetical tendencies and are not very behaviourally adaptive.

9.4 Leader effectiveness

Fiedler’s contingency model states that the success of a leader is decided by his leader’s motivational style and the capacity to control the group situation.

The motivational style of a leader can be measured using the least preferred co-worker scale. People with a high LPC stress the relationships whereas people with a low LPC stress the task. A clear picture of this test and its conclusions can be found in figure 9.4 on page 303.

Leadership style theories

The leadership grid theory states that leaders differ in their amount of concern for people and results. A leadership grid can be found in figure 9.5 on page 305.

The situational leadership theory (Hersey & Blanchard) suggests that groups benefit from leadership fitting to the group’s developmental stage. Bij de volgende fases horen de volgende leiderschappstijlen:

1. When a group is low in competence and commitment, a directing leader who is unsupportive is most effective.

2. When the group develops experience and competence, a leader can adopt a coaching style. This is a style with high direction and support.

3. When the group is “moderately mature” in their development, a supporting leader is recommended.

4. In the final phase, where the group is mature in their development, a delegating leader is most effective.

The leader-member exchange theory (LMX) is a relational, dyadic approach to leadership. It assumes leaders develop exchange relationships with their subordinates (individually). The quality of this exchange influences the responsibility, access to resources, performance and decision influence of the subordinates.

The ingroup is the group with positive linkages to the leader. The outgroup is the group with less positive or satisfying linkages to the leader. This group expresses less loyalty and support. They also contribute less than the ingroup.

The Lewin-Lippitt-White study is a study of the effects of leadership style.

The types of leadership are: The authoritarian or autocratic leader, who took no input from its members while making decisions. The democratic leader, who made sure that all subjects were first discussed before decided upon. And the laissez-faire leader who provided technical information but no supervision whatsoever.

Shared leadership is effective in small groups of relatively independent group members. It is important to know who the leaders and the followers are in groups where there is shared leadership. There are five types of followers: Conformist, passive, pragmatic, alienated and exemplary. Conformist followers are devoted to the leader, passives follow the lead without great enthusiasm or commitment, Pragmatic followers make up the group’s basic, essential workforce, they are not clearly any of the other groups. Alienated followers are not commmited to the group or its goals, they maintain their independence from other’s influence. Exemplary followers are actively engaged in the group, but do not simply do what they are told by others. They express their critique in an open and constructive manner.

The transactional leadership is a traditional leadership form that involves contributing resources: time, effort et cetera in the pursuit of a shared goal. This they do in exchange for (a) desired outcome(s).

Transformational leadership is a method of leading that elevates one’s followers motivation, confidence and satisfaction by uniting them in the pursuit of shared goals which are challenging and by changing their values, beliefs and needs.

In the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire is developed to measure the key components of transformational leadership. This leadership type includes four basic components: Idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration.

1. Idealized influence: expressing one’s conviction and emphasizing the importance of trust, purpose commitment and ethical consequences of decisions.

2. Inspirational motivation: articulating a certain vision for the future, talking optimistically and providing encouragement and meaning.

3. Intellectual stimulation: questioning old beliefs, traditions and assumptions, stimulating new perspective and encouraging creativity.

4. Individualized consideration: dealing with each other as individuals, consider the individual needs and abilities. Further individual members their development by coaching, teaching and advising.

How are group achievements improved? - Chapter 10

10.1 Working in groups

The ‘task-circumplex model’ is a model which brings order to goal-related activities from a group. It consists out of four different group goals: generating ideas or plans [ creativity tasks and planning tasks], choosing a solution [intellective tasks, decision-making tasks], negotiating a solution to resolve a conflict [cognitive conflict tasks and mixed-motive tasks]and executing a task [competitive tasks and psychomotor tasks]. All of the four basic categories can be divided into two activities. In the end there are eight activities, which are listed above, between the brackets. This model can be found in figure 10.1 on page 321 of the book.

Collective intelligence is the group’s generalized proficiency.

When a task is challenging, more complex and more important it becomes more likely that a group will fulfil this task successfully than an individual..

Process loss is a concept where there is less effectiveness which prevent a group from reaching its full potential. This can be caused by actions, operation or dynamics including ineffective leadership, reduced effort and a bad group process.

Actual productivity (AP) = potential productivity (PP) – process losses.

10.2 Social facilitation

Social facilitation is the an improvement on the task performance. It occurs when people work with, or in the presence of, others. Coaction means performing a task or other goal-oriented activity in the precence of one or multiple individual(s) performing a similar activity.

The drive theory of Zajonc is an explanation of social facilitation stating the presence of other people evokes a drive state. This drive state is known for its increased readiness and arousal.

Zajonc discovered social facilitation only to occur in easy to learn and perform behaviour. These are called dominant responses. In non-dominant responses it is less likely to have social facilitation because this is more difficult to learn and perform behaviour.

1. Physiological processes which may ocucur: Blascovich & colleagues found that the presence of an audience causes an increase in cardiac & vascular reactivity. They also found differences in the type of tasks. In case of an easy task, people expressed a challenging response: readiness to react. In case of a difficult task, people expressed a stress response: stress and not ready to actively respond.

2. Neurological processes which may occur: results of a fMRI study showed parts of the brain involved in monitoring social information show increased activity when people saw others when fulfilling a task. In case of a difficult task this occurrence is associated with a decreased achievement.

3. Motivational processes which may occur: the evaluation apprehension theory states individuals in the presence of other people experience a concern on how others evaluate them. This evaluation can increase the achievement on a simple task and limit the achievement on a difficult task.

The self-presentation theory states that social facilitation is caused by individuals wanting to make a good impression on those in their company. People wish to establish and maintain a certain face; a social image. They do not wish others to think they possess bad qualities, therefore they will show a favourable side of themselves.

1. Attentional processes: The distraction-conflict theory states that distraction interferes with the attention given to the task. However these distractions can be overcome with effort. This attentional conflict will increase the concentration and the performance on a simple task and decrease the performance on a complex task.

2. Cognitive processes: The mere-effort model suggests that the gains and losses, which individuals exhibit when working on tasks (both complex and simple), are caused by the way we process information.

3. Personality processes: The social orientation theory states that people differ in their orientation towards social situations. These differences predict who will show social facilitation around other people and who will not. People with a positive orientation are self-confident and will respond in a positive manner to the tasks. People with a negative orientation feel inhibited and threatened by other people, they will therefore approach a social situation more cautiously. \

Several motivational, cognitive and personality related processes cause the reactions of group members in several situations. Examples of these are: prejudices; negative attitudes towards members of other groups. Eating in groups: The presence of others facilitates eating.

Even in electronic company social facilitation can occur. Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) is the use of information technology to follow, analyse and report the achievements of employees.

10.3 Social Loafing

The Ringelmann effect is the tendency of people to be less productive when working in a group. This loss of efficiency will increase when group size increases.

This loss of efficiency is caused by motivational loss and coordination loss.

The decrease of effort by loss of motivation is known as Social Loafing.

What are the causes and cures for social loafing?

1. Social loafing occurs when people’s level of work cannot be evaluated.

2. Free riding, when people contribute less because they feel other group members will compensate for this lack of effort. Free riding can be prevented by giving people the feeling they can contribute uniquely.

3. When setting clear goals individuals will become more productive.

4. Productivity will increase when people are more involved.

5. A final method to prevent social loafing is to increase the identification with the group.

The collective effort model (CEM) is a theoretical explanation of group productivity that helps to understand the “causes and cures” for social loafing. Motivation is influenced by 1. The value of the goal and 2. Their expectation about reaching it.

10.4 Groups versus individuals

Groups often present better than indivuals even though groups deal with social loafing.

Task demands is the effect of a task having certain features which influence the methods that can be used to complete the task. Some tasks are divisable, they can be broken down into subtasks and assigned to different members. Unitary tasks however cannot be divided. A maximizing task is a task were quantity counts whereas an optimizing task is a task where quality is more important.

There are five types of combinatorial techniques; 1. Additive tasks combines individual input (maximizing and divisible), 2. Compensatory tasks are tasks where the mean solution of the member’s solutions is the answer. 3. Disjunctive tasks are tasks that cannot be completed until the entire group supports the solution that is the group’s outcome. 4. Conjunctive tasks are tasks that can only be completed when everyone contributes. 5. Discretionary tasks are unstructured tasks completed by using several social combinatorial methods.

Part of disjunctive tasks:

• Intellective task is a task with objectively reviewable results. They are also called “Eureka tasks”, they are tasks where there can only be one answer

• Judgmental task is a task where there is not just one answer, nor are the results objectively reviewable.

Synergy occurs when a group produces an outcome greater than the result by simple accumulation of group member’s individual efforts.

10.5 Group creativity

Brainstorming is a way to enhance creativity in groups which (1)calls for heightened expressiveness, (2)postponed evaluation, (3)purposely builds on existing ideas and (4)puts quantity of ideas over quality.

Nominal groups: Groups of individuals working alone and then pooled their ideas. A brainstorming group will outperform a nominal group of equal size.

Social loafing can occur in brainstorming sessions. Also members might have to deal with production blocking which is a productivity loss which occurs when the group and procedural factors obstruct a group’s progress towards its goals.

The social matching effect is the tendency for individuals to match their level of productivity to that of the others in the group.

The tendency within brainstorming groups to overestimate their group’s performance in such a way that they consider their group to be performing effectively is called the illusion of group productivity.

There are ways to improve brain storming such as sticking to the rules and paying attention to everyone’s ideas. Also, mixing individual and group approaches might help, just as taking breaks persisting and having enough time.

There are alternatives to brainstorming:

1. Electronic brainstorming means generating ideas using computer-based communication methods rather than face-to-face sessions.

2. Nominal group technique (NGT): this is a method where face-to-face group session are prefaced by a nominal group phase. Which is a phase where people generate ideas individually

3. Delphi technique: A method which involves surveying group members repeatedly.

4. Buzz groups are smaller subgroups (buzz groups) that have been divided from the main group to generate ideas which can, afterwards, be discussed with the entire group.

5. Bug lists: a list of small annoyances belonging to the discussed problem, solutions for every bug can be discussed.

6. Stepladder technique is a technique which requires every new member to state his or her opinion or idea, before being told what the opinion or idea of the group is.

What is the influence of the group on decision-making? - Chapter 11

11.1 The functional perspective

The functional theory of group decision making is a theory concerning the steps which groups take in order to make a decision. This theory emphasizes the planned goal of every phase. Four stages will be discussed: Orientation, Discussion, Decision and Implementation.

• Orientation stage

In this stage a problem is defined and goals are set. The process is planned and a shared mental model is developed, this is important to get the group’s knowledge, expectations, conceptualizations and other representations in line concerning the group and its members, tasks, resources and procedures. .

• Discussion stage

In this stage information is seeked out, shared and processed.

The collective information processing approach states that groups use communication and discussion to gather and process the information that is needed in order to formulate choices, judgements and decisions.

A group has a collective memory which includes their combined memories, each members memories, the shared mental models and transactive memory systems.

• Decision stage

A social decision scheme is a strategy used in a group in order to select one decision from all the input from every member. Delegation is the process where a subgroup/individual will make the decision for the group.

Averaging is the process of combining all the preferences into one decision.

Voting: members express their preference (anonymously or openly). And there has to be a certain mayority over the other possible decision for one decision to be chosen.

Consensus: everyone in the group must in the end agree with the decision (unanimous)

• Implementation Stage

After the decision has been made the plan needs to be implemented and evaluated.

Uitvoering wordt beïnvloed door zowel procedurele als distributieve rechtvaardigheid. Procedural justice is the perceived fairness and legitimacy of the methods used to make decisions.

Distributive justice is the perceived fairness of the distribution of resources, and also of rights and costs.

Autonomous work groups and self-directed teams are groups in a total participation condition. All of the employees took part in the process. And this type of process usually has a high job satisfaction.

The normative model of decision making predicts the efficiency of a group-centered, autocratic and consultative decisional methods in multiple situations.

1. Decide: the leader will solve the problem and the leader informs the group on these decisions.

2. Consult: the leader shares the problem with every member individually, takes those suggestion along in the decision making process. The leader is the decision maker in the end.

3. Consult: the leader discusses the problem with the group. Based on the collective ideas the leader will make a decision.

4. Facilitate: the leader coordinates the problem and helps the group to reach a consensus. The leader mplements the solution of the group.

5. Delegate: a leader can delegate a task to an already independent group.

11.2 Problems and pitfalls

The planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time, energy and means needed to complete a planned project successfully.

Communicational errors are very common problems. Both the messager as the receiver make plenty of mistakes.

Listeners tend to level (simplify and shorten) a message. They also tend to sharpen (embellish distinctions) and assimilate (interpret in a way it matches one’s own expectations and beliefs).

Parkinson’s law states that a task will expand in order to fill the time that is available.Law of triviality states that the amount of time spend on an issue is in inverse proportion to the consequentiality of the issue. This would mean that the bigger the consequences the smaller the discussion time will be and vice versa.

Sometimes people use the discussion to avoid decision making. There are several tactics for this: Procrastination, bolstering, denying responsibility, muddling trough, satisficing and trivializing the discussion.

The shared information bias or common knowledge effect is the tendency of groups to spend more time discussing information that everyone knows than information that only a few members know.

This bias can be prevented by having longer discussion, because unshared information will be shared later in a discussion than shared information. The more senior group members tend to repeat more shared and unshared information.

The group decision support system (GDSS) is a set of tools used to structure and facilitate a group’s decision making. It contains computer programs which acquire data, communicate, share documents and review alternative actions and outcomes on a systematic basis.

There are three categories of cognitive limitations and decisional sins.

• Sins of commission: misuse of information

• Sins of omission: the overlooking of useful information

• Sins of imprecision: the inapproptiate relience on mental rules of thumb that oversimplify the decision.

Examples of these can be found in table 11.1 on page 377.

The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out information which confirms one’s preferences and beliefs.

The Abilene paradox is the tendency of a group to decide on a course of action which none of the group members individually endorse. All of the members wish to be seen as cooperative group members and do so by not expressing their own opinion (Pluralistic ignorance).

This can lead to entrapment: a form of escalating investment in which group expend more resources than seems justifiable by external standards. This can lead to sunk cost: an investment (or loss of resources) that cannot be recouped by current or future actions.

11.3 Group polarisation

The risky-shift effect is the effect of groups making riskier decisions than individuals would. The Choice-Dilemmas Questionnaire is a self-report measure of willingness to make risky decisions.

Group polarization is the tendency for member of a delibirating group to move to a more extreme position with the direction of the shift determined by the average of majority of the member’s preferences before deliberating.

What causes group polarization?

The social comparison theory people will shift their opinions to what is consistent with the group. The persuasive-arguments theory offers another explanation, this theory states that people change their opinions during a discussion, towards the idea having the most supporting arguments. Social identity also plays a role because people can adapt their ideas due to the positions of the group members within the group.

11.4 Victims of groupthink

Groupthink is described as a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive ingroup.

Symptoms of groupthink are divided into three groups: the overestimation of the group, closed-mindedness and pressure towards uniformity.

For a clear picture of this model have a look at figure 11.7 on page 386.

There are three causes of groupthink:

• Cohesiveness: in a cohesive group members refrain from speaking out against the majority.

• Structural faults of the group: insulation (a group not in contact with the outside world) and few possibilities of communicating with other groups have a big chance of experiencing groupthink. Also, a traditional leader increases the likelihood of the occurence of groupthink.

• Provocative situational factors: decision making causes stress which can be avoided by rationalizing your choices by overestimating the positive outcomes and underestimating the potential negative outcome. This process can lead to groupthink, just like a low self-esteem of the group.

There are alternative models to Janis’s groupthink theory.

Firstly there is a model of group centrism: a group-level syndrome caused by members striving in an excessive way to maintain and support their group’s unity. This on the expense of the intergroup relations and the group its decision making capacity. Group members wish to reach a definite solution too quickly (cognitive closure).

Secondly there is the Ubiquity model. This model states that consensus is a desired outcome in every group.

Groupthink can be prevented by encouraging discussion, welcoming new ideas, and thoroughly discussing the pros and cons of all options. A devil’s advocate can help a discussion along. Secondly misperception and biases should be corrected. A way to accomplish this is by asking input from an outsider. Thirdly, using effective decision making techniques can help.

How do teams work? - Chapter 12

What is a team?

A team is an organised, goal oriented group. When you understand how groups function, you also gain a better understanding of how a team functions, because a team is a specific sort of group. Like all groups, teams consist of multiple members who are interdependent and share a collective goal. Teams are aimed at intellectual, informative tasks, and on action oriented tasks. Teams promote interaction and interdependence between members, reach goals, are structured, and form a unit. Teams acquire these qualities with much effort from their members, as opposed to groups.

There are many different kinds of teams, but they all share characteristics of groups. The defining characteristics of a team that separate it from a different kind of group are the nature and intensity of the qualities and relationships of a team.

When is it useful to work in a team?

Not every task benefits from being worked at by a team. As discussed in the previous chapter, a group does not always perform better than the sum of the individuals in the group. Tasks that are more difficult, more complex, and more important are more likely to be completed by a team than by individuals.

When a task is very difficult, it is more useful to work on it with a team. It is very unlikely that a single individual possesses all qualities and skills necessary to build a nuclear reactor. Additionally, a team can complete a difficult task much faster than any one individual.

Tasks that require integrated action of group members, also need a team to be completed. For example, think of performing a symphony. The more components of the task are interdependent, the more responsible group members will feel for completing their own task.

The romance of teams is the idea that forming a team is always an effective way to increase performance in organisations, even though there is no evidence for this claim. A team approach can be perfect in certain situations, but it can also arouse annoyance where a simple routine task or an individual task is concerned. In that case, working in a team is unnecessary and superfluous

What kinds of teams are there?

Teams are distinguished from other sorts of groups by their high degree of autonomy. Some teams are partly autonomous, because they are led by a leader who is responsible for the team members. Hackman developed the authority matrix model, which describes four important types of teams and responsibilities. Firstly, four responsibilities can be distinguished:

• Executing tasks
• Monitoring the work process
• Designing the team
• Setting the team goals

Aside from that, four types of groups can be distinguished:

• A manager-led team has executing tasks as its only responsibility. An external leader fulfills all other responsibilities.
• A self-managing team is more autonomous because the members are responsible for both executing the tasks and monitoring the work processes. However, this team is not able to adjust the structures and procedures of the team.
• A self-designing team has more control over the structure of the team. An external leader guides the team, but the team members are responsible for whatever is needed to execute the task.
• A self-governing team is responsible for guiding the team, designing the team, monitoring the work processes and executing tasks.

Different kinds of organisations use cross-functional teams to create relationships between subgroups. A cross-functional team is a project group, built out of individuals with different kinds of functional expertises.

Considering that in an organisational setting there are many kinds of teams, teams often need to work together. In that case, there is a multiteam system (MTS). The dynamics of an MTS are even more complicated those of a single team. When multiple teams need to closely work together, they need to consider social identity processes and possibly adjust their structures and procedures to them.

What is the system model of teams?

The IPO model of teams is aimed at the factors that shape the start of the teamwork (inputs) and the factors that facilitate or obstruct teamwork (processes) which result in different outcomes (outputs).

• Inputs are all pre existing factors that influence the team and team members either directly or indirectly. These are factors at the individual level (personality, competencies, knowledge, and skills), factors at the team level (structure, cohesion, and size), and factors at the environmental level (stress levels and how rewards are given)
• Processes are the actions and activities that influence the relationship between the input factors and outcomes of a team. These processes include steps to plan the activities of the team, coordinate processes, cope with conflict, and make sure that the team members are committed to the team.
• Outputs are the consequences of the activities of the team. The team emphasizes the outcomes: did the team win or lose?

The IPO model is a relatively simple model that describes the complicated interpersonal factors within teams. Some drawbacks of the model are:

• The model is a simple categorisation that does not completely explain the complex processes in teams.
• The named processes are not really processes, but characteristics of the team that arise from the team members interacting with each other.
• This model is a systems model, which should mean that the factors influence each other. However, this model suggests that input leads to processes and that processes lead to output. Therefore, it is unclear how the factors influence each other in different directions.

How can you build a team?

Every individual brings unique skills, experiences, competencies and motivations into a team. These sort of melt together, so that a team can develop. Teamplayers are often chosen to be part of a team. These are people who are better team members than others, based on their personality or temperament.

Being an extravert is a favourable attribute for a team member. Extraverts in a team are cooperative, expressive, and able to lead. Aside from extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness are valuable characteristics of team members. They create trust and emotional stability in a group. Even openness to new experiences is supposed to be related to better team performance. Research show that all of the above characteristics predict performance, but emotional stability does not.

Furthermore, research has found that having either a type A personality or a type B personality is related to how satisfied team members are with their team. People with a type A personality are focused on performance and are competitive and aggressive, while people with a type B personality are more accommodating and calm. Research shows that team members judge their team more positively when all members have either a type A personality or a type B personality, while mixed groups are judged less positively.

What are KSA's?

KSA's stand for knowledge, skills, and abilities and other characteristics that are needed to execute a task. KSA's are very important for a team, because teams of which the members possess better competencies perform better than teams with less able members. How well a team performs is dependent on the amount of knowledge, skills, and abilities of the separate team members. The correlation between the abilities of all team members and the performance of the team is very high: 0.91. KSA's are not just important for completing tasks, but also for maintaining good relationships between members.

For example, KSA's for conflict resolution can make sure that conflicts are resolved in an integrative and cooperative way, instead of in a competitive way.

What is the role of diversity in teams?

Team diversity is determined by the extent to which group members are different from each other. This can concern social categories (race, ethnicity, gender), differences in values or beliefs (cultural background, political beliefs), knowledge and skills (education level, expertise), differences in personality (cognitive style, motivational factors), differences in organisation (status, title), and differences in social ties and networks (friendships, ingroup membership). One would think that more diverse teams perform better than less diverse teams. When there is diversity, members can contribute many different types of information to the team.

However, diversity has a drawback: social categorisation theory posits that we categorise other based on the fact that they belong to certain groups. Research shows that diversity in information and expertise is related to positive outcomes, but the relationship between outcomes and diversity in ethnicity, age, and gender is less clear.

Diversity can cause faultlines within a team. Because the team is under stress, the large heterogeneous group is divided into smaller, more homogeneous subgroups. Steps can be taken in order to diminish the negative effects of diversity and expand the positive effects of diversity. It is important that a team first goes through a phase were attention is given to superficial characteristics (surface-level qualities) such as race and gender. When team members understand that these superficial qualities are unimportant, they can focus on the deep-level differences in values. It is important that the organisational culture is positive towards diversity. Furthermore, it is important that the team is stimulated to include all team members in the team process.

What is the role of gender in teams?

Some scholars posit that throughout the evolution, men have cooperated in teams in order to achieve goals, and that because of this relationships between men are stronger in teams than the relationships between men and women. Because of this, they posit that when women are put in a team with men, the performance suffers. This is because they say that there is less cohesion in a mixed gender group than in a group with only men. However, research shows that these assumptions are incorrect. Men are not more effective when they work in a team with only other men.

Some studies have found that men performed better than women, but that was because these studies looked at typical 'male' skills such as making calculations. Furthermore, it has been found that women perform better than men in tasks where social contact is needed, while men perform better in tasks that require task orientation. Research shows that when a team consists of both men and women, this diversity causes more informational resources to be present. However, sexism, sexual intimidation and stereotypes can decrease the effectivity of these teams.

How does the process of working in teams work?

Teamwork is the process in which group members combine their knowledge, skills, abilities and other resources to achieve a desired goal by way of coordinated action.

It takes time for a team to become an effective work unit. Teams perform better when the team members have a shared mental model about how the work should be done. This mental model consists of shared representations about the task, how it should be executed, what kind of outcomes are desired and what behaviours are needed to successfully complete the task.

Teams also need time to develop transactive memory systems. Complex tasks need a lot of information, too much for one person to retain. That is why the necessary information is divided among the team members, based on their role and responsibility. When the information is needed, the team asks the relevant specialist to share the information. This takes time to develop, and the team members need to trust each other enough so that the information can be shared.

Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro have made a categorisation of teamwork in which they differentiate between three kinds of processes:

• Transition processes: sometimes teams try to complete tasks that are very complex. In this case, three processes can occur:
  • Mission analysis: interpreting and evaluating the mission of the team. Special attention is paid to the main tasks, environmental factors and the resources the team needs to successfully execute the mission.
  • Goal specification: setting goals and giving priority to (sub)goals in order to achieve the mission
  • Strategy formulation: developing alternative ways to complete tasks and determining in what order subtasks should be executed.
• Action processes: these processes are about performing actions in order to achieve tasks
  • Monitoring progress toward goals and sharing this progress with the team members
  • Systems monitoring: monitoring the resources of the team and the environmental factors, focussing on (1) internal systems monitoring (personnel, tools, and other information within the team) and (2) environmental monitoring (determining what the environmental factors are that influence the team)
  • Team monitoring and backup behavior: helping team members execute their tasks. This can be done by (1) giving verbal feedback, (2) help a team member on a behavioural level, or (3) completing the task of a fellow group member
  • Coordination: monitoring the sequence and timing of actions.
• Interpersonal processes: relational processes within a team
  • Conflict management: avoiding, controlling or guiding conflicts. It is very important to work through disagreements as a team.
  • Motivation and confidence building: stimulating a sense of trust, motivation, and task related cohesion.
  • Affect management: regulating the emotions of team members during work, for example by paying attention to social cohesion, frustration, and enthusiasm

What is team cohesion?

Teams owe their success to cooperation. A strong commitment to the shared tasks and the willingness to be more focussed on the team goals than on personal goals (cohesion) are often associated with the profits of a team. Sources of cohesion are:

• Social cohesion: factors like proximity, similarity in attitudes and absence of members with negative personal qualities, can increase group cohesion. It is important that there is a strong bond between members.
• Task cohesion: the more members strive towards achieving a shared goal, the more cohesive the group will be. Groups that are cohesive are characterized by positive expectations about the abilities of a group and the enthusiasm for the group and its goals.
• Collective cohesion: when members identify with the team (when the self is based on both the personal identity and the social identity), there is a heightened motivation and the members will support the team more in periods of stress
• Emotional cohesion: some teams are cohesive on an emotional level. The term group affective tone means the collective emotional mood of a group. George said that a positive group affect can lead to an increase in actions that are beneficial to the group, like helping each other, protecting the group and giving constructive suggestions
• Structural cohesion: smaller teams are often more cohesive than large teams, because there are more people in larger teams.

When a team is first formed or when a team is performing worse, it is important to first build team cohesion. Research shows that cohesion improves teamwork, but that the performance has a bigger impact on cohesion than the other way around. The group is not successful because it is cohesive, but the group is cohesive because it is successful in the past. Cohesive teams can be unproductive when the group norm emphasizes lower performance

How can team performance be recorded?

Teams are task oriented groups. Their success is determined by their performance: do they achieve the goals that have been set? The productivity of a team is one of the outputs that should be considered when determining a groups effectivity. Hackman identified three factors that should be considered when evaluating the success of a team: 1) task performance, 2) growth of the team as a whole, and 3) the individual development of the group members.

Salas and his colleagues have identified a number of ways to increase team performance.

1. Team training is an instructional method to teach individuals and teams cognitive, behavioural and affective skills that are needed for the effective performance of a team. In this method, the focus is on the skills and practice and feedback are used.
2. Team building is the instructional method that is used to improve the development of interpersonal skills and teamwork skills in individuals and teams. Team building is less structured and is aimed at relational skills. Sales and his colleagues identified four basic approaches, aimed at specific problems that teams often encounter. 1) goal setting, 2) interpersonal relationships, 3) role clarification, and 3) problem solving procedures. All four approaches are effective, but goal setting and role clarification interventions lead to the most significant improvements.

How do conflicts arise, escalate, and dissipate? - Chapter 13

What is conflict?

Conflict is dissension, disagreement, and friction, which occurs when the actions or opinions of one or more group members are not accepted and fought by the rest of the group. Often, there are three phases within conflict.

The start of a conflict (initial disagreement) is characterized by disagreements, confusion about the goals of the group, complaints about group members who are not working hard enough etcetera. Sometimes a conflict is quickly resolved (false or autistic conflicts), but most times a conflict worsens over time (conflict escalation), because group members start to react emotionally, stop thinking clearly, and start to form coalitions. The conflict can reach a peak before it starts to dissolve (conflict de-escalation). In the final phase a conflict is often resolved (conflict resolution). In this chapter, the intragroup conflict is examined: disagreement or confrontation between members of the same group. The next chapter intergroup conflict will be examined: disagreement or confrontation between two or more groups and their members. This disagreement can express itself in physical violence, interpersonal fighting and psychological tension.

What are the causes of conflict?

Conflict occur often and in any context, but most times people try to avoid conflict. Group members often have different preferences and opinions and this can lead to conflict. They disrespect each other and form a coalition with group members who think the same way they do, while they distance themselves from group members with different opinions.

There is independence when in a performance situation the success of the group is not related to the chance that other group members are successful. However, people in a group are often interdependent: the outcomes of group members are connected. Cooperation is a performance situation in which the success of a group member increased the chance that the other group members are also successful. Deutsch called this promotive interdependence. Competition is a performance situation in which success depends on performing better than group members. Deutsch called this contrient interdependence. Competition and cooperation trigger different kinds of motivational systems. Cooperation involves interdependence. these situations are often described to be pleasant. Group members experience fewer personal conflicts, tensions and verbal confrontations. In competition, people are more aimed at personal goals. Competition evokes feelings of greed (the need to find sources and keep them to yourself) and fear (concern about the fact that others are maximising their outcomes, which minimizes your outcomes). Competition is a strong motivator for people, but groups that are more cooperative are more successful. Competition is often a source of conflict.

A mixed-motive situation is a performance situation where the interdependence of different people leads to both competition and cooperation. This can be measured with a technique that is called the prisoner's dilemma game (PDG). This is a simulation of social interaction in which players need to choose either a cooperative or a competitive option. It works like this: the players need to choose between two options. If both players choose the same option (cooperative choice) they both win a modest amount of money or points. However, if one of both chooses a particular answer (competitive choice), say option B, then this person wins a larger amount of money or points, while the other loses an amount of money or points. If both players choose option B, they both lose.

Generally people are inclined towards competition, although individuals with a cooperative partner tend to start choosing cooperatively over time. In this case, we speak of behavioural assimilation: we adjust our competition or cooperation behaviour to the behaviour that our game partners are exhibiting. This can be explained by reciprocity: the inclination of people to give back what they receive from others. Cooperative behaviour is rewarded with cooperative behaviour, and competitive behaviour is punished with competitive behaviour. A cooperative person with a competitive partner will be quicker to also start playing competitively. Negative reciprocity is stronger than positive reciprocity.

Social value orientation (SVO) is the dispositional inclination to react to conflict situations in a certain way. People who want to earn as much as possible for themselves are called proself. People who think that others should also earn as much as possible are called prosocials. Individualistic and competitive SVO's are proself, while cooperative and altruistic SVO's are prosocial. Below, these concepts are expanded upon.

• Individualistic orientation: proself people with an individualistic orientation are only interested in their own outcomes. They decide based on what these decision will bring them personally. They do not interfere with others and do not try to help others. Their actions can influence other group members, but this is not their goal.
• Competitive orientation: proself people with a competitive orientation try to maximise their own outcomes, but also try to keep other people's losses as small as possible. Disagreements are seen as a win-lose situation and they like to impose their ideas on others. They believe that making concessions is for losers and that everyone should try to maximise their own outcomes.
• Cooperative orientation: prosocial people with a cooperative orientation try to maximise their own outcomes, but they also try to maximise the outcomes of others. They want to create win-win situations. These people think that outcomes should be distributed equally and that there are no real losers and winners.
• Altruistic orientation: prosocial people with an altruistic orientation want to help people in need. They don't care about self-interest, which means they are inclined to give up their own outcomes in order to help others.

People with competitive SVO's are more likely to experience conflict. When they are criticised for their competitive behaviour, they are unlikely to change this behaviour. This is because they do not value interpersonal relationships. For cooperative people, their own cooperation is positively correlated with the cooperation of others: when others are cooperative a cooperator will cooperate.

Regardless of the fact that many people think that men are more competitive than women, research has shown that men and women are about equally competitive. It does turn out that women are more likely to choose prosocial SVO's than men. Furthermore, it seems that when women think their partner is attractive they are more likely to act cooperatively. When they do not find their partner attractive, they are more likely to act competitively. Men are always more likely to act competitively.

When does a resource conflict occur?

Social dilemmas are interpersonal situations in which individuals need to choose between maximizing personal outcomes or maximizing the outcomes of the group.

The social trap (or commons dilemma) is a social dilemma in which individuals can maximize their outcomes by pursuing personal goals instead of collective goals. However, if all group members behave selfishly, this will lead to large losses for the whole group. This dilemma can be prevented with communication. Experience with the situation, communication (aimed at strategy) and social pressures that promote conservation are important factors. Developing normative standards within the group, where the emphasis is on efficient use of the resource, can be helpful as well.

The public goods dilemma is a social dilemma in which a person does not contribute the public good (like keeping a park clean), but is not excluded from the benefits (being able to relax in the park). A different example is that the police help citizens that do not pay taxes. People being able to profit from benefits while they are not contributing to those benefits can be explained by free-riding.

The honesty dilemma is influenced by two kinds of social justice: 1) procedural justice is about the methods that are used to decide about the distribution of resources and 2) distributive justice is the perceived equity of the distribution of rights and resources. Distributive justice is about the question whether people have received a fair amount of the resources. The answer to this question is dependent on the norms within a group. These norms are described below:

• The equity norm: the person who has done the most for the group receives the most, the person who has done the least receives the least.
• The equality norm: every group member is rewarded equally, regardless of the work they have done.
• The power norm: the biggest reward goes to the person with the most power.
• The need norm: is sometimes called the social responsibility norm: those who have the most should share it with those who have the least.

Negative inequity, the sense that you receive less than you deserve, is obviously more often a source of conflict than positive inequity, the sense that you receive more than you deserve. Negative inequity causes people to withdraw from a group and contribute less. Negative inequity is more likely to cause conflict, because it gives people the feeling that they are being treated unjustly and that they have a low status.

Egocentrism is when a person feels more responsible for an outcome or situation than they really are. Often, this is a result of comparing their own estimate of personal responsibility with the estimate of responsibility of others. Egocentrism is often caused by members being more aware of their own contributions than the contributions of others. Egocentrism can be diminished by asking group members to consider the contributions of their group members (unpacking). Group members can react to success or failure in a group serving way. In that case, they hold themselves as group responsible for successes and blame others from outside the group for failures. Group members are more likely to react in a self serving way: individuals hold themselves responsible for success, but others within the group for failures. This self serving way of responding leads to intragroup conflict and weakens cohesion

When does a power conflict occur?

Hidden and open power conflict is very common in companies and collective situations. This is because of power differences within groups. Often group members compete for power and promotions.

What is a task and process conflict?

Substantive conflicts (also called task conflicts or content conflicts) are disagreements concerning affairs that are important for the recognized goals and procedures of the group. Even though a limited amount of discussion can be useful (because it leads to new ideas), this can come to a point where it is unpleasant for the group members. For example, it is possible that these conflicts develop into personal conflicts, which can lead to a group member being liked less because they have a different opinion. Task conflict arises from conflicting ideas, opinions and interpretations.

Process conflict (or procedural conflict) arises because strategies, policy, and methods clash. In this case, disagreement about what methods should be used by the group in order to complete tasks is concerned. Many groups try to avoid this sort of conflict by setting up formal rules about the methods that should be used by the group and what is expected of group members.

It is important that a task or process conflict is resolved. This prevents performance from being negatively influenced in the future. It is important that group members understand each other. After resolving a conflict people often have more understanding for each other's situations. Not resolving a task or process conflict has a negative influence on the group. The group can become unstable. This will affect performance in the future.

When does a personal conflict occur?

Personal conflict (or affective conflict/personality conflict/emotional conflict/relationship conflict) is a disagreement between individuals who do not like each other. People often explain conflicts with others by talking about their personalities. They call the other moody or unqualified.

How do confrontation and escalation occur?

What is the reason that conflicts escalate? Below are a few possible explanations.

• When conflicts worsen, insecurities and doubts of the group members are replaced by commitment to their own opinion. Additionally, reactance and occur: when group members experience strong disagreement, they become even more convinced of their own opinion.
• The observation of an individual often shapes the reactions that follow. During a conflict, perception is distorted. People often make the fundamental attribution error. They assume that the behaviour of others is caused by personality instead of situational characteristics. In conflict this can lead to a difference in opinion being attributed to personal characteristics. Because of conflict, group members lose trust in each other. Because the conflict makes them start to use competitive behaviours, they have difficulty being cooperative afterwards.
• When a conflict increases, both parties will use stronger and stronger tactics in order to convince the other. This can eventually lead to threats. Research has shown that parties who do not threaten each other are quicker to come to a solution. The use of hard tactics in order to convince the other only leads to escalating the conflict. This has been shown through the trucking game experiment. Opponents who are equally powerful avoid using power, when the fear for retribution is strong.
• Generally, threats from one party lead to threats from the other party (reciprocity), which causes an upwards spiral. The upwards spiral is mediated by the norm of reciprocity: a mild threat evokes a mild threat. In conflicts however, there is rough reciprocity: either too much or too little is returned (overmatching and undermatching). It is often the case that at the start of a conflict people react too strongly (overmatching) and after that people react less strongly (undermatching). Overmatching can be seen as a strong warning and undermatching can be seen as a message of reconciliation.
• Most people get annoyed in a conflict, which can lead to anger. When one party has shown negative emotions, they are often followed by negative emotions of the other party. This leads to a vicious cycle: anger is followed by more conflict, which leads to more anger etcetera.
• Individuals who are in conflict often seek supporters and from a coalition. Individuals who are excluded from the coalition respond in a hostile way and form their own coalition. Coalitions increase conflicts, because they pull more people into a certain direction. Aside from that, they don't just want to maximize their own outcomes, but minimize the outcomes of people outside of the coalition.

How can problems be solved?

There are multiple ways to solve a conflict. These are described below.

Negotiation. This is considered to be mutual communication, whereby two or more parties consider specific situations, explain their positions, and exchange bids and counter offers in order to come to an agreement. Two kinds of negotiation can be distinguished: 1) distributive and 2) integrative negotiation.

In distributive negotiation, both parties admit just a little bit every time, until a suboptimal solution arises for one party. They end up at a not entirely satisfying middle point. In integrative negotiation, a way is sought to integrate both viewpoints. In this case the parties work together and they do not compete. There is a distinction between hard and soft negotiators. Soft negotiators (or soft bargainers) choose a friendly way of negotiating. They try to avoid confrontation and try to have good relationships with others. Hard negotiators (or hard bargainers) are very competitive and take extreme positions about the conflict. Principled negotiators search for solutions without choosing a side. They are aimed at the problem instead of the intentions, motivations and needs that are related to the problem.

Many conflicts arise because people misunderstand each other. Wrong perceptions cause people to think that others are competitive, while that is not necessarily true. These misconceptions can be resolved by open communication. By communicating with each other, people can give each other information about their own motives and goals. By communicating people are able to trust each other more, but they are also more able to express their negativity toward each other. This can worsen a conflict. Communication can be useful when there is a cooperative attitude, when trust needs to increase and when it can lead to improved cohesion within the group.

Instead of hard tactics, people can also use cooperative tactics. The dual concern model posits that people can deal with conflict through 4 tactics: 1) avoiding, 2) yielding, 3) fighting, and 4) cooperating. These 4 tactics are related to two dimension: self-interest and thinking of the other.

1. Avoidance is a passive way to deal with conflict. People who want to avoid conflict wait and see, and let it happen. They do little in order to prevent conflict and do not talk about points of conflict. They don't often go to group meetings.
2. Yielding is a passive, but prosocial way to deal with conflict. Yielders solve problems by giving in to the demands of others. Sometimes they yield because they are aware that their own opinion is incorrect, but sometimes they yield while holding on to their own opinion.
3. Fighting is an active and proself way to deal with conflict. Fighting (forcing, dominating) can take many shapes, from insulting to blaming the other. Sometimes there can even be a physical fight.
4. Cooperation is an active, prosocial and proself way to deal with conflicts. People who cooperate first determine what the problem is exactly and then search for a solution that is satisfying for both parties. There is collaboration, problem solving and a win-win situation.

How can you go from an upward conflict spiral to a downward spiral? Research shows that the best negotiation strategy is tit for tat (TFT). In this strategy you start with cooperation, but then the method is chosen by the opposing party, so the cooperation is either followed by competition or cooperation. It is said that TFT is nice, provocable, clear, forgiving, and reciprocal.

1. TFT is nice, because you start with cooperation instead of competition
2. TFT is provocable, because competitive behaviour is met with competitive behaviour. The method is also very clear, because one party quickly notices the conflict strategy of the other.
3. TFT is forgiving, because one party will choose cooperation when they see that the other, competitive oriented party also chooses cooperation.
4. TFT is reciprocal, in the sense that competitive behaviour in one party evokes competitive behaviour in the other party and cooperative behaviour in one party evokes cooperative behaviour in the other party.

It is recommended to somehow prevent emotions from getting too intense. Counting to ten, a time out, expressing concern in a letter are some simple but effective methods to prevent emotions from getting too intense. Furthermore, a meeting can be held online in order to discuss controversial topics.

A conflict can sometimes be solved by a mediator: someone who mediates between two people who are in a conflict, with the aim to reconcile them.

Mediation can be done in three ways:

1. Inquisitorial procedure: the parties are interviews by the mediator, after which she thinks of a solution that both parties need to accept.
2. Arbitration: both parties explain their standpoint to the mediator. The mediator bases her opinion on the standpoints of the parties.
3. Moot: the parties and the mediator go through the standpoints together and following that the mediator gives advice, but she does not have the final say. Her decision is not binding.

Conflict can equalize a group and eliminate dormant irritations, and many groups go through times of conflict. The opinions are divided on how effective conflict can be. It can be said however that conflict makes the goals of a group clearer, and that it clarifies what is expected of group members. A group that never experiences conflict will never develop itself, because the group members do not think of points of improvement. It is probably not conflict that leads to problems, but dealing with conflict in the wrong way leads to problems.

What are the characteristics of intergroup relationships? - Chapter 14

How does conflict between groups arise?

In the previous chapter, the intragroup conflict was discussed. This chapter is about the intergroup conflict: disagreement or confrontation between two or more groups and their members, which can consist of physical violence, interpersonal disagreements and psychological tension. An example of a study into this phenomenon is the Robbers Cave Experiment. This was a field study that examined the causes and consequences of conflict between two groups of boys. The study occurred during a summer camp in Robbers Cave State. It was executed by Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif et al. (1961). The groups competed with each other in order to earn prizes.

What is the role of competition and conflict in intergroup conflict?

The realistic group conflict theory posits that conflict between groups comes from competition for scarce resources, including food, territory, riches, power, natural riches and energy. Competition between groups can lead to hostility. Research shows that many conflicts between groups arise because of competition for scarce resources. Some examples include conflicts between social classes, racism, rebellion and tribe wars in Africa.

The discontinuity effect is the significantly stronger competitiveness of groups when they interact with other groups, compared to the competitiveness of individuals when they interact with other individuals. This trend was found in multiple studies, including studies that use the prisoner's dilemma game (PDG). This is a mixed motive game where two competing parties get the choice to present themselves either competitive or cooperatively. Based on whether they behave cooperatively or competitively they can earn certain amounts of points. An activity does not have to be competitive in nature in order for the discontinuity effect to occur. For example, it can also be observed when two groups are taking the same lesson on school.

The causes of discontinuity are the following:

• Greed is more prevalent in groups than in individuals. People feed on each other's selfishness. They are more selfish when they are in a group.
• People are more frightened of groups than of individuals. They describe groups to be more competitive and aggressive and less cooperative than individuals. This is also named intergroup paranoia: the conviction of group members from the ingroup that they will be treated badly by members of the outgroup.
• Group members are of the opinion that as a part of the group, they should do everything in order to optimize the outcomes of the group, even if the outgroup suffers.
• Functioning in a group can make group members feel less responsible for mistakes, because of the presence of other group members.

Researchers have wondered how the overly competitive attitude of groups as compared to individuals can be changed. They have noticed that communication between group members does not decrease a competitive attitude. In fact, it increases a competitive attitude. Teaching group members to have a tolerant, pacifistic way of thinking does also not decrease the competitive attitude of a group. The best way to decrease the competitive attitude of group members is the tit for tat method. This method makes group members from one group trust members from another group more, for example when they see that the outgroup is behaving cooperatively. In turn, they will also behave cooperatively instead of competitively.

What is the role of power and domination in intergroup conflict?

Intergroup conflict can lead to intergroup exploitation. In this case, one group tries to dominate another group. The other group tries to resist. For example, you could think of western countries that colonized countries in Asia and Africa. They tried to dominate the other countries and the inhabitants tried to resist them.

The social dominance theory posits that conflicts between groups arise because of dynamics tensions between groups that are hierarchically arranged in society. In the society, subgroups develop that compete for power and resources. Some groups have access to this power and these resources, while members of other groups of lower status are less educated, are poorer, and more often end up in the criminal world.

Individuals who are socially dominant are more often focussed on gaining and using power. Those who are less socially dominant are more likely to use cooperative methods in order to deal with conflicts. On the SDO (Social Dominance Orientation questionnaire) men score higher than women. The SDO levels are also higher in less prosperous countries and in countries with a non-democratic government. Individuals with a high SDO score are strongly motivated to maximize the profits of the ingroup and to minimize the profits of the outgroup.

When does intergroup aggression occur?

When one group dominates and extorts another group it often leads to conflict. When an intergroup conflict ends, one group is often branded a loser, while the other group is seen as a winer. The winning group is proud and experiences positive emotions, while the losing group feels defeated. The emotions can contribute to the escalation of a conflict between groups.

The frustration-aggression hypothesis posits that individuals become more aggressive when external conditions inhibit the achievement of set goals. The aggression is caused by frustration. A refined version of this hypothesis is the general aggression model. This is a framework made up out of biological, environmental, social, and psychological factors that influence hostility and negative behaviour. Environmental factors such as pain, threats, and stressors can increase arousal. When increased arousal is paired with a negative appraisal of a situation, it can lead to aggression.

The scapegoat theory gives an explanation for intergroup conflict and posits that hostility, caused by frustrating circumstances, is expressed by hostile behaviours towards other social groups. Attacking a scapegoat (individuals or groups that is not related to the conflict, but also unable to defend themselves) can relieve pressure. The losers let out their anger and frustration on the scapegoat. Scapegoating is often present in enduring negative experiences. It is only present when the group as a whole agrees that a certain outgroup should be held responsible for the problems that have occurred.

What is the role of norms in conflict?

Just like individuals, groups also behave according to the norm of reciprocity. They respond to threats with threats, they insult people who insult them, and behave aggressively towards people who are aggressive towards them.

The spiral model of conflict intensification shows how conflicts between the two groups in the Robbers Cave experiment increased. The conflict started with exclusion: a mild form of rejection that originated when the boys discovered that there was another group in the camp. This lead to verbal abuse: the groups started to insult and curse each other. Then intergroup discrimination arose. The groups isolated themselves from each other and thought that the other group should not be allowed to use the facilities of the camp. Finally, physical violence arose: the groups started fighting each other and stealing from each other.

How confrontational people are is strongly dependent on their culture and subculture. It is also important whether you are collectivistic or individualistic. Within groups, individualists are more confrontational, while between groups collectivists are more confrontational. Some groups within societies try to avoid conflict, while others don't. The Amish in America think cooperation is very important and reject competition. Conflict between gangs is more prevalent than conflict within gangs, because gangs feel they need to protect their territory and authority.

What is the role of evolution in conflicts?

The evolutionary approach posits that people started living in groups because it gave them advantages. Their chances of survival were increased because they worked together. A consequence of this would be that people had negative attitudes towards individuals outside of their own group. Groups competed for food, resources and living spaces. This lead to members within a group getting more attached to their own group. Conflict with other groups lead to increased cooperation in the ingroup.

What is intergroup bias?

Social categorization arises when we start calling our own group 'us' and the other groups 'them'. Research shows that just belonging to a group can increase the likelihood of conflict with other groups. Just the sense that you belong to a group (us) and that others belong to another group (them) is enough to take on a discriminating attitude towards other groups.

By way of a minimal intergroup situation (a study of intergroup conflict that creates temporary groups, consisting of anonymous and unrelated people), Tajfel and Turner discovered that even minimal intragroup contact and intergroup contact can cause a preference for the ingroup. On a group level, this is called the ingroup-outgroup bias. This ingroup-outgroup bias is explained by identity theory (membership with a group increases the self image), but it turns out that it is mostly glorifying the ingroup that contributes to a positive self-image and not so much deprecating another group.

Ethnocentrism is the conviction that the own tribe, region, or country is superior to other tribes, regions, or countries. This ingroup-outgroup bias consists of two biases: 1) selectively preferring the ingroup and 2) derogating the outgroup. In many groups the preference for the ingroup is stronger than the rejection of the outgroup.

Social psychologist Brewer concluded that the expression of hostility towards an outgroup depends on the similarity between ingroup members and outgroup members, the anticipated (future) interactions, the nature of the made evaluation and a competitive or cooperative intergroup situation.

What is the effect of intergroup conflict within groups?

Generally, intergroup conflict leads to an increase in cohesion within groups. Aside from that it causes differentiation: people try to differentiate themselves from the other group in as many ways as possible. Another consequence is double-standard thinking: the inclination to view actions and attributions of the own group as positive, honest and appropriate, but judge these same behaviours as negative, dishonest and inappropriate when they are executed by the other group. The warnings of our own groups are called requests, but if the other group warns us we call them threats. We think we are courageous, even though the other group calls us stubborn. We offer concession to the other group, but they view them as tactical moves.

The linguistic intergroup bias is about the inclination to describe positive ingroup behaviour and negative outgroup behaviour in an abstract way, and to describe negative group behaviour and positive outgroup behaviour in a more specific way. This is because abstract, vague descriptions are harder to dispute. It comes down to the fact that when individuals exhibit this bias, they describe actions differently depending on who executes them.

Often, the ingroup-outgroup bias is an implicit bias: subtle, unintentional and unconscious. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures the extent to which people associate one concept (such as the ingroup) with another concept (such as goodness). Individuals are shown two concepts, for example: ingroup/friendly, outgroup/mean. When the individuals are shown a pairing that matches with their own associations, they react quickly and without mistakes. However, when they are concepts that they do not associate with each other, like ingroup/bad and outgroup/good, they respond more slowly.

Groups make cognitive mistakes. These biases are named below.

• The outgroup homogeneity bias: the inclination to assume that members of the outgroup are similar, while members of the ingroup are viewed to be more heterogeneous. However, when the ingroup is somehow threatened, the group is seen as very homogeneous. In this case we speak of the ingroup homogeneity bias.
• The law of small numbers is the inclination of people to base generalizations about an entire group on observations of a few individuals in that group
• Conversely, there is the group attribution error: people often assume that personal attributes and preferences of specific group members (including opinions, attitudes and decisions) are similar to those of the group they belong to.
• When forming an opinion on others, the fundamental attribution error is often involved. This means that the actions of others are attributed to personal qualities, instead of situational factors. The ultimate attribution error is the inclination to attribute negative actions of the outgroup to unchangeable characteristics and positive actions to situational, changeable factors. Therefore, when a member of the outgroup makes a mistake, this is because 'outgroup members are incapable of doing anything right', but when an outgroup member performs well, this is because he 'just happened to be in the right place at the right time'.
• A stereotype is a socially learned procession of cognitive generalizations (such as attitudes and expectations) about the qualities and characteristics of the members of a certain group or social category. Stereotypes are most often negative and overblown, but because people unconsciously keep searching for information that supports their opinions, they don't change.

What is the stereotype content model?

The stereotype content model posits that the stereotypical vision of people about another group is often about the warmth and competence of the other group. Some groups (mostly the ingroup) is perceived to be warm, friendly and honest, while other groups are thought to be unpleasant and unfriendly. In addition, people often think their own group is capable and confident, while other groups are judged to be unintelligent and incompetent.

When there is competition about a scarce resource, it is often important for the ingroup to make a accurate appraisal about the outgroup. How capable is the outgroup to damage the ingroup? In a group conflict, the outgroup is generally perceived to be unfriendly. Groups that are willing to work together with the ingroup are perceived to be friendly and warm.

Therefore, the stereotype content model identifies warmth and competence as the two basic dimension. Stereotypes about the outgroup are structured along these two dimensions. Aside from that, the model suggests that the two dimensions influence the emotional reactions of people to groups. People don't just make mistakes when they are thinking about or judging other groups (the outgroup). They also have emotional reactions when they are confronted with the outgroup. Based on the judgement about the warmth and competence of the outgroup, there are four different kinds of emotional reactions to the outgroup.

1. Envy: envy arises when the outgroup has a higher status than the ingroup and when it is thought that the difference in status exists because the outgroup is more competent. Envy goes with the idea that the outgroup is not very warm, but very competent.
2. Contempt: contempt arises when the outgroup is not warm and also not competent. The outgroup is thought to be responsible for its own bad circumstances.
3. Pity: the outgroup is thought to be warm, but not competent. The consequence is that members from this group evoke a sense of pity. Often, people pity groups that have a low social status. These groups are not blamed for their situation.
4. Admiration: this emotion is exceptional. Admiration arises when the ingroup thinks the outgroup is both warm and competent.

The emotional reactions are also dependent on the status of the ingroup and the outcomes of the confrontation.

When does exclusion and dehumanization occur?

According to the stereotype content model, people respond emotionally and often negatively to the outgroup. A group can have feelings of hate towards another group. Often individuals feel guilty for hating other individuals. When groups hate each other, they almost never feel guilty. Hate arises when the ingroup thinks that the outgroup intentionally acts in order to thwart the ingroup.

Moral exclusion is a psychological process whereby opponents in a conflict start seeing each other as subhuman, so that moral questions and moral principles are no longer relevant. Violence is often rationalised by attributing it to actions, intentions or the character of the victims. The more aggressive people get, the more they rationalize and the less the victims are valued.

Moral exclusion is often paired with dehumanization; the belief that other individuals or groups do not have the characteristics necessary to be treated as a human. Dehumanization is often used in order to rationalize the extreme negative treatment of the outgroup by the ingroup. Moral exclusion causes moral rules to not be applicable to certain people, while dehumanization causes humanitarian rules to no longer apply. Dehumanization often causes the ingroup to behave aggressively towards the outgroup. Research shows that even showing people images of an extreme outgroup activates their insula and amygdala. These parts of the brain are activated when people experience disgust and contempt.

What is the role of categorization and identity in intergroup conflict?

The social identity theory gives a clear explanation for the relationship between categorization and conflict. This theory posits that belonging to a group influences the way people think about themselves. Cognitive mistakes about the outgroup are quicker to arise when a member of the ingroup really identifies with their own group and when the status of both groups is clear. The social identity theory posits that when people prefer their own group, it increases their self confidence. People who feel that their self confidence is threatened are more discriminatory towards the outgroup.

It also turns out that members of the ingroup compare their own group with the outgroup on points that they know they are better at. This is good for the self confidence of the members in the ingroup. There is also schadenfreude: members of the ingroup enjoy the failure of other groups. Research has shown that the confidence of the ingroup improves when the outgroup is humiliated. However, it also turns out that praising the ingroup is better for confidence than humiliating the outgroup.

How can conflicts between groups be solved?

A meeting between two groups does not necessarily lead to conflict. In the right circumstances contact between groups can relieve tensions. Cognitive processes that are mostly aimed at emphasizing differences between people can also support collective identities. Finally, people can learn to respond positively to the outgroup.

The contact hypothesis posits that contact when there is equal status between the members of different groups will decrease intergroup conflict. When the ingroup often interacts with the outgroup, the ingroup-outgroup bias will fade. It is important however that in this contact the following is kept in mind:

• Equal status: creating equal status is very important. This can cause people with about the same background in wealth, skill, experience and education to come together.
• Personal interaction: the contact between groups needs to be informal and personal instead of superficial and role based.
• Supportive norms: the contact needs to be such that individuals from group are stimulated to be friendly and helpful.
• Cooperation: the groups need to work together towards a shared goal.

Research shows that the contact hypothesis is correct. Making contact with other groups decreases conflict between groups. Superordinate goals are goals that can only be reached when groups work together by combining their strengths and resources. The contact between groups is positively influenced when they need to work together in order to reach goals.

The extended contact hypothesis posits that when group members find out that multiple members of their own group are friendly with someone from the outgroup, they will also have more positive attitudes towards the outgroup. Strong group connections prevent friendships from occurring between members of different groups, but these kinds of friendships can be very positive for the relations between two groups. It also turns out that the more time is spent together, the more positive the attitudes about the outgroup become.

What methods can be used in order to solve conflict?

Conflicts can be solved by way of different methods. These methods are described below:

• Decategorization (or personalization): minimalizing the emphasis that is put on group membership and emphasizing the individuality of every member of a group. By emphasizing the individuality of every outgroup member, the intergroup conflict can be decreased.
• Recategorization: combining two groups that are in conflict into one single group or category. This method overlaps with the common ingroup identity model. This model predicts that intergroup conflict can be decreased by membership in general social categories and the emphasizing the independence of individuals in groups. Additionally, the similarities between groups needs to be made as large as possible, in order to increase unity (entitativity).
• It can be helpful to have a common enemy (common-enemy approach), but this is a dangerous tactic. When the common enemy disappears, the old conflict can return.
• Cross-categorization (or multiple social categorization): the decreasing of the impact of social categorization on the perceptions of individuals. This can be done by emphasizing that the group members are also part of two or more social groups that are not related to the categories that cause the tensions between the ingroup and the outgroup.
• Even though stereotypes are familiar to everyone and difficult to control, it is possible to control how you act on these stereotypes. In order to avoid conflicts, you should try not to be influenced by stereotypes.

Not everyone has the capacity to solve conflicts, but this can be learned through several methods. Some of these are described below.

• Jigsaw method: a method whereby different subjects are assigned to group members. Group members can have discussions with someone from another group who is researching the same subject, and they have to report the end result to their groups.
• Another method is to teach people to handle conflict better, for example by workshops. Johnson and Johnson have developed a similar method, whereby students have to take several steps in solving a conflict. The five steps are:
  • Step 1: defining the problem
  • Step 2: exchanging information about the conflict
  • Step 3: viewing the situation from multiple perspectives
  • Step 4: think of solutions to the conflict
  • Step 5: Choosing a solution that is acceptable for all parties.

In what contexts do groups exist? - Chapter 15

What effect does the physical location have on a group?

Ecology is the study of organisms and their habitat. It researches how they interact with other organisms and their environment. In the same way, group ecology studies how groups and individuals in groups react to their environment.

The environment in which individuals exist greatly influences their wellbeing. Of environments, it is often said that they have a specific atmosphere. Ambiance are all psychological reactions (moods, feelings and emotions) that are evoked by an environment. The reaction of the group to the environment is subjective. The characteristics of a place are judged by every member based on existing personal preferences, expectations, values and attitudes. The reaction is based on the psychological representation of the place and the physical characteristics of the place.

The way in which people judge the places where they are depends on their culture and experiences. Russell and his colleagues discovered that two dimension are important for this judgement: how pleasant is the place? (positive versus negative) and how intense is the place? (Are you guarded versus relaxed).

A clean, neat and well furnished environment often causes a more positive reaction than a less clean and more chaotic environment. Groups usually perform best (and are most satisfied) when they are in pleasant situations. They also enjoy stimulating environments, although this should not be too extreme. Too much stimulation can lead to cognitive overload. This is a psychological reaction to situations and experiences that are so cognitively, perceptually, or emotionally stimulating that they tax or even override the capacity the process incoming information. This can lead to diminished functioning. An effective group with a well developed mental model can perform less well under overload.

In everyday situations people can handle overload by decreasing contact with others, decreasing the amount of information that needs to be noticed and processed, or ignoring certain aspects of a situation. According to Kaplan, cognitive sources can be restored by spending time in a non-taxing environment, where it is not necessary to focus your attention to certain stimuli. According to this attention restoration theory (ART), focussed attention can be exhausting, because group members constantly need to aim their attention to certain stimuli and ignore other aspects of their environment.

When is an environment stressful?

Sometimes aspects of the environment cause stress: negative physiological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural reactions to circumstances that threaten a person's wellbeing and safety. There are a couple factors in the environment that are influential. These factors are named below.

• Temperature: all temperatures outside of about 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 29 degrees Celsius) are experienced to be unpleasant. Groups turn out to be more aggressive when it's hot. Also, people feel more tired, sad, and uncomfortable in hot environments. Cold temperatures are also physically harmful.
• Noise: noise is unwanted sound. People who are constantly exposed to noise experience stress, are less able to deal with daily inconveniences and can even get physical illnesses, such as heart problems and allergies. It also turns out that people who are constantly exposed to noise have less interaction with other people and also become less helpful. Noise is not always bad. Mild sounds can help with focus. People can handle noise for a short time.
• Danger: some people are more often exposed to danger than others and this obviously impacts their wellbeing. Only groups that can work together well and put aside irritations etcetera can work under dangerous circumstances. In exceptional situations, groups can survive extreme and unusual environments (EUE's), like explorers on Antarctica or mine workers that are closed in by accident. Groups try to minimize danger by trying to make their situation safer. Often, functioning in dangerous situations calls on teamwork.

What effect does the social context have on a group?

The environment does not just consist of physical characteristics like temperature, noise or stress. It also consists of other people who are present. Small group ecology is the study of the interaction between living aspects (group and group members) and the non-living aspects (physical setting) of the environment of a group.

Personal space is the space that individuals create around themselves en in which others can not intrude without creating discomfort. Some people need a larger personal space than others. There are five kinds of zones around an individual that can be defined, namely:

• Intimate zone: for example whispering, shaking hands, kissing, sex, and massages.
• Personal zone: for example having a discussion, smalltalk, driving a car and watching television.
• Social zone: for example eating together, having an interaction with a receptionist and having a meeting with colleagues.
• Public zone: for example giving a presentation, performing a play or giving a lecture.
• Remote zone: for example e-mailing, leaving a voicemail and playing games online.

The personal space is partly dependent on gender (for women personal space is smaller), status (personal space is smaller between people with the same status) and culture. A division can be made between contact cultures and non-contact cultures. In the Middle East and Latin America there are contact cultures, which means that people are very involved with each other in a sensory way and that they make direct social contact when necessary. In America, England, and Germany there are non-contact cultures. In these countries there is less spatial openness with others.

The equilibrium model of communication gives an explanation for the fact that people need distance from each other. The model posits that the amount of eye contact, the intimacy of the subject and the frequency of smiles influences the desired personal space. Because non-verbal signals (such as eye contact, physical touch, body orientation) interact, the perception of intimacy is influenced. When people think that a small amount of intimacy is appropriate, they sit far apart and avoid eye contact. The expectancy violations theory identifies the kind of messages that can be sent over a distance. For example, sitting close to someone can indicate warmth and acceptance.

What is the effect of invading personal space?

Density refers to the amount of people per unit of space. Crowding is the psychological reaction that occurs when individuals feel that the amount of available space is insufficient for them compared to what they need. People generally feel aroused in the presence of others. Whether they feel crowded or not depends on to what they attribute their arousal, either to the presence of many other people or something else. It is not necessarily so that when density is high, there is crowding. People become physically alert when there is a situation with high density.

Their heart rate and blood pressure rise and they start to breathe more quickly. This alertness does not always cause stress. The way that people interpret their alertness influences whether there is crowding.

The density-intensity hypothesis is an explanation of crowding, suggested by Freedman. He predicts that a high density makes pleasant situations more pleasant, but makes unpleasant situations more unpleasant. Crowding is unpleasant, because it makes people lose their sense of control. Especially when a crowd impedes the execution of work, it is very unpleasant.

How does seating arrangement influence the interaction between people?

The seating arrangement influences the interaction between people. Generally sociopetal spaces, the spaces that promote interaction between people by way of among other things seating arrangement, are preferred above sociofugal spaces. These are spaces that discourage or prevent interaction. However, it is also dependent on the task that is to be executed. Aside from that, men and women also differ in this aspect: men prefer friends to sit across from them and strangers next to them, and women prefer friends to sit next to them and strangers to sit across from them.

When there is no leader, people in a group respond quickest when the person who is across from them has spoken (Steinzor effect). However, when there is a leader, people prefer to speak with their neighbour. The head-of-the-table effect is the inclination of group members to associate the seat at the head of the table with a leadership role and its responsibilities. Because of this, people who take place there tend to act as a leader when no leader is present. For this phenomenon, two explanations were found:

• Perceptual prominence: at the head of the table, a person is more able to make eye contact with every individual at the table.
• Social meaning: in Western cultures, the head of the table is deemed to be most fitting for leaders. When someone else sits at the head of the table, he or she is automatically seen as the leader.

What is the role of territories in groups?

A territory is a specific geographical area that is claimed by individuals or groups, and marked and defended against the intrusion of others. There are three kinds of territory.

• Primary territory: a space that is (almost) only used by a certain individual or group, and which is controlled by them. Individuals feel very attached to the area and feel safe there (place attachments). Therefore, there is a high degree of control over the area and the area is claimed for a long time.
• Secondary territory: an area that is not the property of its users, but that is used so often by them that they view it as theirs. The extent of control over the area is average and the claiming of the area is temporary but recurrent.
• Public territory: an area over which the users barely have any control. Because the area cannot be claimed, no time period can defined for claiming the area.

Generally territories are claimed by groups. One way of doing this is placing territorial markers, such as graffiti that is used by gangs. In public territory groups often have a group space: a temporary invisible spatial border that is formed by interacting groups and that serves as a barrier to unwanted intrusion of non-members.

Other labels for this phenomenon apart from group space are interactional territory, temporary group territory, jurisdiction and group personal space.

Research shows that territory influences the way that people feel. For example, students who need to share a bathroom and a kitchen feel more crowding that students who do not have to share any spaces. this is because students who need to share their living space feel like they have less control. Territories can have advantages, because it is immediately clear to people where they are welcome and where they are not welcome. However, it can be a problem when people disagree about the borders of a territorial area. Here, home advantage counts: groups or individuals who are on their own territory are more likely to win.

The personal space of a group member within a group is also known as an individual territory and contributes to the wellbeing of individual group members. The size of the territory depends on the status of its owner(s). People with a high position in a company often have a larger office than people with a lower position.

In work situations, individual territories are often intruded. This annoys people, and often they stay mad about it for a long time. The most common form of intrusion is using tools or resources without consent. Another form is the physical intrusion of the space an individual is using. Another form of intrusion is taking over the task of a individual or stealing their ideas.

Groups who are in an EUE (extreme and unusual environment) are often isolated from the outside world. An example is that astronauts are closed off from the outside world for a long time and go into space with a small group. Another example is people who are away from home for a long time because they work on a ship. Even though territoriality can contribute to the wellbeing of group members, it only seems to be the case when the group structures activities and also allots time outside of their own territory.

How can designing the environment of a group help?

A behavioural setting, a term which was defined by ecological psychologist Barker, is a physical and temporarily binding social situation that determines the actions of the individuals in a situation. According to Barker The environment has a big impact on the behaviour of people. He mentions the boundaries of spaces, such as walls and doors and posits that these influence the behavioural setting. He also mentions other components: group members and furniture. He posits that these also influence behaviour setting. Barker posits that people routinely follow a program in behaviour settings. When people enter a room and they notice chairs, they are are immediately inclined to sit down. Not every physical setting is a behaviour setting. Some situations are new. The group members do not have any expectations about how they should behave. Some individuals can find themselves in a behaviour setting where they are not aware of the situational norms of where they do not accept the situational norms. In most cases, the group members behave predictably.

Synomorphy, a term that was coined by Barker, describes to what extent human users and the physical situation match. A concert hall with too few doors, so that the visitors need to crowd in order to leave, is low in synomorphy.

From this follows the staffing theory: an ecological analysis of behavioural situations that posits that both understaffing and overstaffing can be detrimental. When there is exactly the right amount of staff it can be said that the setting is optimally staffed. When there is understaffing, incoming phone calls are not answered and the staff gets a work backlog. in the case of overstaffing this problem does not exist, although more people are working than is necessary. In the case of understaffing group members react positively to challenging workloads. they do not complain about increasing workload, but they see this as an opportunity to contribute more. In case of overstaffing there is more dissatisfaction about task related activities. Whether a space is high or low in synomorphy depends on the kind of space that is needed.

Four kinds of groups have been defined that each need a different kind of space:

• Hives: people who perform extremely structured tasks function optimally in an open space with workcells where everyone has a small working space. Because of these structured tasks, these people need little interaction with other people.
• Cells: people who work on complex, rather individual tasks, function the best in their own separated working space. They can also work well from home.
• Dens: people with the same skills and responsibilities who work on a structured task, function the best in an open space. An individual working space is not necessary.
• Clubs: talented, specialized people who work on tasks that need cooperation function the best in a space that offers both collaborative and individual work spaces.

How do growth and change occur in groups? - Chapter 16

A group can be used to positively change its members. Groups provide information and support. This way, personal problems and interpersonal problems can be solved. In this way, a group can be used for therapeutic goals. Lewin's law of change is a basic principle aimed at attitude and behavioural change. It posits that individuals change more easily when they are part of a group.

How does growth and change in groups occur?

People join groups in order to solve many kinds of problems. For example when people want to forget irrational thoughts or grief, or in order to learn new skills and perspectives. Individually achieving a goal is more difficult than achieving a goal when there is a group to help you.

There are different kinds of groups, all aimed at helping individuals achieve goals. Therapeutic groups offer help in conquering different kinds of psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety. Interpersonal learning groups offer the opportunity to gain an understanding of yourself and to improve your relationships with others. Support groups offer help in dealing with a shared problem, such as alcoholism. In every case, there is a problem that all group members have in common.

Therapists use different theoretical approaches. Some of them are listed below.

• Group psychoanalysis, based on individual psychoanalysis, is an approach in which the therapist is the leader and guides the group discussion with the help of free association, interpretation and transference processes. By talking with group members about memories, people can gain insights about subconscious motivations.
• Transference is the subconscious displacement of emotions from one person to another. The therapist can use transference in order to help the client to understand their relationships with others. In an individual session, the feelings for a father can be displaced to the therapist. In a group session the feelings towards family members can be displaced to group members.
• Gestalt group therapy. Perls proposed Gestalt therapy. He agreed with Freud: repressing memories can lead to unsolved interpersonal conflicts. Perls was of the opinion that people are capable of self regulation and emotional awareness. Gestalt group therapy is the approach in which a client learns to understand their own emotions and cognitions. This happens under the guidance of a leader. The behaviour of an individual is explored in a group situation. Group members observe each other, without interacting with each other.
• Therapists sometimes use unstructured interpersonal activities. An example is the hot seat method. In this method, an individual is placed in the middle of the room as they work through their experiences. A different example is the empty chair method in which people pretend that a certain person is sitting in an empty chair, with whom a conversation can be had. These techniques can evoke a strong emotional reaction. Gestalt therapists refuse to offer interpretations.
• Psychodrama is a therapeutic aid that stimulates active involvement in a group session. This happens with the aid of several techniques. In role play people take on a certain role. In role reversal someone takes a certain role for a set amount of time, before the role is transferred to another group member. In doubling, two group members are assigned the same role.
• Interpersonal group psychotherapy (or interactive group psychotherapy or process groups) were invented by Yalom. It is an approach for the treatment of psychological, behavioural, and emotional problems. The emphasis is on learning in practice. People respond to each other during the therapy. This happens in a way that is characteristic of the interpersonal tendencies of an individual outside of the group. By interacting with each other in therapy, the group members learn how they influence others and how others influence them. Group members focus on the current relationship with others in the group (here and now focus), instead of focussing on the problems they have at home or at work (then and there focus).
• Cognitive behavioural groups are focussed on treating interpersonal and psychological problems by applying behavioural principles in a group setting. Here, people focus on developing healthy cognitions and behaviours and avoiding unwanted cognitions and behaviours.

what are interpersonal learning groups?

Training groups (T-groups) are used by a training intervention where people get the chance to develop skills. Here, individuals interact in an unstructured group setting. Then, the dynamic of the interaction is analysed. In this intervention, a lot of value is attached to learning through experience. The training group is a precursor of the sensitivity training group.

Sensitivity training group is an unstructured group, aimed at improving the spontaneity, stimulating the personal awareness and maximizing the sensitivity of group members. Encounter group is a kind of group for sensitivity training. It offers the opportunity to gain interpersonal intimacy with other group members. In encounter groups people learn to trust their own emotions, accept themselves and interact more spontaneously with other people. Because many group members are insecure about their social competencies, therapists often avoid criticizing or correcting group members.

A structured learning group is a group for planned intervention, such as a workshop or a lecture, where the attention is aimed at a specific interpersonal problem or skill. The form of the structured intervention may vary. However, often the same process is used. It starts with an orientation phase, where the members get a brief overview of the problems and the goals of the exercise. Then the aim is for the group members to experience the event or situation, by taking part in a structured group exercise. When the exercise is done, a discussion takes place. The experience is talked about. it can be an open discussion, where everyone speaks openly about their feelings and subjective interpretations. However, it can also be structured. Then an information exchange procedure or video recordings are used.

In the analysis phase, the leader helps the group members to identify similarities in behaviour. People try to understand the experience and give meaning to an event. Finally, the reflection phase happens. Here, the implications of the experiences are identified.

Experiential learning theory, developed by Kolb, identifies four basic modes for acquiring information and transforming data into knowledge. The four modes are: concrete experience, observation, active experimentation and conceptual analysis. When all four modes are experienced, a person learns most effectively.

Process debriefing groups are formed by a short, but highly structured intervention. These are executed by trained health professionals and applied to a group or community where a traumatic event (natural disaster or fatal accident) has occurred. This intervention offers help in dealing with the emotional and cognitive consequences of the experience.

What are support groups?

Support groups arise when individuals with similar problems decide to exchange information and to support each other. These groups are also called mutual aid groups, mutual help groups, or self help groups. There are different kinds of support groups. For every specific problem a support group could be created.

Most support groups are focussed on a specific problem. The emphasis is on helping and supporting one another. The characteristics of a support group are described below:

• Problem focused: even though members can be very different, they have an important thing in common: they are all dealing with the same problem.
• Relationship oriented: support groups are very personal. Often, personal relationships develop between members, that are long-term and lasting. Respect, trust and honesty are important characteristics of a support group.
• Communal: the members can expect to be supported by the others, just as they are expected to support others.
• Autonomous: the support group is often set up by members, instead of by a professional.

What are the sources of support and change in groups?

Universality is the effect of realising you are not the only one that suffers. When people are surrounded by others who suffer in a similar way, they often recognize the universality of their problem. Often people hide their negative emotions from others, not realizing that others are doing this as well. The consequence is that people think that their problem is unique and that no one understands them. This can lead to feelings of guilt and depression.

Hope is the growth of optimism at the observation that others are improving. With the help of downward social comparison, the self esteem can be increased. Upward social comparison can also create hope, because people perceive that progress is possible.

In observational learning, people develop social skills by way of observation and imitation. The social learning theory describes how people gain new behaviours by observing and imitating others. In interpersonal learning, people develop social skills by interacting with others.

Offering to guide a group, but also accepting it, is called guidance. When two or more individuals share the organisational, leading, and motivational responsibilities of a leadership role, it is called co-leadership. The leaders support each other and offer combined knowledge, insight and experience to the group members.

What factors influence group cohesion?

Cohesion is difficult to define, because there are so many different kinds and because it is perceived differently by every individual. Group cohesion is defined as building strong bonds with others (acceptance). Without cohesion, feedback is not accepted, norms are not developed, and group members are slow to accept each other. Cohesion is one of the most important ingredients for therapeutic success. A therapeutic group can show both social cohesion and task cohesion.

Social cohesion is the attraction of the group. Task cohesion is determined by the commitment of the group and the therapeutic process. Cohesion can also be based on identity and involvement (collective cohesion), shared feelings (emotional cohesion) and the integration of the structural characteristics of a group, such as the bond between the members and the leader (structural cohesion). In groups with a therapeutic goal, cohesion has more positive consequences than negative consequences.

Self Disclosure is the disclosure of personal information to others. Often, members need time before they are willing to disclose personal information. When a group gets together for the first time, group members often focus on general subjects and personal subjects are avoided. this is the orientation phase: group members form a general impression of each other and aim to make a good impression. In the exploratory affective phase the group members discuss personal attitudes and opinions, but they still avoid intimate subjects. In the affective phase, there are still a few subjects that are taboo. Only when the group has achieved the stable exchange phase, personal feelings are exchanged.

Catharsis is the release of emotional tension (Oh, it's such a relief to talk about my grief!). Expressing certain emotions can lead to relief.

Altruism is gaining satisfaction from helping others. Aided by their own experiences an individual can offer insight and advice to another person. Individuals are often more willing to accept help from people with whom they identify.

Insight is about gaining knowledge about the self. The perceptions of an individual about their own qualities can be inaccurate. For example, a person may think they are unattractive, when they are really not. By interacting with other, qualities that we are unaware of can come to the surface.

Which factors influence the effectivity of groups?

Group approaches are generally effective, with the exception of some people and certain psychological problems.

Evidence based treatments (EBTs) are clinical procedures, of which the effectivity has been proven by way of objective, scientific research methods. For example, certain interventions are effective for specific problems and disorder, but only when objective measures and evaluations are used.

Often people prefer to be treated individually, rather than in a group. This can be an effect of cultural factors: the idea of sharing personal subjects with total strangers is not accepted in every culture.

Group interventions are effective, but very little difference is found in the outcomes of groups with different approaches.

What are the risks of group treatment?

Participants can voluntarily retreat from a therapeutic treatment. When a participant steps out of the group before they are done, it is called premature termination. The therapeutic goals have not been achieved yet. Premature termination is problematic for a therapeutic intervention, because it creates instability in the dynamic and composition of the group. The premature termination is more prevalent in group treatment than in individual treatment.

When the psychological wellbeing of an individual decreases after experiences in a group, it is called a casualty.

Participating in a therapeutic group can have positive outcomes. When individuals successfully deal with a problem and attribute this success to a group, they become dependent on the group. The group is then involved in overhelping: it offers support to the individual, but is unjustly credited with success.

Groups can also have disadvantages. It can take a lot of time and energy to be part of a group. Aside from that, a group can cause stress. Also, group members can socialize in an unhealthy way. Finally, social identity processes can be fanned that increase intergroup conflict.

Even so, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Groups help individuals to define and confirm values, convictions and identities. In case of uncertainties and problems groups can offer comfort, support, safety, and assistance. Groups also offer the opportunity to learn new social skills and discover new things. And most importantly, groups can cause change.

How do crowds and collectives behave? - Chapter 17

What are the forms and characteristics of collectives?

A collective is a relatively large collection of people or a group of individuals that show similarities in actions or expectations. The people respond in a similar way to an event or situation. Examples of collectives are people who are occupying the same space (a crowd) and mass phenomena where people are spread over a large area (collective movements).

the members of a collective community are driven by a collective interest or action. An example is the Women's March in Washington. The people strive for social change. This is a goal that is shared by many people. This caused similarities in thinking, actions and emotions to occur.

Generally, there is not a lot of cohesion in collectives and they are more unconventional than groups. There are so many sorts of collectives that it is impossible to categorise them. Collectives are often very large. They can be in a specific space or be spread over greater distances. Examples of collectives are 1) gatherings, 2) crowds, 3) social movements. These are described below.

What are gatherings?

An audience or conventional crowd is a collection of spectators who are observing a certain show, event or activity. During the observation, people in the audience can clap, cheer, or scream. An audience is generally conventional in its behaviour and disappears when the event they are watching ends. Within an audience, a lot of social pressure can be put on the members. The people who are present expect each other to behave according to the norms of the situation.

A queue is a row of people, a traffic jam, or a bunch of people who are waiting for a certain service, product or opportunity. Just like an audience, the waiting people all have the same goal, but he queue is unique in its form. Rules about politeness and norms about justice prevent the queue from changing in a chaotic group of people. The justice principle of 'first come, first served' is subconsciously recognized by people of many different cultural backgrounds. When people get in line, they conform to the existing norms.

What are crowds?

A crowd is a collection of individuals, mostly in a public space, who are present in the same general environment and who share a common focus. A group of people is not a crowd simply because they are in the same public space. A group becomes a crowd when all the members are, for example, watching a burning house or are witnessing a robbery. Generally, crowds take the shape of an arc, a half circle where all members can watch a certain point, or a circle with their focus in the middle. Certain behaviours have been noticed that are often executed by crowds, namely:

• Movement is about the actions that people share, such as standing in line, or walking or running in the same direction.
• Positioning is about the way people are organised in a space. This is about kneeling, bowing or jumping.
• Manipulation is about the way objects are changed by people in terms of place, for example by moving or throwing objects.
• Gesticulation is making gestures such as greeting or flipping the bird.
• Vocalization is communicating by way of paralinguistic sounds like 'ooooh' or 'aaah', but it also includes cheering, laughing or whispering.
• Orientation refers to the way that people stand in a space, such as opposite each other or in a half circle.

There are different kinds of crowds that occur in daily life: crowds in public and on the street, queues, or disorganised crowds (panicked or aggressive). They are described below.

A mob is a disorganised, emotionally charged crowd. Such a crowd usually arises when a certain event, such as a crime, catastrophe or controversial action provokes the same sort of emotion and action in many people. A mob is not per definition irrational or aggressive. Mobs are very mobile. This means that members can go from one location to another together. A flash mob is a group of which the members have often been recruited by way of social media or technologies (texting or calling). These people convene on a set location and time to perform aimless or obscure behaviour, before the group falls apart again. The goal of the group is not to create a statement or to do social activities. It is about harmless actions, such as dancing or singing.

An aggressive mob is often involved with violent and criminal behaviour. The attack on the victims is called mobbing. A lynch mob is an example of an aggressive mob. A lynch mob is a mob that wants to lynch a certain individual or group of individuals. An example of a lynch mob is that people of colour in America used to be attacked by large groups of white people. Hooligans are violent sports fans and also form a mob. Mobbing is when a group of bullies at school or at work bully a person of lower status. A riot is a mob on a bigger scale. It is a large and often widespread crowd whose rowdy and unrestrained behaviour violates the rules of civil and legal authority (for example bullying, pillaging, destruction of property, threats and violence).

A crowd can panic for several reasons. Escape panics arise when people want to flee an aversive situation and acquisitive panics arise when people are afraid that a scarce resource will run out. Large groups are quicker to panic than small groups. People are especially likely to panic when they feel like they have very little time to escape and are very afraid of the consequences of not being able to escape. Designers and organizers try to handle crowds as well as possible, but in some circumstances they are unpredictable.

What are collective movements?

A collective movement (also called a mass movement or dispersed collective behaviour) is a large collection of individuals who strive towards collective goals, interests or ambitions, who are widely spread over space and time. Collective phenomena exist in many different kinds and sizes. They are sometimes preceded by the spread of certain rumors. Rumors allow people to share information about threatening situations. Often rumors have a calming effect in groups. Two things appear to influence the spread of rumors, namely:

• The extent of anxiety amongst individuals
• The uncertainty about the real nature of the situation.

According to Rosnow, rumors mostly arise in unclear and chaotic situations. Rumors can allow people to gain information about a specific situation (although this information is not always accurate). Rumors cause fear to decrease, because they allow uncertain situations to be interpreted.

Rumors are the basis for mass delusion: the spontaneous occurrence of atypical thoughts, emotions, or actions in a group or aggregation, such as psychological disease, shared hallucinations and bizarre actions. Psychological disease is a series of illness symptoms in a group, when there is no evidence for an organic cause of the disease and no cause can be found in the environment. An example is that in 1962, factory workers became nauseous, experienced pain and sometimes even fainted. Rumors spread and people said that 'some kind of insect' caused these symptoms. In reality, no such insect was ever discovered. Probably, this was an occurrence of mass delusion.

A trend is the general direction in which attitudes, interests and actions of a large part of the population change over time. There are three kinds of trends:

• Fad: an unexpected change of opinions, actions, or lifestyle of a large amount of widely spread individuals, that lasts a very short time.
• Crazes: similar to fads, but they last a bit longer. They are irrational and widely spread.
• Fashion trends: fads concerning clothing and manners.

A social movement is a collective movement that makes a deliberate, organised attempt to achieve or prevent a change in a social system. If such a movement is unified into an organization, it is called a social movement organization (SMO). There are different kinds of social movements:

• Reform movement: wants to improve existing institutions, often by civil disobedience and demonstrations.
• Revolutionary movement: wants to achieve large changes in social institutions, or push them aside entirely.
• Reactionary movement: wants to stop change or reintroduce old systems that are no longer in use.
• Communitary movement: searches for more ideal living conditions, often by separating themselves from non-members.

How does the dynamic of collectives work?

Le Bon, a doctor from the end of the 19th century, described how crowds seem to have a unified spirit. In this context, he spoke of contagion: the spread of behaviour, attitudes, and emotions within crowds and other sorts of social gatherings from one member to another. Research shows that contagion happens because of mirror neurons. These neurons activate when someone observes the actions of another and can cause people to be annoyed. Le Bon posited that contagion arises because members of a crowd are very impressionable. Because the setting of a crowd can be unclear, social comparison processes cause group members to depend on interpretations of others.

Blumer posited that contagion goes with circular reactions instead of interpretative reactions. During interpretative interactions group members reflect upon each others' behaviour and they try to formulate the correct interpretations before they say anything. During circular reactions group members do not examine the meaning of another person's actions in a critical and careful way. This causes them to wrongly interpret a situation. When they then act based on misunderstandings, the others in the group also interpret the situation wrongly. In this way, a circular process arises and contagion occurs.

Le Bon considered contagion to be a negative process. He compared the spread of information to the spread of an infection. According to the social network analysis, diffusion is not the result of contagion, but of the rational exchange of information within a network. Diffusion often starts with a rumor. Then it is transferred from one person (node) to another person (node). When the node does not transfer the information, the diffusion ends. How quickly the information is spread is dependent on the structure of the network.

What is convergence?

Convergence theory offers an explanation for collective behaviour, where the assumption is made that individuals with similar needs, values, or goals tend to come together to form a single group. This theory also explains why some people take part in social movements. Many people understand that action must be taken in order to for example fight discrimination and prejudice, but few people actually take action. Research shows that participation in a social movement can be predicted by three factors: a feeling of injustice, efficacy, and social identity.

Collectives often consist of people who have been treated badly or have been persecuted, but is mostly the perceived injustice that causes a person to join a collective. Additionally, it turns out that relative deprivation is more stimulating than actual deprivation. This refers to the psychological state that occurs when individuals feel that what they have achieved personally (egoistic deprivation) or in their group (fraternalistic deprivation) is below their expectations. Aside from relative deprivation a large amount of personal efficacy plays a role: people who join social movements, believe that their effort can change things.

What is deindividuation?

Zimbardo claims that deindividuation is the cause of the behaviour of crowds. Deindividuation is a state of awareness that is caused by a number of input factors. Examples are anonymity and group membership. These factors cause people to no longer be aware of themselves, experience events in a different way and start to show atypical behaviour. The input factors that play a part in this are described below:

• Anonymity: because people are anonymous in a group and therefore run less of a risk to be tracked down, they are more likely to show unrestrained behaviour. Their behaviour is polarized (which makes it more extreme) in a prosocial or antisocial direction.
• Responsibility: the larger a group becomes, the smaller the sense of responsibility of individual group members becomes. In this case we speak of diffusion of responsibility. The sense of responsibility of group members can also decrease when they perform actions based on the orders of their leader.
• Group membership: deindividuation is a group level process. Separate individuals can feel insecure about themselves, but only in groups there is a sense of anonymity and a decrease of responsibility.
• Group size: in larger groups, people act more extreme. Research shows that larger mobs are quicker to attack people than smaller mobs.
• Arousal: a higher level of arousal leads to more extreme behaviour. Examples are the use of drugs, a lack of environmental structure and sensory overload.
• Self-awareness: when people are not very self-aware and are highly focussed on a task, deindividuation can occur. A sense of deindividuation can occur when there is 1) loss of self-awareness and 2) altered experiencing. Examples are loss of self-awareness are impulsive reacting without planning, the sense that time is going very quickly and inability to inhibit speech. Examples of altered experiencing are unusual experiences such as hallucinations, a sense of anonymity and the perception that the group forms a unit.

What is the emergent norm theory?

The emergent norm theory posits, contrary to convergence theory, that the uniformity in behaviour that is often seen in collectives is cause because members conform to the unique normative standards that spontaneously arise in these groups (emergent norms). These norms can be unique and do not always align with general social values in society. People in these groups are not all equal, they only have the situation in common. Proof for this theory was found in a study into baiting crowds: a gathering of people in a public environment who bully, torment, or incite people (for example to commit suicide).

The social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) also assumes that collectives experience a loss of their own identity through deindividuation. The difference is that the social identity theory posits that the collective, social identity of people is strengthened in collectives. People can join a social movement in order to give meaning to their own identity, for example because it gives them the sense of being strong and ambitious.

The identity affirmation approach posits that group members who feels lost in a group will try to regain their individual identity. People can behave unusually in order to regain their sense of individuality and not because they want to behave anonymously.

To what extent do collectives behave as groups?

It seems that the crowd as a wild, insane group of people is a myth, built by prejudiced scientists. Crowds are groups and therefore have their own group dynamic that needs to be studied in order to be understood.