Reading: Groups: Part Two - Slides

Groups: Part Two

Henry Reyenga

Group Dynamics

Building on the recognition of primary and secondary groups, sociologists often focus their studies on either group dynamics, group influence or a combination of these two areas of inquiry. In terms of group dynamics, sociologists have long explored the ways people act in groups as a method for bridging individual and societal level forms of meaning making and activity.[4] Drawing heavily on insights from Symbolic Interaction and Structural Functionalist theories, researchers explore the ways that groups are shaped by and in turn shape societal notions of "normal" and "deviant" as well as societal patterns of inequality. At the same time, researchers explore the ways that groups are formed, negotiated, and adjusted by the actions of individual beings interacting with one another on a newfound and/or regular basis. In so doing, studies of group dynamics shed light upon some ways groups reflect, reinforce, and/or shift the ongoing reciprocal relationship between self and society.

Dramaturgy

Much research into group dynamics draws from the dramaturgical approach outlined by Erving Goffman, and refined by other Symbolic Interactionists throughout the latter part of the 20th Century. Utilizing the metaphor of the theatre, Goffman defined social life as an information game wherein people give (i.e., intentionally transmit information) and give off (i.e., accidentally transmit information) details about themselves through the emphasis they place upon the social groups to which they belong. Specifically, people spend much of their lives attempting to demonstrate and affirm their membership within groups that are well regarded while distancing themselves from groups that are stigmatized within society.

Identity Work

Building upon Dramaturgical insights, sociologists developed the notion of "identity work," or the things people do (individually and collectively) to give meaning to themselves and others.[6] Examining the ways people constructed personal, collective, group, and social identities, researchers taking an identity work approach have outlined four generic processes whereby people give meaning to themselves and others within group contexts.

Identity Work

First, group members must define an identity into existence.

Second, group members must establish a set of codes or symbolic signals that allow people to tell others they are a member of a group.

Third, group members must establish ritual occasions or opportunities to affirm our membership in the group.

Emotion Work

Similar to identity work processes, scholars have noted the tendency for people to alter their emotional expressions, experiences, and understandings in relation to group memberships. Specifically, social groups and contexts typically contain "feeling rules," or cultural understandings or scripts that provide people with clues to how one should feel, how much one should feel, and how one should display feelings within a given group or situation. When one arrives at a funeral, for example, people will expect one to be sad, appear sad, and do so in a manner that does not detract from the funeral ritual itself.

Emotional Work in Life

Individual = working on our own emotions (e.g., college students managing anxiety at test time)

Interpersonal = working on the emotions of others during interactional exchanges (e.g., people in wheelchairs managing the discomfort of others in their presence)

Reciprocal = working with others to manage collective emotions (e.g., employees managing the negative reactions of bosses or other co-workers during tense working situations)

Self and Society

In recent years, Dramaturgical scholars have integrated many of the insights on group dynamics to demonstrate the ways groups reflect the reciprocal relationship between selves and societies. They have demonstrated that the primary codes that individuals use within groups to signify personal and collective identities rely heavily upon existing societal beliefs, values, and norms. People form groups by doing identity work that blends their personal desires with the symbolic materials provided by social structures. Similarly, people manage and maintain groups and group membership by doing emotion work that aligns their personal feelings with existing structural feeling rules. As a result, groups provide opportunities to examine the ways that selves and structures work hand in hand - to varying degrees - to continuously reproduce individuals and societies predicated upon "who we believe ourselves to be," "what we believe this says about us," and "how we feel about these details."[7]

Conformity – Solomon Asch

Research participants would enter a room and sit at a table with several other people (who were confederates, meaning they were actually helping with the research). The participant and confederates would be shown one card that had a reference line and another card that had three comparison lines. Subjects were required to select the comparison line that corresponded in length to the reference line.

Conformity – Solomon Asch

Social Loafing

Social loafing refers to the phenomenon that can occur when people in a group make less of an effort to achieve a goal than they would working alone. As a result of social loafing, groups can sometimes generate less total output than the combined performance of their members working as individuals. Social loafing results from a lack of motivation when working in a group because individuals do not believe their specific contribution will be evaluated. As a result, they do not put in as much effort as they otherwise would.

Deindividuation

Deindividuation refers to the phenomenon of relinquishing one's sense of identity, self-awareness, or evaluation apprehension. This can happen as a result of becoming part of a group that fosters obedience to group norms rather than an individual's norms, such as an army or mob. Once this happens, individuals no longer think about themselves before they act and may, in fact, be unaware of their own actions.

Deindividuation can have quite destructive effects, like increasing the odds someone will commit a crime, engaging in violence, or even over-enforce the law, such as police in riot situations 

Group Polarization 

Group polarization refers to the finding that after participating in a discussion group, members tend to advocate more extreme positions and/or call for riskier courses of action than individuals who did not participate in any such discussion. 

Group polarization

Group polarization results from two primary mechanisms: social comparison and informational influence. Social comparison refers to the drive of individuals to appear socially desirable. Informational social influence occurs when a person is in a situation where he or she is unsure of the correct way to behave. In such situations, that person will often look to others for cues concerning the correct behavior. When "we conform because we believe that other's interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action,” it is informational social influence.

Diffusion of Responsibility 

Diffusion of responsibility (also called the bystander effect) is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned. A common example would be observing a minor fender-bender on a busy freeway. Most people, when they observe something like that, do not stop and do not call the police, assuming someone else will do so. This phenomenon rarely ever occurs in small groups. In tests involving groups of three or fewer, everyone in the group took action as opposed to groups of over ten where in almost every test, no one took action.

False Consensus Effect 

The false consensus effect is the tendency for people to project their way of thinking onto other people. In other words, people often assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do. This belief is unsubstantiated by statistical and qualitative data, leading to the perception of a consensus that does not exist. This logical fallacy involves a group or individual assuming that their own opinions, beliefs and predilections are more prevalent amongst the general public than they really are. This bias is commonly present in a group setting where one thinks the collective opinion of their own group matches that of the larger population. Since the members of a group reach a consensus and rarely encounter those who dispute it, they tend to believe that everybody thinks the same way. This is done to justify one's own beliefs.

Illusory Superiority

Illusory Superiority is a cognitive bias in which people overestimate the degree to which they possess desirable qualities, relative to others, or underestimate their negative qualities relative to others.[25] Such over- and under-estimations serve to bolster peoples' self-esteem. People who succumb to the illusory superiority bias have inflated views of their own characteristics

Groupthink 

Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis to describe a process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a very rationalistic way to approach the situation. However this results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees upon an action which each member might individually consider to be unwise (the risky shift).

Social Network

A social network is a social structure between actors, either individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. The study of social networks is called both social network analysis and social network theory. Research in a number of academic fields has demonstrated that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.