Chapter 19 Group Interaction

Section 1 Group Behavior

Exploring Psychology

Greasers Versus Socs

Anyway, I went on walking home, thinking about the movie, and then suddenly wishing I had some company. Greasers can’t walk alone too much or they’ll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream “Greaser!” at them, which doesn’t make you feel too hot, if you know what I mean. We get jumped by the Socs. I’m not sure how you spell it, but it’s the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet set, the West-side rich kids. It’s like the term “greaser,” which is used to class all us boys on the East Side.

—from The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, 1989

In the passage above, S.E. Hinton’s character Ponyboy tells his story, a story marked by the rivalry between two groups—the Socs and the Greasers. The differentiation between these groups influences Ponyboy’s life to a great degree. What groups influence your life? Why?

What are Groups?

A group is a collection of people who interact, share common goals, and influence how members think and act.

People who congregate but do not interact are not considered a group but rather an aggregate.

ex. a group of people waiting for Bus No. 2 to arrive on the corner of 4th Avenue and 33rd Street is not a group but just a collection of people. (If however, a car screamed to a stop in front of them, almost hitting them, they would become a group by talking and asking questions.)

Interaction is the key factor in forming a group.

Interdependence

Interdependence occurs when any action by one member will affect or influence other members.

ex. In groups of athletes, entertainers, or roommates, each member has a certain responsibility to the rest of the group, and if he or she does not fulfill it, the other members will be affected. For the athletes, the consequence may be losing the game; for the entertainers, a bad show; for the roommates, a messy apartment.

In small groups, members usually have a direct influence on one another; in large groups, the influence may be indirect.

Shared Goals

Group members become interdependent because they share common goals.

The purposes groups serve are of two kinds: (1) task functions (activities directed toward getting a job done) and (2) social functions (responses directed toward satisfying the emotional needs of members). In most groups, these are combined naturally and cannot be separated easily, although one dominates in any given group.

How Groups are Held Together

Norms

Unwritten rules that govern behavior and attitudes of group members are called norms. They include rules—shared beliefs about the correct way to behave and what to believe.

Ideology

Ideology: the set of principles, attitudes, and defined objectives for which a group stands.

Commitment

One factor that increases individual commitment is the requirement of personal sacrifice.

ex. If a person is willing to pay money, endure hardship, or undergo humiliation to join a group, he or she is likely to continue with it.

Another factor that strengthens group commitment is participation. When people actively participate in group decisions and share the rewards of the group’s accomplishments, their feeling of membership increases—they felt that they have helped make the group what it is.

Social Facilitation Versus Social Inhibition

Social facilitation refers to the tendency to perform better in the presence of a group or crowd.

Social inhibition is the tendency to decrease in performance in front of a crowd.

Psychologist Robert Zajonc (1965) noticed that social facilitation seemed to occur when participants performed simple or well-learned tasks, whereas social inhibition occurred when participants performed more complex tasks or tasks that involved unfamiliar factors to the participants.

Interactions Within Groups

Leadership

All groups, whether made up of students, workers, Girl Scouts, or politicians, have leaders. A leader embodies the norms and ideals of the group and represents the group to outsiders. A leader is one who has a great deal of influence on the other members.

Most of us think of leadership as a personality trait. To an extent, this is true. One psychologist (Stogdill, 1974) identified leadership as an aspect of personality—the ability to get people to comply. It can be thought of as a skill in social influence or persuasion or simply as social power.

Leadership Styles

-authoritarian

-laissez-faire

-democratic

Authoritarian leaders makes all the decisions and assigns tasks to group members. These leaders are focused on completing tasks and compliance to group goals.

A laissez-faire leader is only minimally involved in a group’s decision making. This leader encourages the group to makes its own decisions. Under this type of leadership, groups do not actively pursue group goals, and group members make all the decisions.

A democratic leader encourages group members to come to decisions through consensus. These leaders are often viewed as supportive but not good decision makers.