Skip to main content

Group Dynamics

Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occuring within a social group (intragroup dynamics) or between social groups (intergroup dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behavior, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. Group dynamics are at the core of understanding racism, sexism, and other forms of social prejudice and discrimination. 

The history of group dynamics (or group processes) has a consistent, underlying premise: "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." A social group is an entity that has qualities which cannot be understood just by studying the individuals that make up the group. In 1924, Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer proposed, "There are entities where the behavior of the whole cannot be derived from its individual elements nor from the way these elements fit together; rather the opposite is true: the properties of any of the parts are determined by the intrinsic structural laws of the whole." (Wertheimer, 1924 p. 7). (The proposition remains questionable, since modern biologists and game theorists do look to explain the "structural laws of the whole" in terms of "the way the elements fit together.")


As a field of study, group dynamics has roots in both psychology and sociology. Wilhelm Mundt (1832-1920), credited as the father of experimental psychology, had a particular interest in the psychology of communities, which he believed possessed phenomena (human language, customs, and religion) that could not be described through a study of individual. On the sociological side, Émile Durkheim  (1858-1917), who was influenced by Wundt, also recognized collective phenomena, such as public knowledge. Other key theorists include Gustav Le Bon (1841-1931) who believed that crowds possessed "social unconscious" with primitive, aggressive, and antisocial instincts, and the psychologist William McDougall, who believed in a "group mind," which had a distinct existence born from the interaction of individuals. (The concept of a collective consciousness is not essential in group dynamics).

Eventually, the social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) coined the term group dynamics to describe the positive and negative forces within groups of people. In 1945, he established The Group Dynamics Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first institute devoted explicitly to the study of group dynamics. Throughout his career, Lewin was focused on how the study of group dynamics could be applied to real-world, social issues.

Increasingly, research has applied evolutionary psychology principles to group dynamics. As humans social environments became more complex, they acquired adaptations by way of group dynamics that enhance survival. Examples include mechanisms for dealing with status, reciprocity, identifying cheaters, ostracism, altruism, group decision, leadership, and intergroup relations. Also, a combination of evolution and game theory has been used to explain the development and maintenance of cooperative behavior among individuals in a group.

x----x

This post is brought to you by Nike.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mariology

 Mariology is the theological study of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mariology seeks to relate doctrine or dogma about Mary to other doctrines of the faith, such as those concerning Jesus and notions about redemption, intercession, and grace. Mariology aims to place the role of the historic Mary in the context of scripture, tradition and the teachings of the Church on Mary. In terms of social history, Mariology may be broadly defined as the study of devotion to and thinking about Mary throughout the history of Christianity.  There exist a variety of Christian (and non-Christian) views about Mary as a figure ranging from the focus on the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic Mariology to criticisms of "mariolatry" as a form of idolatry. The latter would include certain Protestant objections to Marian devotion. There are also more distinctive approaches to the role of Mary in Lutheran Marian theology and Anglican Marian theology. As a field of theology, the most ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ecology

 Ecology is the study of the relationships among living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps with the closely related sciences of biogeograohy, evolutionary biology, genetics, ethology, and natural history. Ecology is the branch of biology, and is the study of abundance, biomass, and distribution of organisms in the context of the environment. It encompasses life processes, interactions and adaptations; movement of materials and energy through living communities; successional development of ecosystems; cooperation, competition, and predation with and between species; and patterns of biodiversity and its effect on ecosystem processes. Ecology has practical applications in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agroecology, agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, fisheries, mining, tourism), urban planning (urban e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Educational Measurement

 Educational measurement refers to the use of educational assessments and the analysis of such data such as scores obtained from educational tests to infer the abilities and proficiencies of students. The approaches overlap with those in psychometrics. Educational measurement is the assigning of numerals to traits such as achievement, interest, attitudes, aptitudes, intelligence, and performance. The aim of theory and practice in educational measurement is typically to measure abilities and levels of attainment by students in areas such as reading, writing, science, mathematics and so forth. Traditionally, attention focuses on whether assessments are reliable and valid. In practice, educational assessment is largely concerned with the analysis of data from educational assessments or tests. Typically, this means using total scores in assessments, whether they are multiple choice or open-ended and marked using marking rubics or guides. In technical terms, the pattern of scores by ind...
Post a Comment
Read more