Cohesion and development

Question 1

What is group cohesion?

Answer 1

Though it is hard to define, cohesion is associated with satisfaction, performance, morale, stability, and conflict, so it is important to study.

Question 2

What are two components of group cohesion?

Answer 2

Commitment to the group and strong interpersonal bonds are components of cohesion.

Question 3

Cohesion may arise from different processes in different groups. What is this variety of paths called?

Answer 3

equifinality

Question 4

What are the five types of cohesion?

Answer 4

Social cohesion: interpersonal attraction within a group

Task cohesion: share commitment to accomplishing a group task

Collective cohesion: cohesion based on a shared group identity

Emotional cohesion: the presence of group-based emotions such as pride

Structural cohesion: well-defined roles, norms, dense relations among members

Question 5

How is social cohesion usually measured?

Answer 5

This is usually measured by asking people to name all their good friends and then calculating the ratio of ingroup to outgroup choices.

Question 6

What was the Sherifs’ study on social cohesion?

Answer 6

The Sherifs did a study in which they tried dividing boys at a summer camp into two groups in such a way that as many friendships as possible were broken by the division. This seems to have spurred the creation of new ingroup friendships.

Question 7

What are the multiple levels of social cohesion?

Answer 7

Social cohesion can exist at multiple levels: in addition to members’ liking for each other, one can also measure their liking for the group as a whole.

Question 8

When members of task-oriented groups are asked about team cohesion, how do they typically answer?

Answer 8

tend to talk about the performance of the task

Question 9

Task cohesion derives from and is reinforced by what?

Answer 9

group motivation

If all group members are sufficiently committed to the goal, individual motives tend to fall by the wayside.

Question 10

What is collective efficacy?

Answer 10

the group equivalent of self-efficacy (Bandura)

Question 11

What is group potency? What is this often associated with?

Answer 11

the belief that the group is capable of accomplishing a lot.

This is often associated with choosing more challenging goals.

Question 12

What is the difference between group efficacy and group potency?

Answer 12

efficacy is more concentrated on particular skills, etc., whereas potency is more general, “We are great and can do practically anything!”

Question 13

What is collective cohesion?

Answer 13

Collective cohesion is related to a collective sense of identity; there is no “I”, just a “we”.

Question 14

Groups with a high sense of collective cohesion will tend to do what?

Answer 14

stand closer together and prevent others from infringing on their space

Question 15

What is collective cohesion related to?

Answer 15

This is related to entitativity, the perception by both group members and outsiders that the group is a coherent entity, not just a collection of individuals.

Question 16

The relationship between cohesion and identification is predicted by what?

Answer 16

social identity theory

Social identity theory - people categorize themselves into different social categories to build their own social identity

Question 17

What is emotional cohesion? Whose explanation is used?

Answer 17

Durkheim claimed that shared emotions within a group can result in collective effervescence, an intense emotional reaction (positive feedback?)
Moods become synchronized.
The whole group can become elated by the accomplishments of a single member.

Question 18

Enthusiasm comes with being in an emotionally cohesive group, especially if what is also high?

Answer 18

collective efficacy

Question 19

What is relational cohesion theory? Whose theory is this?

Answer 19

Lawler

asserts that frequent, mostly positive interactions with other group members eventually result in group members experiencing positive emotions when interacting with each other

Question 20

What helps to build group cohesion?

Answer 20

collective movement
(military marching, etc.) increases collective and emotional cohesion

Question 21

When does structural cohesion arise?

Answer 21

when norms, roles, and intermember relations are appropriate and well-defined.
Norms and roles must be understood by all and appropriate to the task at hand.

Question 22

What can be either a strength or a weakness to structural cohesion? Why?

Answer 22

Intermember relations (as indicated on a sociogram)

When most members like each other in a dense network, all is likely to be well.
When a few members are liked by almost all and others are liked by very few, problems may arise.
The existence of subcliques is also a potential issue. This may create problems when the group is under stress, and the group may fracture along the lines dividing the cliques.

Question 23

What are the three assumptions regarding cohesion?

Answer 23

The multicomponent assumption
This is the assumption that there are multiple components of cohesion, not just one. See the previous five slides for an example.

The multilevel assumption
Cohesion processes are assumed to occur at multiple levels (e.g. liking for individual group members versus liking for the group as a whole, group goals versus individual goals, etc.)

The multimethod assumption
For all kinds of philosophy of science reasons, it is probably good to use multiple methods for assessing cohesion (e.g. observation versus direct questioning versus indirect questioning).

Question 24

What are the two basic types of theories that attempt to describe how groups develop (change over time)?

Answer 24

Successive stage models assert that groups develop through a series of stages.

Cyclical models assert that groups cycle through several stages repeatedly.

Question 25

What is Tuckman’s 5-stage theory? What does it especially apply to?

Answer 25

Successive stage model of group development

This theory applies especially to performance-oriented groups.

Question 26

What are the 5 stages of Tuckman’s theory?

Answer 26

Stage 1: Forming
Stage 2: Storming
Stage 3: Norming
Stage 4: Performing
Stage 5: Adjourning

Question 27

Explain the first two stages of Tuckman’s theory.

Answer 27

Stage 1: Forming
Communication is tentative. People are feeling each other out. People tend to be compliant. If there is a set leader, that person is accepted.
Stage 2: Storming
People feel more familiar with each other and become less tentative. Conflict erupts surrounding norms, roles, the leader, status, etc.
This step seems unpleasant but may be essential so that people can resolve these issues. Sometimes the issues are not resolved, and the group goes no further.

Question 28

Explain the last three stages of Tuckman’s theory.

Answer 28

Stage 3: Norming
Cohesion is established, and consensus is reached about the issues that were contentious in the storming stage.
Stage 4: Performing
The group starts accomplishing its goals and does not need to devote so much energy to cohesion-building.
Stage 5: Adjourning
If the group has set goals, it will disband once those are achieved.
Other groups that do not have a clearly defined end will often fall apart anyway.

Question 29

What is Bales’s equilibrium model?

Answer 29

asserts that long-term groups constantly struggle with the not always compatible tasks of performing at a high level and maintaining cohesion, so that there is a cycling between norming and performing. Some storming may kick in as well.

Question 30

What are punctuated equilibrium models? What is one example?

Answer 30

Punctuated equilibrium models observe that exogenous events (termed barometric events) may shift the group dynamics suddenly.
Reaching the halfway point of a meeting may be such an event as people realize they need to get through the agenda.

Question 31

What are the positive effects of group cohesion?

Answer 31

Member satisfaction tends to be high in cohesive groups. People communicate well and work together well.

Question 32

What are the negative effects of group cohesion? (4)

Answer 32

in long-lasting groups, turnover can result in established group members being reluctant to form emotional bonds with new group members.
Those who are frozen out in this way may come to feel isolated.
In extreme cases, only one person may be left and may become completely emotionally isolated (old sergeant syndrome).

Those who leave such groups may have trouble integrating back into society when they leave these tight-knit groups.

Conformity pressures may be very high.
One consequence of this may be groupthink, which we will talk about later in the semester.

Hostility, scapegoating, and hostility to other groups are also more likely to happen in cohesive groups.

Question 33

The relationship between cohesion and performance is what? What is an exception of this?

Answer 33

High levels of performance also enhance cohesion. Thus, the relationship is a reciprocal one.

This relationship falls apart if the group has norms that encourage low productivity (for obvious reasons).

Question 34

What are initiations?

Answer 34

Rigorous demonstrations of commitment to a group that are often thought to increase commitment and cohesion.
This is also a form of screening.

Question 35

How does cognitive dissonance relate to initiations?

Answer 35

Festinger developed theory after studying a small “doomsday” group that became more committed to a leader even after her predictions were proven false.

one frequent method to deal with this is to emphasize the rewarding features of the group while minimizing its costly characteristics

Question 36

What is a special form of initiation?

Answer 36

Hazing

Question 37

What are the purposes of hazing?

Answer 37

In addition to provoking cognitive dissonance, such initiations may also serve to establish the dominance of the established members over the new ones.

Hazings are often traditional.

Question 38

Is extreme hazing seen more in cohesive groups?

Answer 38

Extreme hazing seems to be a property of somewhat less cohesive groups.

part of it may be that extreme hierarchies are not the best for cohesion and tend to be present for hazing