Group Cohesion

Question 1

Define group cohesion. (source?)

Answer 1

A dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of members affective needs
Carron, Brawley and Widmeyer (1998)

Question 2

Who has claimed that group cohesion is the most important small group variable in the dynamic of a group?

Answer 2

Carron and Eys (2012)

Question 3

What 4 areas are in the conceptual model of group cohesion? (source?)

Answer 3

Indiviual attraction to the group - TASK
Group integration - TASK
Individual attraction to the group - SOCIAL
Group integration - SOCIAL
Carron et al. (1985)

Question 4

4 characteristics of cohesion?

Answer 4

Multidimensional, dynamic, instrumental, affective

Question 5

How is group cohesion measured? Who came up with it?

Answer 5

Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ)

Carron, Widmeyer and Brawley (1985)

Question 6

What are the 4 correlates of cohesion? (source?)

Answer 6

L.E.P.T.
Leadership factors
Environmental factors
Personal factors
Team factors
Carron and Hausenblas (1998)

Question 7

What leadership factors have been associated with high cohesion?

Answer 7

Democratic approach to decision making and coach’s promotion of teamwork (Callow et al., 2009)

Question 8

What environmental factors have been associated with high cohesion?

Answer 8

Smaller group size (Carron et al., 2012) and lower level of competition

Question 9

What personal factors have been associated with high cohesion?

Answer 9

Increased satisfaction, similarity in personal attributes and adherence (Spink et al., 2010)

Question 10

What team factors have been associated with high cohesion?

Answer 10

Team success, high collective efficacy (Heuze et al. 2006), role clarity and acceptance, conformity to group norms

Question 11

Does cohesion affect performance?

Answer 11

Carron et al.’s (2002) meta-analysis found cohesion to have a significant moderate-to-strong association with performance. Social cohesion was found to have a slighlty stronger association with performance than task cohesion
Carron, Bray and Eys (2002) also did a study on 18 basketball and 9 soccer teams - also found cohesion had moderate to large association with team’s success

Question 12

Who described similarities in the strength of the relationship when looking at direction of relationship between cohesion and performance?

Answer 12

Carron, Colman, Wheeler and Stevens (2002)

Question 13

What did Carron, Colman, Wheeler and Stevens (2002) report regarding males and females?

Answer 13

Stronger association between cohesion and performance amongst females (0.672 Vs 0.321 in males)

Question 14

What cohesion variable did Carron, Colman, Wheeler and Stevens (2002) report as having the strongest association with performance?

Answer 14

Group integration - task

Question 15

Who’s research highlighted the perception that too much cohesion can be a bad thing?

Answer 15

Hardy, Eys and Carron (2005)
Found that 56% of the 105 athletes questioned perceived disadvantages of high social cohesion and 31% perceived disadvantages to high task cohesion