Unit 2: Learning Objectives

Question 1

Students will be able to distinguish between a group and a collection of people.

Answer 1

1. face-to-face communication
2. among a group of people,
3. who share a common purpose or goal
4. and perceive a sense of belonging to the group
5. who have interdependence
6. create and enforce norms and shared standards
7. exert influence upon each other
8. over a period of time,
9. through some structured patterns

Groupness emerges from the relationships among the people involved, just as ‘cubeness’ emerges from the image of a set of planes, intersects and angles in a specific relationship to each other

Question 2

2. Students will be able to explain Tuckman’s Five Stages of Group Development

Answer 2

1. Forming: During the first stage, team members establish interpersonal relationships, become familiar with the assigned task (the group assignment) and create grounds rules.
   
   2. Storming: The second stage marks a time of intragroup conflict due to lack of group unity. Because team members still see themselves as individuals rather than as part of a team, they may resist the formation of group structure in favor of expressing their individuality.
   3. Norming; The third stage is characterized by the emergence of group harmony as group members begin to openly express ideas and opinions. Members begin to accept teammates for who they are and task-related conflicts are avoided in an effort to preserve harmony.
   4. Performing: The final stage reflects a period of productive collaboration in which members demonstrate support for each other and assume roles that will enhance task activities. Constructive attempts are made to resolve an issue related to the completion of the task.
   5. Implementing: It is as important that group outcomes can be implemented as the quality of the decisions or processes themselves. A great outcome that can’t be implemented isn’t worth anything

Question 3

3. Students will be able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of group cohesion.

Answer 3

High level of commitment. Military example: Much of basic training is to instill a sense of group cohesion in the troops. The assumption is that if you have a strong emotional bond, you will be more willing to engage in activities that could be harmful to yourself for the good of the group.

However, not all group activities require this kind of commitment. Many groups are involved in processes. Some are decision making groups. Others are tasked with implementation of decisions. There are a wide variety of reasons we are in groups.

Question 4

4. Students will be able to identify negative outcomes of groups and how to avoid them.

Answer 4

Social Pressure: The Zimbardo Stanford prison study:
• Peer pressure to act a certain way in prison during study.

Obeying orders: The Milgram studies:
• This is a case of group members following orders by individuals in authority. To what extent will we obey orders? Can we use the Nuremburg Defense?

Devil Effect

Social Loafing

Question 5

Students will be able to discuss how groups differ from individuals in decision making processes.

Answer 5

Death of a Princess example from class:

Note that there is not really a correct answer to this exercise. Yet, in many cases, groups will strongly defend their position. I have seen actual fights break out in a group discussion of this fictional story. Note also that one of the important issues is the degree to which important issues make it to the table.

Question 6

Student will be able to distinguish between task and affect and discuss the importance of each in group activity.

Answer 6

On one axis, we have high affect-low affect and on the other axis, high task orientation-low task orientation

The larger grid says that a trait can exist a little or a lot. Blake and Mouton claim that the best leader is the “high-high” leader–one who is strong in both task orientation and in nurturing the feelings and relationships within the group or organization.

Argumentativeness—The desire to debate or discuss.
Verbal Aggressiveness—An assault on another person’s self concept.

Argumentative is a term that refers to disagreements over facts (task related). Verbal aggressiveness is a reference to personal verbal attacks by one group member on another (affect related). Verbal aggressiveness is, of course, destructive to group decision making, BUT argumentativeness is positive.

Question 7

Students will be able to describe groupthink and groupshift.

Answer 7

Group shift is a situation in which we see groups making decisions that are more conservative or liberal than the individuals would have made. The lack of accountability in the group may cause its decisions to wander from the norms individuals in the group hold. This differs from Groupthink only in degree.

Groupthink: the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.

Groups–particularly highly cohesive groups–are easily swayed. When friendships develop within the group, feelings between group members can influence deliberations. Task becomes subordinated to affect