Social Groups in Action and Interaction

2nd Edition

Charles Stangor

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317387343
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Social Groups in Action and Interaction reviews and analyzes the human group as it operates to create both social good and, potentially, social harm. It summarizes current knowledge and contemporary research, with real-world examples in succinct yet engaging chapters, to help students understand and predict group behavior. Unlike other texts, the book considers a wide range of topics—such as conformity, leadership, task performance, social identity, prejudice, and discrimination—from both an intragroup and an intergroup perspective. By looking at behavior both within and between groups, it bridges the gap between these interconnected approaches.

The second edition is thoroughly updated to include new discussion of the biology and neuroscience of group formation, recent developments in social identity theory, and recent advances in the study of social networks. It also includes questions for review and discussion in the classroom.

It provides the most comprehensive and essential resource for courses on group dynamics and behavior.

Chapter 1

DEFINING THE SOCIAL GROUP

Social groups are the foundation of human existence. Groups provide us with friendship and emotional support, they help us make decisions, and they help us get work done. This book is about the benefits, but also the costs, of our social group memberships.

CONTENTS AT A GLANCE

Studying Groups

Varieties of Social Group

Common Themes

Social Science and the Social Group

Studying Groups Scientifically

Levels of Analysis

Group-Level Approaches

The Group Dynamics Approach

Kurt Lewin’s Contributions

Social Perception and Interpretation

Self-Categorization Theory

The Flexibility of Social Categorization

In-groups and Out-groups

Properties of Groups

Social Groups versus Social Aggregates

Similarity

Interaction and Interdependence

Group Structure

Defining the Group: Entitativity

Being Part of a Group: Group Cohesion and Social Identity

Group Cohesion

Cohesion and Group Behavior

Social Identity

Group Processes Reconsidered

Chapter Summary

Review and Discussion Questions

Recommended Reading

The earliest human beings lived a nomadic life, moving regularly from place to place in search of food and hunting and eating together in small groups. Since then, as the number of people on the planet has increased, the life of human beings has also become more complex. People developed new abilities, new skills, and new traditions. We learned to farm and to build shelter. We developed art, culture, and technology, as well as complex systems of government. Nations and races evolved, and the scale of both trade and warfare increased. And these changes continue at an even greater rate today as we continue to develop our world through globalization in communication, trade, and technology. In fact, all of the most important human achievements, from the building of the Pyramids in Egypt to the development of the Internet have been achieved through the cooperation of groups.

Although people and their worlds have changed dramatically over the course of our history, one fundamental aspect of human existence remains essentially the same. Just as our primitive ancestors lived together in small social groups, including families, tribes, and clans, people today still spend a great deal of time in social groups. We go to bars and restaurants, we study together in schools, and we work together on production lines and in businesses. We participate in art, music, and sports groups. We form governments, and we turn to social media sites and user groups on the Internet to communicate with others. It seems that no matter how much our world changes, humans will always remain social creatures. No matter whether it is in families or fraternities, on Google+ or Facebook, or in classrooms or psychotherapy sessions, we spend a lot of time with others, in groups. Indeed, the human group is the very foundation of human existence—without our interactions with each other, we would simply not be people, and there would be no human culture.

Because people play such an important role in our lives, it is perhaps no surprise that, when we are asked to indicate the things that we value the very most, we frequently mention our relationships with others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Cacioppo & Hawkley, 2009; Fiske & Haslam, 1996). We realize that it is through others that our own lives are defined. Other people teach us what it means to be human: What we should and shouldn’t do, what we should and shouldn’t think, and even what we should and shouldn’t like and dislike. And we also join and use groups to accomplish more specific goals. We rely on groups, such as courtroom juries and political caucuses, to make important decisions for us. When we work together on a class project, volunteer at a homeless shelter, or serve on a jury in a courtroom trial, we count on others to work with us to get the job done. We develop a trust with the people that we work with, and we expect that they will come through to help us meet our goals. Given the importance of belonging and sharing with others, it is perhaps no surprise that over 1 billion people throughout the world connect with others on social media sites such as Facebook.

Although human groups form the basis of human culture and productivity, they also produce some of our most profound disappointments. Our relations with others do not always work out in ways that benefit the group members or society at large. Social groups sometimes create the very opposite of what we might hope for, such as when a peaceful demonstration turns into a violent riot, the members of an extreme religious group engage in terrorist acts, or a clique at a high school cyberbullies other students online until they become despondent or even commit suicide. Indeed, the simple fact that we are members of social groups that we care about also allows us to dislike other people who are not members of our group (Waytz & Epley, 2012).

In many cases, groups also seem to make very poor decisions, such as when politicians misperceive the potential threat of economic or military changes, a mountain climbing group decides to continue rather than turning back resulting in the loss of many lives, or military leaders underestimate the strength of an opponent, putting civilians or soldiers in grave danger. In fact, taking all of the data together, one psychologist once went so far as to comment that “humans would do better without groups” (Buys, 1978)! What Buys probably meant by this comment, I think, was to acknowledge the enormous force of social groups, and to point out the importance of being aware that these forces can have both positive and negative consequences.

The goal of this book is to investigate the human group. We will study how the groups that we belong to influence us and how we influence the other people in the groups we belong to. We will consider both benefits of group membership—for instance, feeling appreciated, loved, cared for, and protected by others whom we know and trust—as well as the difficulties that groups create. I hope you will be interested in groups not only for their own sake, but also because you—as a member of many social groups—will learn something about your relationship with others and about yourself by better understanding how groups work.

STUDYING GROUPS

Let’s begin our investigation by considering some of the most fundamental questions about social groups—what they are, and what characteristics they are likely to have. Then, after reviewing in Chapter 2 the scientific methods that are used to study social groups, we will turn in Chapter 3 to a fuller consideration of why people join groups and what benefits they might expect to gain from their group memberships.

Varieties of Social Group

As you might well imagine, studying human groups is not an easy task. One problem is that groups come in so many different forms and sizes, and they develop for so many different reasons. Because there are so many types of group, researchers from many different areas study them (Homans, 1951; Kelly, McCarty, & Iannone, 2013; Levine & Moreland, 2012; Steiner, 1974). Among others, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, communication experts, criminologists, educators, political scientists, social workers, organizational psychologists, and family therapists are all interested in social groups, and researchers in each of these fields have conducted research to learn about group behavior.

Although each of these disciplines has a common interest in studying and understanding groups, most fields tend to focus their research efforts on particular groups and particular topics that are of interest to them. An organizational psychologist, for instance, might study workers at a technology company, looking perhaps at the amount and type of communication among the group members or their reactions to new products and developments in the company, with an emphasis on improving group performance. A counselor might study therapy groups, measuring the outcomes of therapy on psychological well-being and the group members’ feelings about the effectiveness of the therapy. And a sociologist might be interested in how large social groups perceive their status in a society, perhaps investigating how African Americans, as a large group of individuals with common interests, react to current political events that affect them.

The goal of this book is not to focus on any one particular type of group, but rather to attempt to find basic principles that we can use to understand all social groups. However, because the groups that we are interested in studying range so dramatically in size and purpose, it is convenient for us to divide them into some basic categories, and we will organize our discussion in the chapters to come around these different types. The groups that we will be concerned with are described in what follows, and are summarized in Table 1.1.

Reference Groups. Reference groups are perhaps the most important of all groups. A reference group is a group of individuals we look up to and identify with because we admire and want to be like those who belong to it. Important reference groups might include our family, our colleagues or coworkers, the cliques and crowds in our high school or college, or the baseball players on our favorite sports team (Hyman, 1942; Newcomb, 1943; Stouffer, Suchman, DeVinney, Star, & Williams, 1949). In some cases, we are already a member of the reference group, and, in other cases, the reference group might be a group that we do not belong to (such as one that we might look forward to someday joining).

Reference group: A group of individuals that we look up to and identify with because we admire and want to be like those who belong to it.

Reference groups are so important because their members provide models for us, and these models shape our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. A child who starts to swear or an adolescent who starts to smoke cigarettes have probably been influenced by the “peer pressure” brought by the members of a reference group. The child is not swearing because he likes to so much as because he thinks that others will accept him if he does. On a more positive side, a teenager may develop a passion for soccer because she emulates the older members of the high school team, or a scientist may work long hours to make contributions to her field because other scientists have inspired her efforts. We are likely to become prejudiced or tolerant, to declare a major in psychology or architecture, and to prefer jazz to classical music, in part because people we care about support and share these values. In short, because we look up to and care about them, our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are determined in large part by the beliefs and values of our reference groups.

TABLE 1.1 Varieties of social group

Dyads. A dyad consists of two individuals who are in a close relationship, such as a strong friendship, a dating relationship, or a marriage. It has been argued that the dyad is a simple group, at least in the sense that there is a strong bond between the individuals (Lickel et al., 2000) and many people do define dyads as groups. Although this is not unreasonable, dyads are usually studied separately from larger social groups, and we will not address them in great detail in this book. The reason for this is primarily because in most cases the dyad does not usually produce a “group feeling” on the part of the individuals who comprise it, and as we will see later in this chapter, this feeling is an important part of group behavior (Moreland, 2010). There is a large literature on dyads and romantic relationships, which is available for study if you are interested (see, for instance, Clark & Lemay, 2010).

Dyad: Two individuals who are in a close relationship, as in a strong friendship or a marriage.

Working Groups. One of the group types that we will consider most fully is the working group. A working group comprises between about three and 12 individuals who are actively attempting to meet a specific goal. The working group may form for only a short period of time in order to meet a short-term goal, or it may be more permanent. Examples of working groups are juries, decision-making groups in business or other organizations, business or political committees, class seminars, group therapy sessions, and sports teams. Working groups usually meet and work in face-to-face settings, but, in some cases (such as communication among the soldiers on a battlefield or among the scientists working on a space mission), the group members may be linked electronically.

Working group: A group consisting of between about three and 12 individuals who are actively attempting to meet a specific goal.

Social Categories. Unlike working groups, which are small and focused on a specific task, social categories are large and relatively permanent social groups, such as people who share a gender, a...