Group concepts

• People express their sociality through groups and are influenced by the
groups they belong to. Participation in groups is a fundamental part of our
daily lives.
• Groups fulfil our many basic and intertwined human needs that cannot be
satisfied individually
• They play a considerable role in influencing individual self-esteem and in
the development of self-concept
• They are important sources of social support, offer information and satisfy
our need for social comparison
• Provide a context where people can pool resources and solve problems
collectively
Cont.
• Groups are objectively defined as a collection of people based on
perceptions of common characteristics by an outsider (statistical
groups)
• Subjectively as when a number of people perceive or categorise
themselves as a group (societal group)
• Groups are further defined as a being existent when two or more
people define themselves as members of a group and its existence is
recognised by at least one other.
Cont.
• Social groups- when members of a group interact
• Non-social groups- when two or more people are present at the same
time and place but are not interacting with each other
• Groups are characterised by (a) interdependence among members (b)
interaction between them (c) mutual influence
Types of social groups
In-groups and out-groups
• In-group is a group in which people belong or think they belong and
an out-group is a group which people do not belong or think they do
not belong
Primary, secondary and reference groups
• Primary groups generally have small membership and are
characterised by intimate direct interactions, strong levels of group
identification, strong affective ties between group members,
multifaceted relationships and long periods of existence
Cont.
• Secondary groups- there are few direct interactions, weak levels of
identification, weak effective ties between members, limited
functional relationships and a short period of existence
• Reference groups- groups which a person does not formally belong
but which they identify or which they use as a frame of reference
Characteristics of small groups
Purpose
• Social groups have a purpose that is generally instrumental (aimed at
performing a task or achieving a goal) or affiliative ( aimed at fulfilling
the needs for support and interpersonal contact)
Norms
• An unwritten social rule existing either on a wide cultural level or on a
smaller, situation-specific level that suggests what is appropriate
behaviour in a situation
• Groups can have prescriptive norms (recommend certain behaviours)
and proscriptive norms (forbid certain behaviours)
Cont.
Roles
• Each member of a group has a role they play within that group and
there are various roles that a member may play but roles are usually
divided into task roles (focus on attaining group goals) or socio-
emotional roles (focus on the quality of the relationships amongst
group members and include performing supportive, interpersonal
accommodative behaviours)
Communication
• Groups have a pattern of communication that structures the flow of
information between group members.
Cont.
Status
• Groups have status hierarchies that exists amongst them. Members
often occupy different levels of status
Sociometric structure
• Patterns of liking and disliking of group members
Cohesiveness
• Refers to the strength of the relationships linking the members to one
another, and to the group itself.
Dynamics within small groups
• Group polarisation: refers to the tendency for pre-existing individual
opinions, ideas or positions to become more extreme or polarised
following a group discussion
• Group think: refers to a group-process phenomenon that may lead to
faulty decision-making by group members who are more concerned with
reaching consensus than with carefully considering alternative course of
action
• Social facilitation: occurs when there is improved individual task
performance when working with others or in the presence of an audience
• Social loafing: negative effect of a group where members of a group tend
to relax their effort based on assumption that others will compensate
Social influence
• Refers to the change in a person’s judgements, opinions and attitudes that
occur because of exposure to the judgements, opinions and attitudes of
other people
Types of social influence
Conformity
• When individuals modify their behaviour in response to real or imagined
pressure from others
• Informational social influence: the type of social influence that results from
a person’s response to information provided by others
• Normative social influence: results from a person’s response to pressure to
conform to a norm
Cont.
Minority influence
• Minorities may have an influence if they maintain consistency on an
issue or idea and if they are seen as being flexible rather than
remaining rigid in their position
Obedience
• Social influence process in which individual behaviour is modified in
response to a command from an authority figure
Levels at which social influence can
be analysed
• Individual level: social behaviour is based on internal dispositions or
processes (personality traits, emotions and cognition mechanism)
• Situational level: behaviour results from an interaction with other
individuals or situational context
• Positional level: behaviour is based on group membership
• Ideological level: interactions of groups and the power relations
between groups are explained in terms of widely shared systems of
ideas and social practices
Explaining intergroup relations by
focusing on different levels of
analysis
• Intergroup behaviour: actions by members of one group towards
members of another group and occur when members of one group
act towards group in terms of their group membership rather than
personal or idiosyncratic reasons
Individual-level
• The unconscious processes that drive individual behaviour are seen as
the foundation for any group or intergroup behaviour
• Frustration-aggression theory also maintain that intergroup
phenomena are based on displaced aggression arising from
frustration that emerges when group goals are not attained
Cont.
Situational level
• Perceives behaviour to be a result of an interaction with other
individuals or particular situational contexts
• Better explained by the equity theory and social-exchange theory
Positional level
• Behaviour is a function of individuals acting in terms of their group
membership
• Realistic-conflict theory- focuses on the emergence and resolution of
intergroup conflict. Social harmony occurs when each realises the
importance of the other
Cont.
• Relative-deprivation theory- a sense of relative deprivation emerges
when members of a disadvantaged group recognise that they are
undervalued and have fewer social rewards than a preferred group
• Resource-mobilisation theory- intergroup conflict arise when those
with resources mobilise and take collective action
• Social-identity theory- group membership is a fundamental component
of identity. Social identity is an individual’s self-concept that derives
from knowing they belong to a certain group and social-identity
formation refers to the process whereby individuals become part of a
group and a group become part of the individual self-concept
Cont.
Ideological-level
• Refers o widespread complex belief systems that determine group
behaviour
• Emphasizes the importance of understanding the relationship
between the positional and ideological levels, by arguing that when
people identify with a group they may take on the group’s underlying
ideology
Cont.
Four avenues to reach goals as proposed by Wessells
• Peace psychologists should engage in sensitisation or consciousness-
raising to contribute to agenda-setting and public dialogue
• Offer expertise on issues of social justice and peace
• See themselves as activists
• Have an influential role to play with respect to public policy