Intelligently Interacting with Others

(Group Processes)

Session 5:
(1) Introduction to Group Dynamics

ZRM 2009
 Chapter 1: Introduction to Group Dynamics

1. What is a group?

2. What are some common characteristics of groups?

3. What assumptions guide researchers in their studies of groups & the processes

within groups?

4. What fields & what topics are included in the scientific study of group

dynamics?

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 Which of the following are groups & which are not?

1. A man & woman holding hands & walking down a garden path

2. A secretary talking to the boss by telephone

3. A mob of rioters burning shops in the city

4. Five people talking to each other on-line in a computer “chat room”

5. The Rajnikanth fan club

6. All women with blue eyes who live in Japan

7. All the marketing faculty of IIM Bangalore on a Sunday afternoon

8. Spectators at a college football game

9. The Gupta family of Karol Baug in New Delhi

10. Individuals waiting in silence at a bus stop

Which of these is most “group like” and which of these is least “group like”?

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 Type of Group Characteristics Examples

Planned groups Deliberately formed by the members themselves or by an external

authority, usually for some specific purpose or purposes

Concocted Planned by individuals or authorities Production lines, military

outside the group. units, task forces, crews,
professional sports teams
Founded Planned by one or more individuals Study groups, small
who remain within the group businesses, expeditions,
clubs, associations
Emergent groups Groups that form spontaneously as individuals find themselves
repeatedly interacting with the same subset of individuals over time
and settings
Circumstantial Emergent, unplanned groups that Waiting lines (queues),
arise when external, situational crowds, mobs, audiences,
forces set the stage for people to join bystanders
together, often only temporarily, in a
unified group
Self-organizing Emerge when interacting Study groups, friendship
individuals gradually align their cliques in a workplace,
activities in a cooperative system of regular patrons at a bar
ZRM 2009 interdependence. 3
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 The nature of group dynamics

1. Orienting assumptions

2. Groups are real

3. Group processes are real

4. Groups are more than the sum of their parts B = f (P, E)

5. Groups are living systems

6. Groups are influential

7. Groups shape society

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 Major Topics in Group Dynamics
Session Chapter Movie
Number
5 1) Introduction to group dynamics
6 2) Studying groups
7 3) The individual and the group Philip Zimbardo: Why ordinary people do evil ... or do good
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFEV35tWsg]
8 4) Formation Miracle
5) Cohesion & development
9 6) Structure
10 7) Influence Asch Conformity Experiment
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA]
11 8) Power Milgram Experiment (Derren Brown)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6GxIuljT3w]
12 9) Performance Twelve Angry Men
10) Decision making
13 11) Leadership
14 12) Conflict A Class Divided
13) Intergroup relations [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/]
15 14) Groups in context Apollo 13
15) Groups & change
16 16) Crowds & collective behavior
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 Contact details:
zubinmulla@yahoo.co.in
98201 31024

ZRM 2009