Group Dynamics

What are Group Dynamics?

• Interpersonal processes that unfolded in a group significantly

influenced the thoughts, emotions, and actions of each one of the
group’s members.

Dynamic Group Processes

Dynamic- Gk dynamikos which means strong, powerful and energetic.

• It implies the influence of forces that combine, sometimes smoothly

but sometimes in opposition, to create continual motion and
change.

Group dynamics- influential interpersonal processes that occur in and

between groups overtime.

• Not only how members relate and engage with one another, but
also determine the group’s inherent nature and trajectory;
o The actions the group takes, how it responds to its
environment, and what it achieves.
 Group tend to become more cohesive over time.
 Larger groups often break down into smaller sub
groups.

Group Processes

1. Formative Processes – explores the personal and situational

forces that prompt people to join groups or remain apart from
them, as well as the part interpersonal attraction plays in creating
stable relationships among group members.
2. Influence Processes- No group would exist for very long if the
members refuse to coordinate their actions with the action of others
in a group.
1. A host of group processes operate to transform
individuals, with their own personal motives, inclinations
and preferences, into a socially coordinated, smooth
functioning collective.
3. Performance Processes- Groups get things done. Across the
gamut of human experience, we find example after example of
interdependent individuals pooling their personal efforts to reach
specifiable goals.
 4. Conflict Processes- Conflict is omnipresent in and between
groups.
1. When conflict occurs in a group, the actions or beliefs of
one or more members of the group are unacceptable to
and resisted by one or more of the other member.
2. Tension tend to undermine cohesiveness of the group and
cause specific relationships within the group to weaken or
break altogether.
5. Contextual Processes- All groups are embedded in a social and
environmental context.

The Value of Groups

1. Groups are often the arena for profound interpersonal conflicts that
end in violence and aggression.
2. When individuals are members of very large group, such as crowds,
they sometimes do things that they would never do if they were acting
individually.
3. Through membership in groups, we define and take on or refine our
social identity.
4. Through groups we can reach goals that would elude us if we
attempted them as individual.

Group Dynamics
An individual does not live only within herself, within her own life
space. She is also in constant interaction with the external environment. A
major component of this external environment is other individuals and
groups of individuals, all with their own life spaces.
Objective/Subjective Reality
Environment consists of the objective reality that surrounds a person. If it
does not evoke a response from the person, it is an objective environment.
When the objective environment evoke a response from the person this
becomes a subjective reality or psychological environment.
What is Group Dynamics?
Group Dynamics is the interaction of the forces or energies of the
environment called process elements at any given point of time, which
actively influence the individual, the group, and the situation.
Elements of Group Dynamics
Elements of Group Dynamics
LIFE SPACE
is composed of the three major
regions: home life, professional
life, and social life.
It is in constant and dynamic interaction with one
another.
Life space is also called as the field which becomes
a part of one’s subjective reality
To understand a person fully,
one must observe how she
manifests her beliefs, values, and
attitudes in dynamic interaction
with her environment.
Elements of Group Dynamics
Tension System
The continuing interaction within a
person as she operates in her life space
and her dynamic interaction with her
environment.
This play a central role in the Field
Theory.
Elements of Group Dynamics
A person is said to be in a state of
tension within herself if an unsatisfied
need or unfulfilled intention exists.
Any element within the psychological
environment that relieves the tension
is called an Object.
Elements of Group Dynamics
An Object can be a:
- Goal
- Activity
- concrete object
Elements of Group Dynamics
Valence
Degree of attractiveness to an object
2 Types:
1. Positive Valence - effects approach
behavior
2. Negative Valence – elicits avoidance
behavior
Steps in Learning Cycles
Steps in the Learning Cycle
1. Orientation – the facilitator sets the
mood and eases the participants
into the activity. The activity is
contextualized within the learning
objectives or linked to the conceptual
framework of the total program.
2. Instructions – the faci prepares the
instruction and sees to it that they
are clearly heard, understood, and
carried out by the participants.
Steps in the Learning Cycle
3. Experiencing – doing or
experiencing the experiential
learning. Activities can be
carried out by individuals, dyads,
triads, small groups, group
arrangements or large groups.
The learning objectives will
dictate both the activity and the
appropriate groupings.
Steps in the Learning Cycle
Processing – composed of data gathering,
analysis, synthesis, generalizing,
integration and closing.
4. Data Gathering and Analysis – participants
share what they saw and how they felt
during the event. Finding out what
happened at both cognitive and affective
levels, and making this available to the
other participants through verbal sharing.
Steps in the Learning Cycle
5. Synthesis/Generalizing – the results of
the data analysis are synthesized or put
together so that the generalizations can
be made about the relevance of the
activity.
6. Integration – the structured experience
is designed. The participants apply
generalizations to actual situations in
which they are involved outside the
training sessions
Steps in the Learning Cycle
7. Closing – brief remarks as opposed
to long lectures, give a sense of
ending to the structured learning
experience.
“Back home” applications imply
that participants in the sessions
are expected to apply their
learnings and insights in the home,
work, and social world situations.
 The Experiential
Learning Cycle
Some adults have a receptive, experienced based
approach to learning. They rely heavily on feeling
judgments and learn best from specific examples,
from involvement and discussions. Kolb calls these
learners concrete experiencers.
Some individuals have a tentative , impartial, and
reflective approach. They are called as reflective
observers, relying on careful observation and
learning best from situations allowing impartial
observation.
 The Experiential Learning
Cycle
Other individuals have an analytical and
conceptual approach, using logical thinking
and rational evaluation. They learn best from
impersonal situations, from the opportunity to
integrate new learning with what is already
known, and from the theory. These are
abstract conceptualizers, tend to be most
comfortable in the fourth step of the
experiential learning cycle.
 The Experiential
Learning Cycle
Finally, the active experimenters approach
learning pragmatically (“Yes, but will it
work?). They rely heavily on
experimentation and learn best from
projects, back home applications, and
“trying it out”. They must have the answer
to the question: “Now that I know all of
this, what am I going to do with it.
Diagram of the Experiential Learning Cycle
Step 1.
Experiencing
(Activity,
Step 5. doing) Step 2.
Applying Publishing
Experiencing (Sharing
(Planning
more effective reactions and
behavior) Applying Processing observations)

Generalizing
Step 4. Step 3.
Generalizing Processing
(Inferring (Discussing
principles about patterns and
the “real world” dynamics
 The Experiential
Learning Cycle
The concrete experiencer will be receptive to and
excited by experiencing the activity (Step 1) and
publishing reaction (Step 2), whereas the
reflective observer might find these two steps
either boring or childish.

The reflective observer’s great is in the insights

he gains from processing (Step 3), and
generalizing (Step 4) while the concrete
experiencer finds these steps dull, a waste of
time.
 The Experiential Learning
Cycle
The abstract conceptualizer will tend to be
the most at home with generalizing (Step
4), an activity with very little attraction for
the
active experimenter, whose level of interest is
heightened by applying learnings to life
situations.
Fundamental Approaches to Learning
Process – Deductive method
 2 Fundamental approaches to
Learning Process
1. Deductive Method – may have started
with Plato and Aristotle. It is referred to
as Pedagogy (Gr.) – the art and science of
teaching children.
- The traditional or didactic approach also
known as banking method.
 Deductive Method
Attitudinal relationships in this
approach are nearly always on the :
- parent-child
- teacher-pupil
- guru/master-disciple
The teacher is an authoritative figure,
the center, and the star in the
classroom.
 Deductive Method
To be deductive means to draw
conclusions from accepted or
already known principles, concepts,
generalizations, and theories, to
infer from them, and to expand to
further principles.
The main aim is to increase or change
factual knowledge, with the hope
that the latter will be applied to life.
 STEPS subject matter IN THE
DEDUCTIVE METHOD
1. Preparation – requires a
thorough knowledge of the
subject matter that has been
selected and of the rationale
for the selection, as well as its
relevance to the target
audience.
 STEPS subject matter IN THE
DEDUCTIVE METHOD
2. Presentation – offering a body of
knowledge considered reliable and
valuable. Well-prepared matter has
clarity, logic, and coherence. The
use of teaching aids and of the style
or manner of presentation is the
option of the teacher or lecturer.
 STEPS subject matter IN THE
DEDUCTIVE METHOD
3. Clarification – gives the
opportunity for students to ask
questions after the lecture.
Public lectures are usually
followed by the open forum.
 STEPS subject matter IN
THE DEDUCTIVE METHOD
4. Application – aims to improve skills
or change attitude through actual
practice of what has been taught in
life situations, in the performance of
some tasks. Students are assigned
work or exercises to be done at
home. Improved skills or change
attitude are expected to be attained.
 STEPS subject matter IN
THE DEDUCTIVE METHOD
5. Recapitulation – assures
retention through a repetition
of the teacher’s presentation.
In many cases, students are
tested for comprehension in
quizzes or examinations.
Fundamental Approaches to Learning
Process – Inductive method
 2 Fundamental approaches
to Learning Process
2. In Inductive Method – embodies
all principles and conditions of
learning in adult education. It is
summarized in Confucius
emphatic articulation:
“I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand”
 Inductive Method
In this method, a set of individual cases or
circumstances is presented for study.
Participants formulate concepts, possibly
establish general principles, and beyond
that evolve theories that will provide
greater clarity to the understanding of
these cases or circumstances.
The process is frequently known as
Laboratory method.
 Inductive Method
Educators call it as:
- evocative
- dialogic
- or participative method
of teaching and learning.
It is also known as
experiential learning.
 Inductive Method
Learning from experience of
others what Confucius meant
by “doing” as the best
method of “understanding”
In this approach, learners and
facilitators relate in an
- adult-adult fashion as
peers, colleagues, colearners.
 Inductive Method
The faci is a team player and shares
his own expertise to augment what
is freely discussed in the session
rooms.
This process has been used
synonymously with Andragogy (Gr.
Aner=man), a word coined by
Malcolm Knowles, pioneer and
recognized guru of adult education.
 STEPS subject matter IN THE
INDUCTIVE METHOD
1. Setting the Climate – making every effort to
build an atmosphere conducive for learning.
This includes physical facilities, appropriate
to learning objectives, the orientation, and
mood setting consider the participants’
profile
 STEPS subject matter IN
THE INDUCTIVE METHOD
2. Determining the learning
Objectives – starts with life
experiences – dilemmas (Should
I do this or that?) distrubing
circumstances (was I right or
Wrong?) problems (How do I
solve this)
 STEPS subject matter IN THE
INDUCTIVE METHOD
3. Doing – opens the issue, dilemma, problem, or
disturbance by making use of structured
exercises, case studies, verbald descriptions, role
plays, or personal reports.
4. Looking, observing – focuses on what happened,
at the content of expression and at the processes
at work in the group.
5. Thinking, analyzing, reflecting – asks questions
on “What can we learn from the facts?” Why did
what happened, happen? “What are the
underlying problems? What are the
implications? What can we learn?
 STEPS subject matter IN
THE INDUCTIVE METHOD
6. Generalizing, Looking for insights – will
have been gained through participants
reflective “sorting out” of their experiences
together.
7. Acting – on what has been learned in the
process with the insights and greater
understanding of concerns obtained.
Learners are free to decide to act
immediately, to delay acting or not, to act at
all, as they see fit.