What is a group psychologist? Group psychology Group psychology is the discipline within social psychology that studies human behavior within a group, as well as the dynamics of these relationships.

 

What is a group psychologist?

Group psychology

Group psychology is the discipline within social psychology that studies human behavior within a group, as well as the dynamics of these relationships.

What is a group psychology?

Fascination with psychology: group, conflict, bullying...

Psychology defines a group as an arrangement of more than two people who interact with each other, influence each other, pursue a common goal and perceive themselves as "we".

What is a group Examples?

Group type Characteristics Examples

Informal group No organization present, often formed by chance Clique within a class, travelers, sports teams

Large group No personal ties, certain level of organization People, party

Small group Personal acquaintance, strong sense of community Family, circle of friends.

How does a group work?

Group members pursue the same goals and therefore often share similar content within the group. Groups can therefore also be used to pass on certain topics and content to other people and thus spread certain ideas and opinions.

What are groups in psychology?

A group is two or more people who interact with each other. They pursue common goals and recognize themselves as part of a group. Group members interact with each other directly or indirectly. Their relationship is relatively stable.

 

What are characteristics of a group?

What is a group? In short, a group is a number of people working together. They have individual goals that they work toward together. Although groups work toward separate goals, they have a common interest or common identity characteristics that bring them together.

How many groups are there in psychology?

There are mainly three types of groups in psychology. The former often have an organized structure, formal rules, and an authority figure who controls the rules, members, and the project or activity the group is involved in. This is a key difference between secondary and primary groups.

 

If you were to look back over the past month, you would probably find that you participated in a number of groups. Family, friends, colleagues, a sports team, a theater company, etc. At the same time, you are also a member of other larger groups that you may or may not have remembered to include in this list. Depending on social categories, we can be men or women, members of certain religious communities or ethnic groups. As a result, we have different group identities. Sometimes we interact as members of one group and not another. The science that studies these processes is group psychology.

Group psychology is a sub-discipline within the field of social psychology whose main object of study is the group. This discipline analyzes the influence that groups have on individual behavior. In addition, it studies the influence that an individual has when it comes to changing the behavior of the group.

 

Group psychology studies how different groups are, how, when and where they arise, their configuration and the types of roles and relationships that arise between their members or with other groups.

The definition of a group according to group psychology

Defining a group is not easy. Throughout history, several definitions have actually emerged (Huici, 2012a). Among them we can distinguish two types of definitions: categorical and dynamic.

According to the categorical definition (Wilder and Simon, 1998), a group of shared characteristics is defined. The members of a group have specific shared characteristics, so the group is the sum of the members who share those characteristics. But the group only exists in the minds of individuals and contributes a special vision of the world.

 

On the other hand, the dynamic definition (Wilder and Simon, 1998) claims that groups emerge from the relationship between their members and from the interaction between them. This interaction can cause new functions to emerge so that the group becomes more than the sum of its members.

Because of the above, it is not possible to derive the characteristics of a group from the characteristics of an individual member, since the groups that arise from the interaction are more easily distinguished than the categorical groups.

Why and for what do we form groups?

According to Cartwright and Zander (1992), three types of circumstances can be distinguished that cause individuals to join together to form a group.

 

1. To achieve a goal

The individuals who decide to create a group under this circumstance realize that through it they will achieve certain purposes that would not be possible without its existence. However, this assessment does not have to be correct for the group to be formed.

2. To satisfy a need

In these cases, groups usually arise spontaneously. They are usually informal groups within organizations, social clubs or youth gangs. Their formation is based on voluntary interpersonal choices.

 

Some determining factors for this type of choice are the perceived similarity between people, complementarity, reciprocity, closeness and the positive balance between advantages and disadvantages of belonging to the group.

3. To receive a homogeneous treatment

In this case, a social categorization process is carried out. It involves classifying people into groups based on a specific shared characteristic.

 

These individuals consider themselves members of the group. Consequently, their behavior and the behavior of others towards them will be determined by the externally designated group membership.

It is not necessary for individuals to interact with each other to be members of this type of group. In fact, they often don't even know each other.

 

Types of groups

Groups are structured in different ways. Structure provides stability when it comes to organizing and relating to group members (Cartwright and Zander, 1992). This structure also serves to differentiate themselves as a group. In other words, to stand out from other groups. The structure of the group means that the group remains and does not disperse. According to Scott and Scott (1981), groups are characterized by three structural characteristics:

Groups are defined by the relationship between their members. For example, a work group may be defined by the unequal relationship between the manager and the workers.

The group must have structural continuity over time. In a football team, for example, there will always be defenders, strikers and goalkeepers.

The members of the group are interchangeable. Each member may be replaced by another person.

These structures assign roles to group members. Each role is assigned a specific value. Some members are more important than others. This means that each member's status is different.

There is a hierarchy within the group defined by the status of each member. Differences in status imply patterns of prestige, deference, and submission among the members of the groups (Blanco and Fernández Ríos, 1985), as well as the existence of a consensus about the hierarchical order and the prestige given.

 

Group psychology comes with rules

Within the structure of a group are also the norms. In fact, each group has a common frame of reference and its members share beliefs about what should and should not be done. Norms regulate group members' attitudes and behaviors (Sherif, 1936). These norms can be of two types: descriptive and prescriptive (Cialdini, Kallgreen, & Reno, 1991).

Descriptive norms correspond to what members do in a specific situation. When members do not know how to behave, what the higher status members or the majority do becomes the dominant norm.

 

On the other hand, prescribed norms state what one can and cannot do. They are moral standards that show group members what is right and wrong. These norms respond to behavior with rewards and punishments. They reward those who behave well and punish those who don't follow the rules.

Roles of group members

The role that each member plays in a group is associated with his position in the group (status) and rights and obligations towards one or more members (Hare, 1994). Each role is associated with patterns of behavior within the group. The roles divide the tasks of the members and each member must perform different functions (Scott and Scott, 1981).

the differentiation of roles serves to achieve the group's goals. Also to arrange and predict the functioning of the group so that the members of the group define themselves within the group itself (Brown, 2000).

 

Some classic roles are (Benne and Sheats, 1948) task roles, maintenance roles and individual roles. Among the task roles, the coordinator, the evaluator, the curator and the initiator stand out. Among the maintenance roles are those who seek commitment, those who encourage, the followers, the observers, etc. Finally, some of the individual roles of the members of a group are the aggressor, the blocker, the recognition seeker, and the dominant.

Use of group psychology

Group psychology studies various areas such as leadership (Molero, 2012a), formation and development of groups (Gaviria, 2012), group cohesion (Molero, 2012b), influence processes in the group (Falomir-Pichastor, 2012), productivity (Gómez, 2012), decision-making processes ( Huici, 2012b) and relations between groups (Huici and Gómez Berrocal, 2012). While all are important, intergroup relations have been one of the areas that have had the greatest impact.

 

Intergroup relations are nothing but relations between different groups and between members of different groups. In the media we see and read news about racist incidents, coexistence between religions, meetings between companies and trade unions, etc. All of them talk about relations between groups.

When it comes to explaining what these behaviors are due to, there are two main types of explanations: those that focus on the differences between individuals—based on certain characteristics, orientations, or personality traits—and those that focus directly on intergroup processes.

Individual approaches in group psychology

Two components stand out in the individual attack styles. On the one hand, right-wing authoritarianism assumes that there are differences between individuals in terms of the tendency to submit to the dictates of authority. Authoritarians strongly believe in this idea. They also fully follow the norms dictated by the authority. Likewise, they oppose those whom authority attacks. This personality develops in adolescence and is based on earlier learning of obedience, conventionality and aggression (Altemeyer, 1998).

although it is called right-wing authoritarianism, it is not related to politics. Neither one nor the other political orientation indicates whether an individual is more authoritarian. There are actually people with political leanings on both the right and the left who have a right-wing authoritarian personality.

 

From the orientation of social dominance, attention is paid to hierarchical relations between groups within the social structure and to the existence within a society of ideologies that promote or attempt to reduce hierarchical inequalities (Sidanius and Pratto 1999).

The existence of individual differences in terms of the tendency to legitimize inequalities and divisions in society is assumed. Some people will support the existence of a hierarchy while others will not.

Group psychology between groups

This approach rejects the temptation to reduce the explanation of behavior to individual characteristics. It claims that the way in which individuals change and begin to think, act and treat others is related to belonging to certain groups and not to others. As a consequence, their behaviors and perceptions tend to become standardized.

 

All members of the group begin to think alike. There are two major theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon. It is the theory of realistic group conflict and the perspective of social identity.

The theory of realistic group conflict

Functional relationships are influenced by groups' mutual goals and interests. They focus on cooperative or competitive relationships to achieve goals or resources, that is, on cooperative or competitive interdependence.

 

Intergroup conflict (Sherif and Sherif, 1979) is caused by the existence of incompatible goals and gives rise to hostility and discrimination between groups. When two groups want the same thing, they have two options to achieve it: to compete or to cooperate.

The social identity perspective

This includes two theories, the social identity theory and the self-categorization theory (Turner & Reynolds, 2001). Both emphasize the processes of identification with the group, the transformation from individual to collective psychology, and the idea that intergroup relations emerge from the interaction between psychological processes and social reality.

 

Social identity theory focuses on processes between groups. Self-categorization theory broadens its scope to include the explanation of intragroup processes of group formation, cohesion, influence, and polarization.

To simplify the world and understand it better, we use categorization. In the same way, we also categorize other people within social groups at the same time as we become aware of which categories we ourselves belong to. The consequence is that we create a psychological affiliation with certain groups while classifying others into two broad categories: members of our group and members of other groups.

 

By belonging to these social groups, our social identities develop (Tajfel, 1981; Tajfel & Turner, 2005), one per group, with which we identify to a greater or lesser extent. The importance of each identity means that our thoughts, feelings and behaviors at different times are influenced to a greater or lesser extent by our social identities. Therefore, we favor our own groups at the expense of other groups.

Why do group members do what they would not do alone?

When people are in a group, they often exhibit behaviors that they would not do when they are alone. This is observed more often in groups with violent or inappropriate behavior. Party tourism is a clear example, as is hooliganism at football matches. But what is hidden behind this process? The explanation lies in the deindividuation process.

 

Moral, Canto and Gómez-Jacinto (2004) from the University of Málaga in Spain claim that “Anonymity, the group and reduced individual self-awareness would lead people to have unrestrained, impulsive and anti-normative behaviours. This process is based on two key aspects: anonymity and reduction of individual self-awareness“.

Most people wouldn't throw a soda can on the sidewalk when they're alone. They know it is unacceptable. Even people who have not learned to consider the environment and tend to throw their trash on the ground, will not do so if someone is watching them. It depends on their sense of self-awareness. In fact, they don't want others to know that they were the ones who caused the litter.

 

Anonymity

But in a group their anonymity is greater and their individual self-awareness dissolves. It can be defined as transferring their own personal responsibility to the group. If a group member throws a can on the ground, no one will notice that it was this particular individual who did it. In addition, the person is part of a group and the responsibility lies more with the group than with the individual. These are the kinds of thoughts that cross many people's minds. Especially when someone in the group starts behaving inappropriately.

In summary, group psychology is the branch of social psychology that studies the dynamics between different types of groups of individuals. Thanks to this discipline, we understand human behavior in society in a profound way.

In sociology and psychology, a social group is generally considered to be a group of three or more people whose members are in regular contact with each other over a longer period of time, pursue common goals and feel that they belong together.

Samuel