Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, called intragroup dynamics, or between social groups, called intergroup dynamics. The field is studied across multiple disciplines and applied to decision-making, the transmission of disease, group therapy, the adoption of innovation, and other processes in which the structure and behavior of a group shapes outcomes for its members.
Facts
Central QuestionGroup dynamics asks how systems of behavior and psychological process arise within a social group and between social groups, and how a group's emergent structure can be more than the sum of what its individual members bring to it. 1 Key DebateGroup dynamics rests on Max Wertheimer's 1924 Gestalt claim that a group's properties are fixed by the intrinsic structural laws of the whole rather than by summing its individual members, a holist premise that puts the field at odds with any account that tries to explain group behavior by adding up individual psychology alone. 1 Level of Analysis Connections
Associated With
His Robbers Cave studies of intergroup conflict and cooperation are foundational to group dynamics research.
Includes
Source Wikipedia: Shared Information Bias
Source Team error (Wikipedia)
Related Branch
Source Group dynamics (Wikipedia)
Related Branches
Source Political psychology
Source Wikipedia: Social psychology
Sources
1. Group dynamics
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, opening sentence
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (intragroup dynamics), or between social groups (intergroup dynamics).
Historical Foundation and Core Premise section, Wertheimer 1924
the properties of any of the parts are determined by the intrinsic structural laws of the whole
2. Group dynamics (Wikipedia)
Lead
a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (intragroup dynamics), or between social groups (intergroup dynamics)
Related Branch: Evolutionary Psychology, Article text
Increasingly, research has applied evolutionary psychology principles to group dynamics.
View the SourceWikipedia: Shared Information Bias
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Shared Information Bias, Lead sentenceQuote, Includes: Shared Information Bias, Lead sentence
Shared information bias (also known as the collective information sampling bias, or common-information bias) is known as the tendency for group members to spend more time and energy discussing information that all members are already familiar with (i.e., shared information), and less time and energy discussing information that only some members are aware of (i.e., unshared information).
Team error (Wikipedia)
Includes: Team Error, Lead sentenceQuote, Includes: Team Error, Lead sentence
Team Error refers to errors that occur in settings where multiple people are working together.
Wikipedia: Social psychology
WikipediaRelated Branches: Social Psychology, Article textQuote, Related Branches: Social Psychology, Article text
Social influence is also closely related to the study of group dynamics, as most effects of influence are strongest within social groups.
Political psychology
Wikimedia FoundationRelated Branches: Political Psychology, Article textQuote, Related Branches: Political Psychology, Article text
Political psychological theory and approaches have been applied in many contexts such as: leadership role; domestic and foreign policy making; behavior in ethnic violence, war and genocide; group dynamics and conflict; racist behavior; voting attitudes and motivation; voting and the role of the media; nationalism; and political extremism.
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