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 Connections
Associated With
His Robbers Cave studies of intergroup conflict and cooperation are foundational to group dynamics research.
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
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