Groups are and will always be essential for human life. Most of us belong to many different groups. From small, family, to large, society. For this reason it is important to understand groups on the following points:

• Recognize the key features.
• Studying the psychic and interpersonal processes that form and reform continuous groups.
• Learn ways to help groups function effectively.

What are groups?

A group is a collection of two or more individuals who are connected by social relationships. Groups come in different numbers and forms.

The research results of John James suggest that groups tend to be attracted to the smallest form, namely two.

There are many different definitions for the word group. What all definitions seem to have in common is the emphasis on the social relationships that connect members to each other. The relationships that connect members are not of one kind. A group exists when a certain bond connects the members with each other and connects with the group.

Groups can be defined based on the following:

• Category
• Communication
• Influence
• Mutual dependence
• Mutual relationships
• Psychological meaning
• Relationships
• Shared identity
• Shared tasks and goals
• Size
• Social unit
• Structure
• Systems

It is useful to distinguish between four types of groups:

• Primary groups. A primary group is a small, long-term group characterized by frequent interaction, solidarity, and a high degree of interdependence between members that substantially influences members' attitudes, values ​​and social outcomes. Cooley considered such groups to be primary because they transform individuals into social beings. According to Cooley, they also create a connection between the individual and society as a whole.

• Social (secondary) groups. A social group is a relatively small number of individuals who interact with each other for a specific period of time. They are larger and more formally organized than primary groups. Membership is often less long and less emotionally involved compared to membership in a primary group. The number of social groups to which someone can belong can be very large.

• Collectives. A collective is a relatively large aggregation or group of individuals who show similarities in actions and prospects. Examples are: a line of people, a group of people running away in a panic for fire, etc. They arise because people come together because of an event or activity. The group dissolves when the experience disappears. Most theorists reserve the term for larger groups and less complicated mutual associations.

• Categories. A social category is a group of individuals who are equal to each other in a certain way. Three concepts are important here

  • Social capital: the extent to which individuals, groups or larger aggregations of people are connected to each other in social relationships that provide positive and productive benefits.
  • Social identity: a person's sense of self taken from relationships with others and from memberships with groups; those aspects of the self that are supposed to be common to most or all members of the same group or social category.
  • Stereotype: a socially shared set of traits, characteristics and expectations with regard to behavior attributed to a certain group or category of people.

Every group that currently exists is unique with regard to its life, processes and relationships. All groups also share common characteristics. To better understand a group, we need to know something about:

• Composition: the individuals that make up a group. Groups can be more than the sum of their parts, but each part defines the whole.

• Boundaries: the relationships that connect the members of a group determine who belongs to the group and who doesn't. A group is limited in a psychological way. This may be publicly recognized, but it may also be unknown to the larger public. With open groups, everyone can easily become a member, but groups can also be closed. In closed groups, members are more inclined to focus on the collective nature of the group and to identify with the group.

• Size. The size of a group influences many characteristics of the group, such as the structures, processes, and patterns of interaction.
  • Social network : a series of interconnected individuals or groups.

• Interaction. Groups form the setting for an infinite variety of interpersonal actions.

  • Task interaction: the conjointly adjusted actions of group members that relate to the projects, tasks and goals of the group.
  • Relationship interaction: the conjointly adjusted actions of group members that relate to or influence the nature and power of the emotional and interpersonal ties within the group, including both supporting and undermining actions.

• Interdependence. This means: mutual dependence, such as when someone's outcomes, actions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences are influenced to some extent by other people. The influence between members of a group is equal and reciprocal in symmetrical groups with a flat, non-hierarchical structure. Most groups with interdependence are asymmetrical, unequal and hierarchical.

• Structure. Group members are often connected in an organized way and in predictable patterns.
  • Group structure: the organization of a group, including the members, their mutual relationships and their interactions.
  • Roles: specify the general behaviors that are expected from people who hold different positions within a group.

• Standards: describe which behavior is acceptable and which behavior is unacceptable within a certain context.

• Goals. The goals that groups pursue are many and varied. A model proposed by McGrath distinguishes between four basic goals:
  • Generating ideas or plans:
    • Planning tasks.
    • Creating completely new ideas and approaches to their problems (creative tasks).
  • Choosing a solution:
    • Groups decide on issues that have the right solution (intellectual tasks).

Questions that can be answered in many different ways (decision-making tasks).

• Negotiating a solution to a conflict:

  • Resolving differences of opinion by putting them in the light of their goals and decisions (cognitive conflict tasks).
  • Resolve competition differences between members (mixed-motive tasks).

• Performing a task.

  • Groups do things (contests / battles / competitive tasks).
  • Creating a product or performing certain collective actions (performances / psychomotor tasks).

McGrath also distinguishes between conceptual and behavioral tasks.
Groups that deal with conceptual tasks generally exhibit a high degree of information exchange, social influence and process-oriented activity. Groups that deal with behavioral tasks are groups that produce things or provide service.

• Origin. Some groups have been deliberately formed by the members. These are called planned groups and are often organized, task-oriented and formal. Such groups often clearly define their membership. Emergent groups often arise spontaneously when individuals come together at the same physical location. Such groups often have unclear boundaries. Arrow and her colleagues merged the planned-emergent dimension with an internal-external dimension to arrive at the following four-fold taxomony of groups:

  • Made-up groups.
  • Established groups.
  • Circumstantial groups.
  • Self-organizing groups.

• Unity. Group cohesion is the solidarity or unity of a group resulting from the development of strong and mutual interconnections between members and forces at group level that create unity within the group, such as a shared goal.

• Entitativity : Campbell suggested this term to describe the extent to which a group appears to be a single, unified entity (a real group).

What are group dynamics?

Dynamic implies the influence of forces that together create a continuous movement and change. Group dynamics are then the influential mutual, personal processes that arise in and between groups over time. These processes not only determine how members relate to and interact with each other, but they also determine the inherent nature and trajectory of the group: the actions that the group undertakes, how it responds to its environment and what it achieves.

The members of groups are connected to each other through social relationships. These relationships are rarely static. In most groups, the same types of problems arise over time, and once they are resolved, new processes are initiated that further change the nature of the group and its members. Educational psychologist Tuckman, identified five process phases in his theory of group development:

• Orientation phase
• Conflict phase
• Structure phase
• Performance phase
• Dissolution phase

According to Lewin, groups tend to be powerful instead of weak, active instead of passive and fluid instead of static. Lewin also used the term group dynamics to describe the scientific discipline focused on investigating these dynamics. Cartwright and Zander later provided a formal definition: a field of research devoted to promoting knowledge about the nature of groups, the laws of their development and their interrelations with individuals, other groups and larger institutions.

The fundamental attribution error is an important concept. This represents the tendency to overestimate the causal influence of dispositional factors, while the causal influence of situational factors is underestimated.

Groups change the attitude, values ​​and perceptions of their members. Triplett's research on group performance has demonstrated the impact of one person on another, but some groups influence members in substantial and sustainable ways.

Studying groups and their dynamics is not only essential for understanding people, but also for understanding organizations, communities and society. Groups are mutual, personal microstructures that connect individuals to society. All types of societies are defined by the small groups that make them up.

What is the value of groups?

Groups can and lead to challenges, hardships and even calamities for their members and for society. Yet they are so beneficial, perhaps essential, for humans that it seems absurd to look for alternatives to human groups. People would not survive without groups.