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15Groups in Context
Just as individuals are embedded in groups, so groups are embedded in physical and social environments. Groups alter their environments substantially, but often the place shapes the group. As Lewin’s law of interaction, B = f(P, E), states, group behavior (B) is a function of the persons (P) who are in the group, but also the social and physical environment (E) where the group is located.
How does the social and physical environment influence groups and their dynamics?
What is the ecology of a group?
What are the causes and consequences of a group’s tendency to establish territories?
How can group places, spaces, and locations be improved?
Places
A sense of place
Stressful places
Dangerous places
Spaces
Personal space
Spatial invasion
Seating
Locations
Types of territories
Group territories
Territoriality in
groups
Design
The person-place fit
Fitting form to function
Case: Apollo 13
All groups exist
somewhere
Lewin’s field theory: B = f (P, E)
“E” includes the physical, behavioral, and interpersonal environment
Examples of groups in specific environmental contexts …work teams, gangs, Impressionists, fraternities, classes, airline pilots, astronauts
A sense of place
Deactivation
Activation
Pleasure
Displeasure
Excited Enthusiastic
Elated
Happy
Serene
Contented
Placid
Calm
Sad
Gloomy
Tired
Lethargic
Tense
Jittery
Upset
Distressed
Ambience
• A psychological reaction to situations and experiences that are so cognitively, perceptually, or emotionally stimulating that they tax or even exceed the individual’s capacity to process incoming information.
Cognitive Overload
• cognitive resources can be replenished through interaction with natural environments (Kaplan, 2008)
Attention Restoration Theory
We have strong feelings in and about places. Some places make us feel good: glad to be there, relaxed, excited, warm all over…Other places make us feel bad: uncomfortable, insignificant, unhappy, out of place.
We avoid these places and suffer if we have to be in them.
Farbstein & Kantrowitz, 1978
Unpleasant temperature
Noise
Danger
Stress: Negative physiological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to circumstances that threaten—or are thought to threaten—one’s sense of well-being and safety.
Stressful places
Dangerous places
Groups that survive in EUEs respond by becoming better groups—more organized, more cohesive, and more efficient. Those that do not display breakdowns in team coordination, communication, and leadership.
EUEs (extreme and unusual environments)
Environmental contexts that are unlike those where humans usually live, including confined and isolated environments.
A number of groups fail to deal successfully with the challenges of an EUE (e.g., Mount Everest)
Spaces
Personal space
Spatial invasion
Seating
Places
A sense of place
Stressful places
Dangerous places
Locations Design
Small Group Ecology
Group ecology includes spatial and seating dynamics
Just as frogs issue their croaks from their favorite places in the stream, and birds neatly space themselves along a telephone wire, so humans displayconsistent patterns of spacing and seating when immersed in a group habitat.
Personal space: Maintaining distance between oneself and others
Crowding: Reaction to spatial invasion
Seating (and standing) arrangement: how the group is arranged in the physical place
Personal space
The area that individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort.
Personal space
The Remote Zone: E-groups
• Online vs. Offline groups
• Social presence can be very high in online groups
Sex differences in space needs
Status and space
Cross-cultural variations in spatial dynamics
Equilibrium model of communication
Personal space
Spatial invasion
Density
v.
crowding
Cognitive
reactions
to
crowding
Density-
intensity
hypothes
is
(Freedman
)
Control
and
inter-
ference
Although often unrecognized, or simply taken for granted, seating patterns influence interaction, communication, and leadership in groups.
Seating
sociofugal seating arrangements discourage interaction
promotes interaction
sociopetal seating
Seating
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
ConversingCooperatingCompetingCoacting
Percent choosing each
seating arrangement
Sommer’s (1967) analysis of seating choices
Locations
Types of territories
Group territories
Territoriality in
groups
Places Spaces DesignTerritoriality
“A territory is an area of space, whether of water or earth or air, which an animal or group of animals defends as an exclusive preserve. Robert
Ardrey
The Territorial
Imperative
A territorial species of animals, therefore, is one in which all males, and sometimes females too, bear an inherent drive to gain and defend an exclusive property.”
Types of territories
Altman (1975) describes three basic types of human territories: Primary, secondary, and public
Third Places
People’s homes and work places are usually primary territories (first and second places).
Oldenburg calls secondary territories located in semipublic areas, usually in an urban location, where people go to meet their friends, socialize, and “hang out” Third Places.
Some online “territories” can serve as third places, such as this location in World of Warcraft
A seat in a classroom is also a secondary
territoryHaber (1980) found that 88% of all students establish a "zone" in a class (an area of 2 or 3 seats where they regularly sit)
she asked volunteers to sit in someone else's seat in a class, but many couldn't do it
27% of the students asked for their seat back
some blushed when they saw someone in their seat
those who surrendered their seat came to next class early
strongest rebuke if invasion took place during a break in class
We didn’t rally them there. We
never went looking for trouble. We
only rallied on our own street, but we always won there.
-- Doc, leader of the Nortons
Examples: Gangs, “turf wars,” tags, and graffiti
Group space: temporary territories
Consequences of territoriality adjustment and stress intergroup conflict home advantage
Group territorie
s
Territoriality in
groups Functions
• Privacy• Regularizing (organizing)• Establishing identity
Status
• Higher status members usually control larger, higher quality territories
Defense
• Intrusions usually generate emotional reactions
Groups in EUEs
• Adjustment depends on managing territoriality effectively
Places Spaces Locations
Types of territories
Group territories
Territoriality in
groups
Design
The person-place fit
Fitting form to function
• Barker studied groups in their natural locations
• He concluded most behavior is determined by fit between the place and the person
The Person-
Place Fit
• physically and temporally bounded social situations
• checkout-line, classroom, elevator
Behavior Setting
• geographically fixed• boundaries• components• program: determine
behavior in the place
Elements
Fitting form to function
Synomophy• fit between people and
the place
Staffing theory• fit between number of• people, tasks, and setting
Understaffing• heavy
workload• Involving• commitment
Overstaffing• low moral• too little to do• unengaged
Staffing theory
Understaffing
Overstaffing
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Encourage members
Recruit new members
Other
Divide
Punish deviance
Restrict membership
Reorganize
Other
Understaffed Groups
Overstaffed Groups
Percentage
Groups live and work best in
places that are
deliberately designed to match the members’ needs and
the group’s needs.
Duffy’s group workplace design
HivesWork is
divisible, individualized,
structured; requires little
interaction with other members.
CellsWork is
complex, long-term,
individualized; private spaces
needed
Dens Collective tasks
and projects; equally skilled members work
in an open space that all
members share.
ClubsDiverse tasks and projects that vary
greatly in their collaborative
demands; members are talented, well-trained, or possess
very specialized skills