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

Hall’s concept of interpersonal zones

Personal space

Note: Hall did not include a “remote” zone

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

Fitting form to function

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

Places

A sense of place

Stressful places

Dangerous places