👅 💅🏻 🌿 What is a group, structure, types 🃏 👨🏿‍🎨 🗯️

The structure of the group is an object of socio-psychological research. The word "group" itself came from the Italian gruppo, which meant a commonality of sculptural or pictorial elements that combined strictly symmetrically. Over time, the term has spread to other areas of human life.

First group studies

The first study of groups as an independent unit of social psychology began in the thirties of the last century. The author of laboratory research was an American scientist of German origin, Kurt Levin. The subject of study was group processes. Then the terms “leader”, “types of leadership”, “cohesion of the group” appeared.

The concept of a group in social psychology

One of the important issues in social psychology is the determinant of the term “group”. It is known that not every community can be assigned this concept. Different scientific psychologists determine the group based on personal research experience. For example, Galina Mikhailovna Andreeva refers to the term as a unity of people that stands out from the social community due to special features.

According to Eric Byrne and John Turner, a characteristic feature of a group is an understanding by its members of their own belonging to the collective and an awareness of the “We” feeling. At the same time, a person in a group contrasts the community “We” with the community “They”.

A pioneer in sociological research, Kurt Levin defines the essence of community as the interdependence of its members. A group is a dynamic whole, which is characterized by the dependence of changes in the structure of its components.

Perhaps one of the most accurate definitions of the term belongs to George McGrass. According to the scientist, a group is a union of two or more people. Members are active in interacting with each other.

As you know, the structure of society is represented by social groups and communities. Based on this, analyzing the results of all studies, we can summarize the following result about the main features of the unit:

The structure of the group is characteristic of each such community, despite its features.
The group is also characterized by a clear organization.
All members are actively interacting.
All participants are characterized by the awareness of the collective as a whole unit, like "We".

The main characteristics of the group

Distinctive features of this community are:

The value, that is, the number of members. Scientists are still arguing about the optimal number of people in the group. It is noteworthy that teams with an odd number of members are more stable than with even ones. In such groups, contradictions are less likely to occur due to the numerical advantage of one of the parties.
Compositional characteristics of the group - age, profession, social characteristics of its members. The composition is homogeneous, that is, of the same type, or heterogeneous - all members of the community are characterized by individual differences.
The structure and organization of the group, that is, the relationship between the people included in its composition.

Kinds

The social structure of the community and group requires a clear classification of the latter according to certain criteria. The first separation factor is the degree of stability. According to this determinant, there are groups

Unstable, that is, those that formed by chance and are characterized by a weak degree of mutual relations between members of the community. An example of such a team can be the public, passengers of transport, a store line, etc.
Groups with medium stability, that is, those that are formed for a longer time - labor groups, students, schoolchildren.
High sustainability groups - nations, peoples, etc.

The next criterion for the distribution of communities is their size. The largest groups are:

Large (peoples, nations, professional communities, etc.).
Secondary (university students, city dwellers, students in schools, etc.).
Small (family, classrooms, groups of students, friends, sports teams, etc.).

Social groups in the structure of society are divided according to the quantitative composition:

Dyads - two people.
Numerous international political and economic movements.

Depending on the duration of the existence of a community, there are:

Fleeting (lasting several minutes or hours). Such groups include, for example, the audience in the hall.
Stable - those that exist for a long period of time - years, centuries (ethnic groups, nations).

The density of ties between members makes it possible to divide groups into:

Close-knit teams and organizations.
Vague, amorphous formations (fans in the stadium).

Another distribution criterion is the structure of relations in the group. Depending on the organization of relationships and interests, communities are divided into:

Official (formal), having a generally recognized legal status.
Informal, informal - characterized by a special system of relationships.

Small group

Such communities began to be studied in the twentieth century. A special characteristic of a small group is that the social connections of members act as direct contacts. The main features of a small community are the following principles:

Joint interaction.
Direct contacts.
Mutual influence of members on each other.
The presence of common goals.
Well-defined roles and functions between members.
The sense of "We" as the fundamental value of group consciousness.

The following types of small groups exist:

Permanent, temporary or random.
Formal and informal.
Official and reference.

In the first case, the individual refers to a certain collective as a social necessity. The second type of group is characterized by the desire of a person to belong to a particular community.

And the group is big

The structure of society is represented by social groups of various sizes. Large populations of people are characterized, first of all, by an unlimited number of participants, as well as stable values and norms of behavior. However, members of large groups are characterized by low moral unity and often a high level of non-participation in the affairs of this community. The larger the group, the less the desire of its members to communicate with each other.

The main types of such communities are:

Target large group. Team members are united by a common task. An example of such a team is a group of students or schoolchildren seeking education.
Territorial community. Members of such a group are united by the border of their place of residence. An example of such a social unit is an ethnic group, as well as citizens of states, cities, etc.
Among large groups, there are also intelligentsia, employees, representatives of mental / physical labor, citizens or peasants.

Major Group Roles

According to the research of Viktor Ivanovich Slobodchikov, there are social and game group roles.

A social mission is the connections and relationships that are imposed on people as a result of a single instance of interaction.

The playing role is a free, but temporary relationship.

Therefore, the main difference between social and playing roles is freedom or non-freedom of choice.

The main group images are:

Leader of the group.
Taken.
Isolated.
Rejected group members.

The leader is a team member with a high positive status (in the formal group) and enjoying unshakable authority (in the case of informal cohesion). The leader influences decisions, distributes responsibilities among other members of the community. The leader in the group is usually one. If another leader appears, there is a danger of disagreement between opponents up to the destruction of the integrity of the social unit.

Accepted - these are members of the group who have an average positive status and are respected by other members of the community. Accepted help the leader in his intentions to solve common problems, make decisions.

Isolated members are people with zero group status. They self-deny participation in group relationships. The reasons for such a departure from general affairs include introversion, a sense of inferiority, self-doubt or opposition to the collective.

Members of the group who have a negative status are considered rejected. They are deliberately or by force from the other members removed from collective action and the adoption of common decisions.

Group structure types

Community building is a system of relationships between its participants. There are several official characteristics of the group organization structure. This is a structure of preferences, and a structure of power, and a structure of communications.

The structure of the group is determined by many factors. The first criterion is the number of community members. Also important are the goals, objectives, responsibilities, functions, roles of group members, and the nature of the relationship between them.

The size of the group determines the complexity of its structure. The larger the community, the more complex its structure. And vice versa, the smaller the group, the easier it is in its structure.

The goals, objectives and functions of the members of the community determines the homogeneity and heterogeneity of its structure. If the task is simple, then the structure of the group is homogeneous. Such a community may be, for example, a team of construction workers or school teachers.

If a group has complex tasks, then its structure has a heterogeneous character. For example, for an airplane to arrive on time, many aviation specialists have to work hard, who perform individual functions to achieve a common goal. The pilot of the aircraft conducts the device according to the flight, the navigator makes the course, the radio operator keeps in touch with the dispatcher, etc.

There is also a formal and informal structure of a group society. A society cohesively formally distributed according to certain generally accepted tasks. Here, each member fulfills his assigned role and is responsible for it. In informal groups there is an informal structure, which mainly depends on the voluntary (and not specified) performance by members of their duties. Accordingly, such a structure is determined by internal criteria, while the official structure depends on external regulations.

Small group structure

Psychologists have best studied the composition of small communities. Such communities are characterized by a relatively small number of members, and therefore to investigate the processes within them. The main features of small groups are the age differentiation of participants, gender, level of education, professional qualifications, marital status, etc. Each member of a small community takes a certain place and performs the prescribed functions.

The structure of a small group, depending on the processes occurring inside it, is divided into the following types:

In accordance with group dynamics, the structure of the community includes those mechanisms that organize the life of its members. These include role distribution, control over the execution of functions, etc.
Group norms determine the structure in terms of the moral and ethical side of the relationship. In this context, the roles of the participants are emotional.
Sanctions within a group are mechanisms for returning members to compliance with the norms of a given community. Sanctions are encouraging and forbidden.

Formal groups

Formal communities are communities that have rallied at the behest of the leadership. Today, there are many formal groups.

The Union of Leaders is a community of leadership and its immediate deputies. For example, the president and vice president, director and memorization, etc.
Work team - employees who work to achieve common goals.
A committee is a subgroup within a large community charged with performing individual tasks. There are permanent and temporary (special) committees.

Types of Informal Groups

Informal unions arise spontaneously. The main characteristic of an informal group is its reference and common interests.

Although outwardly such communities look disorganized, they have strict internal social control. All members of the informal group must abide by the prescribed rules and regulations.

Unofficial communities are characterized by a sense of resistance to the surrounding society, and a rebellion against generally accepted formal values. Such a group is led by an informal leader who is the reference personality of many members.

The most striking examples of the informal community are youth associations of punks, goths, rockers, hippies, etc.

The method of studying the structure of the team

The main ways to study groups are observation, experiment, survey.

The method of observation is to identify the vast side of the life of the community, its structure, level of development, etc. Observation is included (the observer himself takes part in the life of the group) and not included (observation from the side).

A natural experiment allows us to study some aspects of the life of the group. For its implementation, the community is placed in the required conditions, where they study the behavior styles of community members, their relationships with each other, reaction to external stimuli, etc.

The survey is used to study public opinion on a specific issue. The survey includes open and closed questions. Open-ended questions involve detailed answers, while closed ones need to be answered in a monosyllabic way. Surveys are oral (interviews) and written (for example, questionnaires).

The structure of society, social communities and groups is determined by applying the method of sociometry. This method allows you to identify, above all, an informal leader. The procedure for conducting sociometry is quite simple. Participants are encouraged to select a partner from among the group members according to some criterion (for example, going to the cinema, birthday invitation, party, etc.).

After the survey, the number of elections for each member of the community is calculated. For clarity, the results can be presented in the form of a sociomatrix - a graph that depicts the choices between group members. The person with the most elections is the informal leader of this community.

What is a group, structure, types