Levels of Analysis

Although groups necessarily contain individuals and have some relation to the larger institutional, cultural, and societal forces around them, group processes occur at the group level of analysis rather than at the individual or societal level. Likewise, intergroup processes are those that occur between groups, rather than between individuals or within a group, institution, culture, or society. And yet it seems clear that both group and intergroup processes may be affected by factors at other levels of analysis. For example, the way in which a work group operates may be affected by the characteristics of the individuals who make up the group (e.g., their cooperative or competitive nature), as well as by the characteristics of the institution within which the group exists (e.g., its pay ...