Groups, Characteristics Of

Definition

There is no consensus among social psychologists on the defining characteristics of a group. Nearly all definitions, however, emphasize that a group is not a mere aggregation of individuals. Rather, two or more individuals become a group to the extent that they are bonded together in some way, which generally means that they interact and influence one another and share perceptions of themselves as a group. By these criteria, one's immediate family is a group, and so are a sport team, an airline flight crew, and a support group. But a social category such as members of the same race or gender is not a group—nor is an audience attending a concert, the line of people at a ticket window, or all the students at a university. Recognizing that such distinctions are not as clear-cut as they appear, some social psychologists have argued that various social aggregates are best viewed as falling along a continuum of groupness based on certain characteristics.

Background and History

The idea that groups have properties distinct from those of their individual members was controversial in the early history of social psychology. Focusing on Gustave LeBon's concept of the group mind, psychologists in the 1920s debated the epistemological status of groups. One side of the debate argued that groups are real entities with emergent characteristics; the concept of the group mind, for example, suggests that groups have a mind of their own, a unifying mental force that transcends the consciousness of the individuals that constitute the group. The other side of the [Page 399]debate denied the reality of groups, contending that only individuals are observed, not groups; psychological processes occur only in individuals, and actions or processes attributed to groups are nothing more than the sum of actions of the individual group members.

Eventually the concept of group mind was rejected, primarily because there was never any solid scientific evidence to support it. As research on groups flourished in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, researchers accepted the reality of groups and identified several verifiable group properties. Much of this research was influenced by Gestalt psychology, a school of thought that emphasizes that an individual's experience consists of integrated whole patterns that are not reducible to the sum of elements of the whole. One line of inquiry proposed, for example, that a bunch of people constitutes a group to the extent that they form a Gestalt; that is, they are perceived as being a coherent entity rather than independent, unrelated individuals. Furthermore, individuals' intuitive perceptions of the quality of groupness depend on the extent to which a collection of people possesses certain group characteristics, including small size, similarity, a high level of interaction, and shared goals.

Group Size

In general, the larger the collection of people, the less likely they are to possess other characteristics that define a group and the less likely they are to be perceived as a group. Research indicates that most groups are small, usually two or three people and seldom more than five or six. In fact, much of the research on groups focuses on groups of this size or slightly larger, such as families, friendship cliques, work crews, and committees, in which people engage in regular faceto-face interaction. As group size increases, the nature of the group changes. It becomes less intimate and satisfying to members, and it becomes more complex, its activities more difficult to coordinate.

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