1. Group Structure
✤ underlying pattern of roles, norms, and networks of
relations among members that define and organize the
group
2. Group Structure
✤ Groups are not unorganized, haphazard collections of
individuals, but organized systems of interactions and
relationships regulated by group structure.
✤ Three important elements of group structure:
norms
roles and
networks of connections among the members.
3. Norms
✤ Norms develop gradually overtime as members align their
actions with those displayed by others
Sherif’s autokinetic effect indicates that group members
do not merely imitate others; rather, they often internalize
consensual standards
✤ Since norms are transmitted to other group members, they
tend to be consensual, implicit, self-generating, and stable.
✤ In some cases, individuals may engage in unhealthy behavior
as a result of normative pressures
Crandall’s study of eating disorders in groups
pluralistic ignorance
4. Norms
✤ Norms are implicit, self-generating, and stable standards for
group behavior
Prescriptive norms set the standards for expected group
behavior
Proscriptive norms identify behaviors that should not be
performed
Desscriptive norms define what most people do, feel, or
think in the group.
Injuctive norms differentiate between desirable and
undesirable actions
5. Roles
✤ Roles specify the types of behaviors expected of
individuals who occupy particular positions within the
group.
✤ As members interact withvone another, their role related
activities become patterned (role differentiation) with
Task roles pertaining to the work of the group,
Relationship roles pertaining to maintaining relations
among members
6. Roles
✤ The same person rarely holds both the task role and
the relationship role in the group.
✤ Moreland and Levine’s theory of group socialization
describes the ways roles are allocated to individuals
and the ways in which members transition through
the roles of prospective member, new member, full
member, marginal member, and former member.
7. Roles
✤ The role differentiation and socialization processes often
create stress and tension for groups and group members.
Group ambiguity occurs when the behaviors associated
with a role are poorly defined.
Role conflict occurs when group members occupy two
or more roles that call for incompatible behaviors
(interrole conflict) or when the demands of a single role
are contradictory (intrarole conflict)
When role fit is low, members do not feel that they
match the demands of their roles.
8. How can the social structure
of a group be measured?
9. ✤ Social network analysis (SNA) - describe group’s structure
both visually and quantitatively. Common indexes used
include:
density
degree centrality
indegree
outdegree
betweenness
closeness
✤ Paxton and Moody’s study of a southern sorority suggested
that those members with high centrality indexes for a clique
within the overall group were less committed to the sorority
as a whole
10. Status Networks
✤ Most groups develop a stable pattern of variations in authority and
power (e.g. status networks, chains of command) through a status
differential process.
✤ In some instances, people compete with one another for status in
groups; the resulting pecking order determines who is dominant
and who is submissive.
✤ Group member’s perception of one another also determine status.
Berger’s expectation-states theory argues that group
members allocate status by considering specific status
characteristics and diffuse status characteristics.
11. Status Networks
✤ When status generalization occurs, group members
unfairly allow irrelevant characteristics such as: age, race,
or ethnic background to influence the allocation of prestige.
status allocations are particularly unfair when
individuals who are members of stereotyped minority
societal groups are also under represented in the group
itself, with the most extreme case being solo status
(being the only individual of that category in the group)
✤ In many online groups the effects of status on participation
are muted,resulting in a participation equalization effect.
12. Attraction Networks
✤ Sociometric structure - a group’s attraction network
develops through a sociometric differentiation process that
orders group members from least liked to most liked.
✤ Attraction relations tend to be reciprocal and transitive, and
clusters or coalitions often exist within the group that are
higher in homophily than the group as a whole.
✤ Sociometric differentiation generally favors individuals who
possess socially attractive qualities, such as cooperativeness
or physical degree to which the individual’s attributes match
the qualities valued by the group (person-group fit)
13. Communication Networks
✤ A group’s communication networks may parallel formally established paths,
but most groups also have informal network that defines who speaks to
whom most frequently.
✤ Centalized networks are most efficient
Shaw’s concept of information saturation suggests not if tasks are too
complex and require high levels of information exchange
✤ A group’s network, in addition to structuring communication, influences a
variety in group and individual outcomes, including performance,
effectiveness, and members level of satisfaction. Individuals who occupy
more central positions in communication networks are often more influential
than those located at the periphery. Since centralized networks have lower
levels of closeness, the overall level ofmember satisfaction in such groups
tend to be lower.
14. Communication Networks
✤ More information generally flows downward in hierarchical
networks than flows upward, and the information that is sent
upward is often unrealistically positive.
✤ Bale’s Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) -
model of interaction and structure assumes that structure is
based on three dimensions:
dominance/submissiveness (Up/Down)
friendliness/unfriendliness (Positive/Negative)
acceptance of task-orientation of authority/non-acceptance
of task-orientation of authority/(Forward/Backward)
