Describe How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways.

It is a well-known fact that belonging to a group can make an individual feel not only accepted, but more powerful that if they were on their own. Whether it is a community, youth group or even religion, belonging is an everyday occurrence of like that many of us do not even realise. Belonging to a group is more influential than belonging to an individual. We can see this in the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller, 1984 by George Orwell and the listening task. Belonging to a group can give you a feeling of acceptance, but also can help you not to be targeted or marginalised. Also, people who appear to belong to groups, when looked at closer, in truth do not belong. Belonging to a group can also give you more power as a

We all belong to some kind of group whether we know it or not. We are all a part of something with people that are somewhat alike. Our group, however, does not define us. There will be diversity in the group because everyone is different. In one essay and one poem this theme is developed. Even if you are in a group with people who are very much alike, they may have different opinions and thoughts. So, the group that we’re classified in does not define us.

Groups can influence people’s perception and ideas even if they contradict their own. Groups can act as an entity of authority, and for some people it is difficult to stand out or think differently than their peers. “When we’re in a

a group makes one feel important by allowing oneself to engage in tasks that could potentially

Social identity theory states that the ‘in-group’ will discriminate against the ‘out-group’ and show favouritism towards their group to boost their self-esteem. Tajfel also proposed that there are 3 mental processes involved in putting people in to the ‘us’ and ‘them’ groups: social categorisation (putting objects in order to understand them), social identification (adopting the identity of the group we categorised ourselves as belonging to) and social comparison (showing favouritism towards the ‘in group’ and hostility towards the ‘out group’; comparing them).

Social identity theory is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s) (Harwood, 2007). “In social identity theory and identity theory, the self is reflexive in that it can take itself as an object and can categorize, classify, or name itself in particular ways in relation to other social categories or classification” (Stets & Burke, 2000). The social identity theory has been known to let individuals find their own niche and group that they want to belong to. This could include what the individuals are active in or involved in. Research has also found that the groups that they classify themselves in can cause the participants to look down upon other groups that they are not involved in (Harwood, 2007). Negative attitudes are more of a complex issue, but interesting ideas come from explanations that emerge for social identity theory (Harwood,

These boys were divided into two different groups of eleven, and they were both unaware of the others existence. These two different groups quickly began to form their own identities and even created team names. The Rattlers and the Eagles. After the first week the two teams were finally introduced to each other and they immediately wanted to face off against the other group in different athletic events. After the first event, the Eagles lost and took out their anger by burning the Rattlers flag. When the Rattlers found about this, a fight broke out at the very next event which happened to be a baseball game. The following day, the Rattlers raided the Eagles cabin and they went back in forth in a feud with one another for the remainder of the camp. The researchers wanted to see what would happen if they took two groups with no inherent differences and simply set competitive goals between the two groups. The results the concluded can still be seen in business today. No more than fifteen minutes away from Coharie Country Club is another golf club, Timberlake. The members at Coharie don’t play at Timberlake and the members at Timberlake don’t play at Coharie. It has been this way since I was a young boy, and to this day it still makes no sense to me. We let our unconscious minds make predetermined accusations about other groups without ever giving the opposition an opportunity to state their case. Without any thought, our minds unconsciously associate inferiority with the other group and it is something that needs to end where I

While we are often unaware of it, Forsyth argues, that our performance and motivation can be directly linked to the groups we have chosen to associate with, which can have a significant impact on the development of our identity and future decisions. The author discusses different social theories that can relate to our understanding of group

Kids on the team realized that adults can be biased more to certain kids rather than others. For the boy managers, it made him have a different perspective on girl and them playing sports. But for most girls, they had drama fights on the team. About which position was best for the girl. They had drama through the season. Other people say it was a fun experience to play and to be more social or to never give up. Before the season, the boy manger was being honest and said that the girls season wasn't going to be fun because girls were not as good as boys. During the season he started to realize that the girls are better than what he thought and his mind changed the way he thought of

Group conformity is defined as the way people change their behavior or character when influenced by other people or by a certain social environment. A basic example of it will be a teenager whom friends are all smirking a cigarette, fear of not being part of the group our teenager will at his turn light a cigarette. Conformity in a group is in way copying what other members are doing to integrate the group, one can act totally out of character just for the group conformity. In this essay we will analyze how people are affected by group conformity and what kind of changes some are willing to make in their characters or behavior. We will also analyze how can group conformity be expressed in our society. Finally we will analyze what statistics and scientific research is telling us about group conformity.

Technically it could be a positive thing but also it is kind of a bad thing. Because based on a group you put a person in you might treat them differently or you might give them different advise than another person you would talk

The social identity theory is a theory developed by Henry Tajfel, in which Tajfel believes that who we are socially determines how many positive feelings we have towards ourselves. Basically, if we like where we stand socially, then we will like who we are and display happiness. In this theory, Tajfel labels the “in group” and the “out group” and says that we will always compare our “in group” to another’s “out group.” By comparing these groups, we develop a better personal view on ourselves (King, 2009). A big factor of the social identity theory is that the groups will tend to critique the differences of the groups, and overlook the similarities. A modern day example of the social identity theory would be your everyday high school cheerleaders versus band members. The cheerleaders think of themselves as the queen bees of the school,

We as humans tend to relate to those that are similar to us, and tend to alienate those that we deem as different than us. Whether it is by race, gender, culture, or religion, it is something that is almost always present in human interactions, and often times can be completely subconscious. In our textbook Interpersonal Communication by Kory Floyd, an ingroup is defined as “A group of people with whom one identifies.” An outgroup is conversely defined as “A group of people whom one does not identify.” Henri Tajfel first coined this terminology while he was working to devise his social identity theory. These ideas of classifying people into ingroups and outgroups can lead to many

Involves an emphasis on the importance of fitting in with relevant others and ingroup connectedness.

According to Cartwright & Zander (1968), a group may be defined as a “collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree”. Other definitions state that a group is “two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person (Shaw, 1981). Turner (1987) goes further to say that “a psychological group is one that is psychologically significant for the members, to which they relate themselves subjectively for social comparison and the acquisitions of norms and values…that they privately accept membership in and which influence their attitudes and behaviour”. Clark & Pataki reserve the term “group”