Small Group Communication Paper

When developing a group the norms of the group can ultimately determine the therapeutic outcome for the group (Yalom, 2005). Norms are formed by the leader’s behavior and the group’s expectations (Yalom, 2005). The norms are the standard social behavior for the group. This would include acceptable behavior and typical conduct of the group members.

Once developed, team norms are used to guide team member behaviour. Team norms are used to assess how well team members are interacting. Team norms enable team members to call each other out on any behaviour that is dysfunctional or that is negatively impacting the success of the team.

Norms are behaviors or rules that set forth what is expected of us as people and as a society.

Learning how to work effectively in a group situation is key to success in many professions as well as in social situations. Groups vary from each other based on the individuals that make up each group, all of us belong to various groups at one time or another. The roles that we fulfill vary from group to

In my opinion, group work is a type of cooperative learning that helps people to accomplish a certain task in a faster and more effective manner. Team working also helps to achieve the tasks that are impossible to finish by one individual. However, if people in a group have a lot of conflicts, group work will not be able to achieve as much as we expected. There are many reasons which lead to dissatisfaction in group work such as individualism as well as conflicts in opinion and time.

Social norms have been shaping the way people interact throughout history. While norms could be seen as something that confides behavior, it also maintains social order allowing certain behaviors to be accepted or to be evaded. The way people respond to a situation depends on the person’s normative beliefs or what they believe society should act.

Next, the barriers that exist in group communication are premature evaluation of ideas, poor physical surroundings, too many people, poor timing, and stinking thinking. The different ideas made from the group need an evaluation at a certain time; this is done only after all the ideas have been made from the group. Poor physical surroundings can be a problem for group disruption in communication. In some cases the room could be too hot, too cold, too noisy, not adequate enough seating and lack of technological needs for the group to function. If the group is too large then the communication can be lost and equal participation will not occur (Beebe &Masterson, 2006). Poor timing also can be a hindrance to the group by not

Group communication is getting a small group of people together who share the same problem to talk about it. These work better when the group is small as the leader can interact better than working with a large group. In health care, group communication can range from AA meetings (Alcohol anonymous) to drug abuse to various phobias which people want to overcome. There are a number of factors we need to consider when working with a group, things such as group atmosphere, group leaders, thinking about what you are going to say, taking turns and the use of space.

Groupthink – situation in a group that is characterized by strong pressure to arrive at consensus, a high degree of agreement and conformity, and/or defence of group decision even in the face of evidence proving these decisions to be wrong or senseless.

In the article “Small Group Communication” Garth Pittman states that working in groups can actually be very helpful because it will get the job done faster, and develop skills that can be useful at work, school, and/or personal life. He clarifies that people will have different ideas and collaborate with one another to work well in the group. If they can get along well and manage to separate the work, then the project will get done on time without having any troubles. Pittman points out working in groups can get complicated. Few people in the group will not connect with the rest of the members. For those who aren’t used to being in groups can find themselves having a hard time getting use to it. The author believes that there is certain ways

Communication involves people and interactions, and is a process that happens from the beginning of a conversation to the end. Communication can be represented through symbols and cues, both verbal and nonverbal. In addition, meaning is what people extract from a

These are group whose values, norms and perspective an individual uses in defining a personal social situation. Norms represent shared value

Groupthink: Groupthink is a way that groups may try to keep levels of conflict low. The problem is that all members pretend that they agree with a decision, which discourages creativity. Without counter arguments being presented, the group is susceptible to bad or even irrational decisions (Beebe p. 191).

Conformity is the social process by which people in a group or in a social circle engage in behaviour which appears to be socially acceptable, that is they go along with the social expectations apparent at the time. One of the key factors in conformity, however, is yielding to group pressure, as defined by Mann (1969):

Effective group communications come in forms of verbal and non-verbal techniques. Essential parts of the entire group’s contribution are that the group contains full participating members, the group is diverse, and that the diversity is recognized and respected (Hartley, 1997). In the videos viewed, three were evaluated on the effective and ineffective communication skills of the participants and suggestions made on how they could improve. The videos are titled, “Planning a Playground”, “Helping Annie”, and "The Politics of Sociology.