Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Sociology 149
tried to get away from the study of static correlations between the various di-
mensions of small group behaviour. They increasingly try to unravel the emer-
gence of relevant features, and the emphasis on the way things come about is
noticeable in all traditional areas of group dynamics. I shall briefly give examples
from the fields of a) problem-solving, b) leadership and c) social perception. The
important topic of attitude change has already been dealt with; there the essential
feature is the emphasis on cognitive dissonance and the attempts to resolve it.
a. The question whether groups are able to solve problems better than individuals
has an ideological bias, in addition to presenting a genuine scientific interest:
the value of cooperation would be enhanced if group efforts proved superior.
As this obviously is not so under all circumstances, attention has shifted to the
conditions under which a group would do better than an average of isolated individuals.
A seminal experiment by Bavelas inspired related research by others
for some time. By various technical devices he controlled the way in which group
members would communicate with each other; this affected the ability of the
group jointly to solve a problem.
More recent study has helped to clarify how this ‘topological effect’ comes
about. The main intervening variable seems to be how groups organize their
work. This has been shown in a variety of ways. If, for instance, isolated individuals
receive information irrelevant to their main task, performance does not
improve; but such improvement does occur in the case of groups. The interpretation
is that the absorption of irrelevant information permits the group to improve
its work together. Also the better performance attributable to certain communications
networks disappears with the lapse of time; again this seems to
show that the difference between various topological arrangements is due more
to the difficulty of organizing collaboration than to efficiency in solving the problem
itself.
Another development can be considered a part of this dynamic trend. An
early refinement in the study of problem-solving by groups after the Bavelas experiment
consisted in careful analysis of the task to be performed - whether it
permitted the aggregation of partial solutions performed by group members
separately, whether superior knowledge by a few members could be utilized, etc.
(e.g., the work of Moscov~c~).~~Q
In more recent studies the motivation of group
members has come to the foreground. The main experimental device is to create
a situation of ‘mixed emotion’. A reward is given to the whole group for its SUC-
cess; at the same time rewards are provided for the performance of individual
members. It is possible to arrange the experiment so that individual rewards are
in conflict with the performance of the whole group. By varying the mix, the
willingness to exchange information and the structure of mutual influence can
be altered and thereby observed. Kelley and Thibaut have skillfully summarized
the pertinent studies.=35
b. Questions of leadership provide an especially strategic area for looking at
‘emergences’ in small groups. In this case people who have never met before have
to provide for the division of labour de novo. Rudimentary forms of stratifica-