Definitions
Question: What is a coordinated group of people working together?
Answer: A team
Situation: You invite a group of friends to your house to work on a class project. You present an outline on what the project will contain and a list on who will do what.
Question: What should have happened instead?
Hint: This is the first time you and your groups members have met.
Answer: None of your group members came to a consensus about what the project would be about. Nor were they supposed to have done research before this first meeting. And the person who invited the group over took control.
Question: What does it mean to have cohesion within a group?
Answer: Everyone in the group feels like they belong and have a connection with one another. Because of this atmosphere, everyone feels they can voice their opinion freely.
Situation: On the baseball field everyone has a chant that they use whenever someone runs to one of the bases. Everyone on the team yells out, "Run Forest, Run!".
Question: What term describes this type of in group trait?
Answer: Symbolic Convergence
Explanation: The reason the group came up with the chant is because they have all watched this movie and thought it made sense for their group to say this for good luck.
Situation: You've been grouped up with three other individuals at work. You have been given a task to come up with as many suggestions for ways to improve the workplace.
Question: What steps should be taken in order to achieve this task?
Answer:
-Assign group roles (ex: note taker)
-Come up with criteria/standards
-evaluate information
-come to mutual agreement
Question: What does it mean to brainstorm in the traditional Functional Approach?
Answer:
-Coming up with as many ideas as possible
-not evaluating or saying "that's not a good idea"
-recording all ideas whether it meets criteria/standards
Situation: Your professor has grouped up the class in several groups. Your goal is to come up with a group name. One group member thought the group name should consist of everyone's initials. Everyone else in the group agrees to the name.
Question: What is it called when the group doesn't chime in with other ideas?
Answer: Groupthink
Situation: The group throws out some suggestions on what methods of research can be used for the project. Although one group member voices their opinion about some of the methods not being the right ones.
Question: What characteristic is being shown by this one group member?
Answer: Closed Mindedness
Question: What does it mean to realistically look at the nature, extent and likely causes of a problem within a group?
Answer: To run a problem analysis.
Explanation: A problem analysis is ran so that everyone in the group can fully understand what the problem is and how it can be solved.
Question: What does effective communication mean?
Answer: Where you and others can successfully receive, deliver, and understand what messages are being sent. Happens between two or more people.
Situation: Your having a conversation with an elder adult, they start telling you about their childhood days compared to now.
Question: What form of communication is taking place?
Answer: Multi-Generational communication
Question: What does it mean to identify alternatives?
Answer: Group members brainstorm as many possible solutions, hoping for a good one to be chosen.
Question: What term states that: "when group members have an inflated view of the groups abilities"?
Answer: Overestimation of the group
Situation: Your father doesn’t allow phone usage during dinner. The reason is because phone usage conflicts with paying attention to everyone at the dinner table.
Question: What function does the situation imply, that all groups have?
Answer: All groups have rules that can be said or implied.
Question: What are the main two allocative resources a group can have?
Hint: They are forms of assistance.
Answer: Time & Money