GROUP DYNAMICS-
1.2 DEFINITION AND MEANING OF GROUP
Everyone knows what a group is in general. When two persons
or more come
together and interact at one place it may be called a group. The
group may be
defined in various ways. Given below are a few important
definitions of group and
each of these definitions emphasises one or the other
important features of the
group.
1) R.M. Williams (1951) “A social group is a given aggregate of
people playing
inter-related roles and recognised by themselves or other as a
unit of interaction.”
Here it can be said group is an aggregate of some people. The
roles of the group
members are inter-related. The group is considered as unit.
2) R.M. MacIver (1953) “By group we mean any collection of
social beings
,who enter into distinctive social relationships with one
another.” It is clear that
there must be social relationships between the individual
members of a group.
3) David (1968) “ A social psychological group is an organised
system of two
or more individuals who are interrelated so that the system
performs some
functions, has a standard set of the role relationship among its
members and
has a set of norms that regulate the function of the group and
each of its
members.”
The word “group” has many meanings. Generally we use the
term ‘group’ keeping
in mind three main points:
i) where a number of persons are sitting or working together.
The essential thing is
the physical proximity of a number of people being together at
a given time with
,or without any common purpose;
ii) where persons are classified as belonging to an association.
Sometimes it is
seen that people may have no relationship with each other but
they have some
common characteristics and we classify them as a group;
iii) where persons belong to an organisation. This group has
definite structure, and
people in this group have a sense of belongingness to the given
organisation
Children and Group
Introduction to Group,Formation and Types of Group
A child’s social development takes place gradually as the child
advances in age.
To fulfill physical needs, children perform many functions. They
exhibit signs of
, reacting to individuals who they identify as fulfilling their needs.
Then they start
understanding objects and individuals in their environment. As
children grow older
their patterns of play and other activities also change
considerably. The feelings
of “I” and “MINE” and then “YOU” and “YOURS” develop.
Sharing things,
asserting one’s rights, co-operation, etc. are learnt by children
in the first stage of
their socialisation.
Initially they belong to a small world of children, all nearly their
own age, although
differences may vary with the arrangement in different groups.
They are constantly
assimilating many things by direct coaching, training, imitation,
spontaneous reaction,
repeated experience and so on. Living in a group they gradually
develop the
sentiments, opinion, interests, habits, desires etc. Interaction
and communication
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