Transcript Chapter 1 PowerPoint - The Group in Society

Communication
in Small Groups
Chapter 1
Group Inventory
• What are the range of small groups to
which you have belonged?
– Sports team (soccer, rowing, swim)
– Social justice activism (CARA, diversity
committee)
– Nonprofit board
– Volunteer groups (special events, Folklife)
– Study abroad class
– Newspaper, Workplace
– Toastmaster (clubs, social group)
– Family (3, 5, 10, 12, ?)
Group Inventory
How important are these groups
to you? (Optional: TurningPoint
assessment)
Defining Small Groups
• Consider journal groups while reviewing key
features of small group definition
• Basic group shape
– Group size
– Copresence
– Boundaries (entativity, coherence)
• Interconnections
– Communication
– Goals
– Interdependence
Why all the fuss about theory?
• Commonsense and “conventional wisdom”
about groups
• Unintended consequences
• Improving one’s own performance
• Helping others be more effective
Evaluative Criteria for Theory
Criterion
Description
Clarity
Transparency of theory’s statements
Logical Coherence
Free of logical errors
Novelty
Presents a new idea
Falsifiability
Subject to test
Validity
Passes many of its tests
Parsimony
Simplicity of theory’s statements
Scope
Sufficiently broad generalizations
Testing Theories
• Research approaches
– Case study
– Field research (survey, mixed-method)
– Experiment
• “Control and manipulation”
• Coding schemes
– Meta-analysis
• The unit of analysis problem in
group research