Small Group Research

The high productivity of electronic brainstorming groups has been attributed to several factors, one of which is anonymity. The authors assessed the role of anonymity by randomly assigning brainstorming groups to one offour conditions: anonymous electronic, nonanonymous electronic, verbal, and nominal. The authors found some evidence that more controversial ideas were produced by members of anonymous electronic groups than by members of the other groups. The authors also found clear evidence that anonymous brainstorming groups produced more nonredundant ideas than did nonanonymous brainstorming groups.

This study's aim is the comparison of group processes' development assessments among group members, direct observers, and indirect observers. The research population includes 50 heart patients, who participated in 7 support groups of 10 meetings each, and 35 social work students, who observed the groups. Data was obtainedfrom participants and observers through the Group Environment Scale (GES) and through a social support questionnaire, completed at three stages of the intervention: following the fourth, seventh, andfinal group meetings. Exceptfor the self-discovery variable, no other significant differences were found among the assessors. The main conclusion is that it is possible to place most of the burden of grading group processes in the hands of direct and/or indirect observers and to save the participants from this task. This conclusion is importantfor studies dealing with the efficacy of groups-especially when researching the connection between group processes and group outcomes.

The study was designed to examine 4and 6-year-old girls 'physical and verbal assertiveness in the presence of varying numbers of boys. Two girls from each of 12 classes were asked to play in three types ofplay groups: all girls, majority girls, and minority girls. Thefrequencies of physical and verbal assertion of the two target girls were compared across the three play groups. Girls' levels of physical and verbal assertiveness were unrelated to the percentage of boys in their play groups. Results suggest that girls'expression of assertiveness is highly dependent on the social context.

This investigation examined the relationship of group cohesion to mood disturbance, stress, and athletic performance in a female collegiate basketball team. Twenty players from a Division I college basketball team were administered a battery ofself-reportquestionnaires, including the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and the Social and Athletic Readjustment Rating Scale (SARRS). Significant results were observed in relation to the Group Integration-Task (GI-T) and Group Integration-Social (GI-S) subscales of the GEQ. Participants perceiving high GI-T were less depressed, less confused, and showed less total mood disturbance on the POMS. Individuals reporting high GI-S experienced less personal, academic, coaching, sport, and injury-related stress, and subjects scoring high on GI-T or GI-S subscales reported lower levels of total stress as measured by the SARRS.

The project investigated the power dynamics in preexisting corporate research and development teams using a network-based methodology. Emerson's (1962) exchange-based power-dependence theory was used to formulate guiding hypotheses. In addition, Thompson's (1967) typology of organizational interdependence was used to differentiate between types of task interdependence. Power was operationalized as the amount of influence each member exerted about decisions regarding coworkers and/or the team. Heightened task dependence was expected to negatively affect personal power The different kinds of task interdependence were found to have very different power implications. Thompson's distinction between sequential and reciprocal task interdependence was necessary to untangle the underlying power-dependence processes. Furthermore, the findings leave much to be explained and might suggest the need to consider additional interdependence dynamics and/or alternative exchange frameworks to more accurately accountfor the personal power dynamics in the collective context offormal organizations.

Recent reviews suggest that the effectiveness of various training methods are contingent on team and individual competencies, task requirements, andfeatures of the work environment (Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Cannon-Bowers, Tannenbaum, Salas, & Volpe, 1995). Two experiments compared the effects oftaskpractice--as either individuals or in groups-on subsequent group and individual perfonnance on a complex cognitive task. Experiment I examined the effects of task practice on group performance, whereas Experiment 2 examined the effects of task practice on individual performance. In both studies, sets offour persons worked as individuals or in groups on two practice problems before theirfinal performance on a third problem. In general, the more members practiced as a group, the better they performed as a group. However, practicing individually or in groups did not have a significant effect on individual performance. Future research should address whether these findings are generalizable across training methods, tasks, types of groups, and work environments.