Group Dynamics and Social Inclusion: An Analytical Perspective
Determinism and Freedom: Identity, Difference, and Social Interaction
Our self-image is the result of a complex social and psychological process where we are influenced, reflected, and stimulated by others. Mediation is necessary for developing personal identity.
Each person’s self is in a process of adaptation and creation. It is successful to the extent that it exceeds what can be called the “threshold of social inclusion.”
Through appropriate group dynamics, carefully designed by social workers, we can recover, rebuild, and strengthen basic social skills to have a satisfying social life. This also allows us to integrate and balance the various dimensions that come together in our personal lives, facing conflicts between the roles we play daily.
Group work can provide insight into behaviors, strengthen skills, and reach more effective conclusions through experience and collective intelligence. Group integration, the contrast of opinions and reactions, and the forecasts made within the group reduce the risk of error and uncertainty. Group integration can improve habits, values, beliefs, and skills through which to achieve changes in behavior, social interaction, and personal and professional relationships.
In this process, it is necessary to maintain a balance between two extremes:
- Social determinism, which views the citizen as a mere passive reflection of the society to which they belong.
- Extreme individualism. From this perspective, people are the result of a solo project in which social life appears as a pre-established area moldable by individual rational action, guided only by freely chosen objectives in the solitude of the self.
The relationship between people and society is a complex and nuanced social structure that leaves room for individual action.
Socialization takes place primarily in group processes, where rules are created, establishing basic mechanisms of solidarity and cooperation, as well as competitive behavior. Every citizen is engaged in a common culture, the foundation of a variety of individual behaviors. Social interaction is fundamental, and each of us belongs to different groups, establishing the exchange of experiences, feelings, views, agreements, disagreements, etc. Group interaction allows us to express ourselves, objectify and share our personal history, and engage in dialogue.
In our society of mass consumption, individuality appears as a core value for a decent life. However, although it is valued as desirable (since it is through these moments of individuality that creativity, autonomy, and independence are encouraged), people constitutively need interaction with others. Therefore, exclusion, both by us and by others, carries a highly negative experience and generates strong personal conflicts. Exclusion, for whatever reason, empirically shows the importance of social interaction and integration for anyone.
This leads us to ask what skills generated in group dynamics are essential for achieving successful social inclusion in our surroundings. We distinguish three basic factors: feelings of integration, the need for belonging, and identification with the group.
- Inclusion in a group and establishing relationships based on trust, empathy, common goals, and closeness can deal with feelings of emptiness and social loneliness. Groups can provide the antidote to loneliness.
- The need to belong is a basic human need. Both consciously and unconsciously, every citizen is part of a family, different social circles, associations, etc. This need to belong leads us to establish meaningful ties with others. People who regularly interact positively with others have higher levels of satisfaction and optimism and even live healthier lives.
- People share and acquire the characteristics of the group. With increasing identification of its members, belonging to it is increasingly valued (we feel connected with other members, participate in the group’s work, and accept its rules). Time is an important factor, as group identification is strengthened over time.
From a broader perspective, it should be emphasized that, throughout the socialization process, we internalize what is called the “social personality.” Each culture generates stereotyped social contours in its members that give rise to what social scientists call “basic personalities.” Cultures tend to create a personality type resulting from the set of personality traits consistent with each society’s institutional order, creating a uniform set of features that allow certain distinctions in relation to people from other cultures. This dynamic can be recognized microsociologically in group dynamics and macrosociologically in society as a whole.
Analytical Perspectives on Group Dynamics
Research on social groups, mainly on primary groups, has highlighted some basic dimensions that occur in them. They are formulated separately but must be considered together:
1. The Relational Dimension
This dimension emphasizes the relationships between group members. People relate to each other, but they are also “interdependent.” This means that every action a person takes within a group will change the status of other members, and in turn, the situation of each act will be amended according to the other members of the group.
An example would be a synchronized swimming team whose members must make their moves coordinated in harmony, and each depends on the other swimmers to achieve good performance. These factors are interdependent and must be coordinated if we want to achieve a coherent and well-developed outcome.
Therefore, a group is a collection of individuals who interact, making them interdependent to some significant degree. That is, a group of two or more individuals are interdependent and influence each other through social interaction.
However, mutual interdependence does not exhaust the relationship between group members. Cooperation and competition also play a role.
In a cooperative social situation, the emphasis is on what group members share. The cooperative situation is one in which participants are actively promoting their interdependent goals. This means that each person’s progress toward their goal makes it more likely that others also achieve their own goals.
In a competitive social situation, mutual benefit is not something that can be achieved in group activity. Where mutual benefit is impossible, the only option for cooperative members of the group is to alternate wins with errors or failures. In this case, the people in the opposite group have interdependent goals, i.e., maintaining the relationship of interdependence, but progress toward the goal of one member makes it less likely that others achieve it.
It is important to note that interdependence does not in itself define a group. To cope with this multiplicity of dimensions, Deutsch distinguishes three types of groups:
- Sociological pure. In this type, people behave interdependently but do not perceive themselves from the standpoint of interdependence.
- Psychological groups. People believe they act interdependently while others do not see this kind of behavior (a psychological group exists to the extent to which the component members perceive themselves as active pursuers of interdependent goals).
- Ideal groups. These meet both conditions, i.e., people perceive themselves as a group, and others also see it that way.
2. The Dimension of Interaction
This dimension focuses on the interdependence of the interactions between group members.
What is interaction? We can establish a certain similarity between the terms communication and interaction, as both involve the exchange of messages between people. However, there is an important nuance: “communication” is responsible for transmitting intended messages (through language, signs, and nonverbal behaviors), while “interaction” refers to sending all kinds of messages, intentional and unintentional (including unconscious movements and gestures).