Theories of Group Behavior (Springer Series in Social Psychology)

In the fall of 1983, we began to organize a symposium entitled "General Social Psychological Theories of Group Behavior." Our goal was to encourage the extension and application of basic current social psychology to group behavior. The symposium was presented in the spring of 1984 at the Eastern Psychological Association convention in Baltimore and the interest that it generated led to discussions with colleagues and friends about similar efforts by social psychologists, eventually resulting in the present book. Some clarification about the contents is in order. First, the theories presented here are clearly social psychological in scope and level of analysis, as discussed in the Introduction (Chapter 1). However, we are not trying to encompass sociological, anthropological, political, or historical theoretical approaches to group behavior. Second, while the theories comprise a wide-ranging and representative, if not quite exhaustive, selection of social psychological theories of group behavior, there are some interesting and general perspectives that are not represented. For example, one perspective that is conspicuous by its absence is some variant of learning theory. Aside from the rare, notable exception (e.g., Buss, 1979), little work currently is being done on group behavior from a learning theoretic perspective. Our inclusion or exclusion of a theory reflects our judgment regarding its currency and accessibility to social psychological researchers. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction: The Study of Group Behavior....Pages 1-19 Social Comparison Theory: Self-Evaluation and Group Life....Pages 21-47 Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Collective Actions and Individual Reactions....Pages 49-69 Self-Presentation Theory: Self-Construction and Audience Pleasing....Pages 71-87 Drive Theory: Effects of Socially Engendered Arousal....Pages 89-109 Social Impact Theory: A Social Forces Model of Influence....Pages 111-124 Self-Attention Theory: The Effects of Group Composition on the Individual....Pages 125-146 Social Cognition Theory of Group Processes....Pages 147-183 Transactive Memory: A Contemporary Analysis of the Group Mind....Pages 185-208 Theories of Group Behavior: Commentary....Pages 209-229 Back Matter....Pages 231-246