A group consists of three or more people who interact with and influence each other. Group influences can be categorized as either deriving from the presence of others or group dynamics.
The Presence Of Others
By definition, groups put people in each other's presense. However, one can be in the presence of others without belonging to a group. For example, when you attend a movie, you sit in the dark and watch a film with many others around you. You will probably behave differently -- laugh louder, refrain from talking or burping -- than you would alone in front of your television set. However, you are not participating in a group. You do not even notice who the other audience members are.
The mere presence of others can be very influential. Two such influences are social facilitation and deindividuation.
Social Facilitation
Early research found that when people perform simple tasks like riding bicycles they work better and faster in the presence ot others than when alone. An example of this is the tendency of athletes to work out harder or play better when their teammates are around or when an audience is watching.
In other circumstances, it seems that the presence of others is distracting. For example, if someone is watching you work or solve a difficult problem you may complain that your performance is worse when you are being watched. Why does others' presence sometimes enhance, but sometimes hinder, human action?
This paradoxical effect has been dubbed social facilitation because it involves facilitating either doing well or doing poorly as a result of the mere presence of others. The explanation for social facilitation is that the presence of others is arousing. Arousal will enhance performance of simple tasks but hinder performance of complex tasks. The interesting discovery of social facilitation research is that the presence of others has an arousing effect in the first place.
Deindividuation
When we are immersed in group or crowd situations, we may lose some self-awareness and become less inhibited. This is more pronounced when we feel anonymous, either because the crowd is so large or some other reason (eg. the room is very dark). The combined effects of self-awareness that results in uninhibited, irresponsible behaviour.
An example of deindividuation is what happens when a group of people panics and becomes a violent mob. Research indicates that each member of such a mob feels less like an individual self ("de-individuated"), and so less accountable for his or her actions.
Research on deindividuation suggests that its destructive potential can be reduced by increasing self-awareness and reinforcing individual identity. For example, calling people by name, turning up the lights, or watching people individually can all work as reminders to group members that they are individually accountable for their actions.
A Short Story: The Fence
There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."
Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.
Addendum -- Proverbs 12:18 (NIV) "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."
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