A Test of the Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness1

Randomly formed groups of 160 male students a t St. Francis Xavier University performed both a structured and an unstructured task. Style of leadership and leader position power were experimentally manipulated, while leader member relations were held constant. Although manipulation checks were positive, results failed to support any of the hypotheses derived from Fiedler's contingency theory of leadership effectiveness.     

Development of a Cognitive-Metacognitive Framework for Protocol Analysis of Mathematical Problem Solving in Small Groups

A framework is presented that explicitly delineates the roles of metacognition and cognition within small-group heuristic problem solving in mathematics. This framework is used to describe the videotaped behaviors of 27 seventh-grade students of varying ability working in small groups to solve a mathematical problem. The results suggest the importance of metacognitive processes in mathematical problem solving in a small-group setting. A continuous interplay of cognitive and metacognitive behaviors appears to be necessary for successful problem solving and maximum student involvement. Within the groups, students returned several times to such problem-solving episodes as reading, understanding, exploring, analyzing, planning, implementing, and verifying. Stimulated-recall interviews held after completion of the task underscored an additional dimension of importance. Attitudes, particularly those of high-ability students, seemed to affect the interactions and the problem-solving behaviors of fellow group members. The framework shows promise of being a powerful tool for the future study of mathematical problem solving in a small-group setting.     

Psychotherapy of Schizophrenics in Small Groups

Abstract

I describe aspects of a multimodal presentation sponsored by a professional organization of group psychotherapists, entailing lecture and discussion, a small demonstration or fishbowl group, and a large group experience. As the invited presenter, I was being counted on to attract attendees, to stimulate and maintain their interest, and to draw enthusiasm to the host organization and its future conferences. This required, in short order, promoting cohesion, establishing norms, and creating a safe enough culture to embrace challenge, to take risks, to learn, and to seek help. Events occurring in both the larger and smaller groups were to be utilized for the benefit of the individuals and the groups themselves, to make the experience interesting and sufficiently compelling, to teach the basic principles promised by the conference’s theme, and to demonstrate technique. Dysfunction or negative consequences were to be avoided. My mode of leadership was perceived by some as positive if not outrageous, but for others it just provoked outrage. Perhaps such reactions are to be expected whenever a leader challenges a group to experience and think in new ways. I tried to utilize the ensuring controversy to illustrate the conference’s topic: loving, hating, and curiosity—group processes of resistance, rebellion, and refusal.     

The Development and Longitudinal Test of a Model of Organizational Identification

This study proposed and tested a theoretical model of the organizational identification process using a sample ( N = 198) of electric utility employees. Based upon a longitudinal design, results indicated that the antecedents of perceived role-related characteristics and construed external image were related to employees' identification with their organization, while perceived motivating job characteristics were not. Additionally, organizational identification was positively related to the employees' intention to remain within the organization. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Integrative and Distributive Negotiation in Small Groups: Effects of Task Structure, Decision Rule, and Social Motive

This study examined the interactive effects of task structure, decision rule, and social motive on small-group negotiation processes and outcomes. Three-person groups negotiated either within an asymmetrical task structure (in which a majority of group members have compatible interests) or within a symmetrical task structure (in which no such majority exists). Groups negotiated either under unanimity rule or under majority rule, and group members were either egoistically or prosocially motivated. Results revealed cumulative main effects and the predicted three-way interaction: Groups in an asymmetrical task structure engaged in more distributive and less integrative behavior, reached lower joint outcomes, and experienced a less positive group climate especially when they had an egoistic rather than prosocial motivation and unanimity rather than majority rule applied. Theoretical implications and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Evaluating Small Sample Approaches for Model Test Statistics in Structural Equation Modeling

Through Monte Carlo simulation, small sample methods for evaluating overall data-model fit in structural equation modeling were explored. Type I error behavior and power were examined using maximum likelihood (ML), Satorra-Bentler scaled and adjusted (SB; Satorra & Bentler, 1988, 1994), residual-based (Browne, 1984), and asymptotically distribution free (ADF; Browne, 1982, 1984) test statistics. To accommodate small sample sizes the ML and SB statistics were adjusted using a k-factor correction (Bartlett, 1950); the residual-based and ADF statistics were corrected using modified x² and F statistics (Yuan & Bentler, 1998, 1999). Design characteristics include model type and complexity, ratio of sample size to number of estimated parameters, and distributional form. The k-factor-corrected SB scaled test statistic was especially stable at small sample sizes with both normal and nonnormal data. Methodologists are encouraged to investigate its behavior under a wider variety of models and distributional forms.     

Cognitive Load and the Equality Heuristic: A Two-Stage Model of Resource Overconsumption in Small Groups

Two studies were conducted to test a two-stage model of the psychological mechanisms underlying the overconsumption of scarce resources in small groups. The model proposes that members of groups sharing resources first anchor their consumption choices on an “equal-division” heuristic and then, given sufficient cognitive capacity, adjust their choices in a self-serving direction. The results from both studies support the model. The first study found that when faced with a common resource pool almost all group members expressed thoughts regarding equality; however, individuals with sufficient cognitive capacity requested more from the pool and expressed more task-relevant thoughts than individuals lacking the necessary cognitive resources. The second study provided additional support for the two-stage model by demonstrating that group members' cognitions occur in the order predicted by the model and by demonstrating that an individual difference, social value orientation, affects thought processes only when individuals are not experiencing high cognitive loads. Implications are discussed.     

Decision Development in Computer-Assisted Group Decision Making

New computer technologies to aid group communication and decision making are becoming increasingly widespread. This study analyzes how one such technology, a group decision support system (GDSS), affected how group decisions developed over time. The study contrasted decision paths in groups using the GDSS with groups using the same procedural structures incorporated in the GDSS manually and with groups using no procedural structures. A flexible phase mapping method was employed to map group decision paths. The resulting set of seven decision paths varied in both sequence and number of decision phases. An optimal matching procedure was used to compute similarity measures among the 40 paths, and cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling were used to generate an empirical taxonomy of decision paths. Results indicated that the nature of decision paths varied both across the three conditions and within conditions. The decision path types were also related to three outcome variables: consensus change, perceived decision quality, and decision scheme satisfaction. Results indicated that those decision paths that most resembled logical normative sequences had superior outcomes to those that did not.     

Career Awareness and Self-Exploration (CASE) Groups: A Self-Assessment Model for Career Decision Making

A small group program (CASE groups) for self-assessment is described and advantages to education undergraduates and counseling student group leaders are detailed.     

英语句法歧义消解过程中基于激发点的权变模型

采用自控速度的移动窗口技术,在3个实验中分别考察句法歧义消解的基本过程。阅读材料为 不含有词汇歧义的较为单纯的英语句法歧义句。结果为：实验1的研究结果表明在语料中不存 在歧义激发点的情况下,被试不会启动歧义的消解过程;实验2的研究结果表明当歧义激发点 与解歧区重合时,人们会选用再分析机制来处理解歧区语料;实验3的研究结果表明当歧义激 发点与歧义区重合时,人们会选用竞争机制来处理歧义区语料。本研究初步验证了基于激发点 的权变模型关于句法歧义消解过程的相关设想。     

Myths and Small Groups: Development, Managed Care, and the Year 2000

In this article, the author defines myth and shows that disguised myths of archaic and primitive peoples can be found in the modern world. He discusses the myths that guide the development of small groups. He sketches out mythic aspects of the encounter between group therapy and managed care. Finally, he suggests the mythic significance of the year 2000 for the future of group development and of group therapy.     

MAU决策辅助对个体与群体决策质量的影响

本研究用实验室研究方法对 MAU决策辅助对个体和群体决策质量的影响进行了比较研究 ,结果表明 :(1 )使用 MAU决策辅助时 ,群体决策不仅在信息利用上优于个体决策 ,而且在多数心理效标上也占优势 ;(2 )在 MAU方法的利用效率上 ,只在任务较难时 ,群体决策更优于个体决策 ,且群体决策时间明显长于个体决策 ;(3 )不使用 MAU决策辅助时 ,个体决策和群体决策在心理效标上无显著差异 ,但群体决策在信息加工效标上优于个体决策。     

Mood and Emotions in Small Groups and Work Teams

Affective influences abound in groups. In this article we propose an organizing model for understanding these affective influences and their effects on group life. We begin with individual-level affective characteristics that members bring to their groups: moods, emotions, sentiments, and emotional intelligence. These affective characteristics then combine to form a group's affective composition. We discuss explicit and implicit processes through which this affective combination occurs by examining the research on emotional contagion, entrainment, modeling, and the manipulation of affect. We also explore how elements of the affective context, such as organizationwide emotion norms and the group's particular emotional history, may serve to constrain or amplify group members' emotions. The outcome, group emotion, results from the combination of the group's affective composition and the affective context in which the group is behaving. Last, we focus on the important interaction between nonaffective factors and affective factors in group life and suggest a possible agenda for future research.     

A Longitudinal Social Relations Analysis of Participation in Small Groups

Contrary to previous work in which task‐related judgments are hypothesized to predict participation in small groups, the current study assumes that participation is both an outcome of and an influence on judgments of task‐related ability. In this study, the association between task‐relevant judgments and participation was examined at two points in discussion. Results from a path analysis indicated that substantive participation during the first minute of discussion was positively related to task‐relevant judgments measured at the first‐minute time. In turn, those judgments were positively associated with subsequent substantive participation. Finally, substantive participation predicted judgments taken at discussion’s end. Nonsubstantive participation and judgments were not directly associated with each other. Discussion addresses theoretical and methodological issues raised by the findings.     

Division of Labor: Procedural Learning in Teacher-led Small Groups

This article presents an observational study of teacher-student interaction in fourth-grade small group sessions introducing an algorithm for solving remainder divisions. The groups are segregated by arithmetic achievement. Teacher and student input is analyzed with reference to a cognitive analysis of the task. A quantitative analysis compares amounts of teacher and student input at specific, cognitively significant points in procedures across groups. This analysis shows that there are qualitative differences both in solution strategies that evolve in the course of the lesson and in the extent to which the teacher-student interaction focuses on two "critical constraints" that are central to acquisition of this procedure. A subsequent analysis of transcribed protocols from the small group sessions discloses interactional mechanisms that can account for these differences. Much of the teacher's input is characterized as an unpacking of the necessary procedure by calling in subprocedures which take the students' responses as arguments and by specifying subprocedures lower down in the goal hierarchy when students failed to produce adequate responses. The interactive mechanisms combine with students' background knowledge to result in the group differences detected in the quantitative analysis.