REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Membership Status and Subjective Group Dynamics: A review of the literature



Abstract

The essay titled “Membership Status and Subjective Group Dynamics” will be a review of the literature which will examine multiple aspects of group dynamics. A comprehensive study is being done. The paper will also present research results of many well known journal publications that will also help us to develop better understanding on the issue. This review of the literature will examine the similarities and differences in the subjective group dynamics model and the group socialization. The literature review will help us to reach meaningful information on the membership status and subjective group dynamics.

Membership Status and Subjective Group Dynamics Review

Research on subjective group dynamics has shown that there are some conditions that trigger a prescriptive focus for judgments of in-group members. For example in Abrahams, at el, 2003 study, children aged 6-7 years and 10-11 years during summer school In-group or out-group members feelings towards the summer schools were found to be either normative or anti-normative. According to a subjective group dynamics model of intergroup processes, intergroup differentiation and intra-group differentiation co-occur to bolster the validity of in-group norms.. Intergroup and intra-group differentiation refers to the conflict in ideas between members of the respective groups. Since each individual holds self identity, so when this self identity of the particular member is subject to compromise by other members, conflict arises. The group dynamics model advocated that this conflict between members tend to strengthen the customs within the group members which are mutually set by all members. The hypothesis that this process develops later than simple in-group bias was confirmed. All children expressed global in-group bias, but differential reactions to in-group and out-group deviants were stronger among older children. Moreover, the increasing relationship, with age, between in-group bias and evaluative preferences for in-group and out-group members that provide relative support to in-group norms, is mediated by the degree of perceptual differentiation among group members. However, an issue that requires further investigation is the extent to which the membership status of group members (normative and deviant) influences the way other members respond to them. This review of the literature will examine the similarities and differences in the subjective group dynamics model and the group socialization model.

To date, research on social identification has been more concerned with intergroup rather than intra-group differences. However, the social identification framework can help account for intra-group processes. For example, the “black sheep effect” is a sophisticated form of in-group favoritism where individuals must reconcile their knowledge of the existence of undesirable in-group members with their motivation to uphold a favorable view of the in-group as a whole. The subjective group dynamics model explains this phenomenon and proposes that differentiation between standards and unexpected in-group members allows individuals to maintain the personal justification of positive intergroup differentiation .The social identification models says that anonymity and social context in interaction have cognitive and strategic consequences. The cognitive consequences are the process by which the salience of ...