Design and Analysis Issues in Group Research

如果我们要了解课堂、治疗小组、家庭、委员会和友谊小组是如何运作的，以及这些小组如何能够变得更有生产力，那么在小组领域的研究是重要的。目前的许多群体研究都使用了为研究个人行为而开发的理论和模型。这种个别关注在一定程度上是由于目前现有统计工具的局限性。常用的分析方法不是忽略了人与人之间的互动和影响，就是把人与人之间的相互影响视为一种麻烦。提出了五个不同的调查领域。首先，将开发和测试模型，以解释同一组的成员比不同组的成员变得更相似的过程。其次，将开发确定一个人离开一个群体进入另一个群体时行为变化的方法。第三，我们将建立一个组的规范变化的模型，当一个成员离开组而新的人加入组时。第四，将探索研究家庭成员如何感知彼此的方法。第五，将开发衡量相互竞争的团体制定对抗规范程度的方法。将为每个领域开发数据收集和统计分析程序以及计算机软件。对每个地区的数据进行分析，以说明新的分析方法。在这项研究完成后，将有一套工具可用于衡量群体成员创建规范的过程以及这些规范对群体成员的影响程度。这些技术可以应用于社会心理学、组织行为学、家庭学、社会学和教育心理学。

Research in the area of small groups is important if we are to understand how classrooms, therapy groups, families, committees, and friendship groups operate and how these groups can become more productive. Much of the current group research uses theories and models developed for the study of individual behavior. This individual focus is, in part, due to the current limitation in the available statistical tools. Commonly used analytic methods either ignore or treat as a nuisance the fact that persons interact and influence one another. Five different areas of investigation are proposed. First, models will be developed and tested to explain the process by which members of the same group become more similar to one another than members of different groups. Second, methods to determine the ways in which a person's behavior changes when he or she leaves one group and enters another will be developed. Third, we will model the extent to which the norms of a group change when the one member leaves the group and a new person enters the group. Fourth, methods to study how family members perceive one another will be explored. Fifth, methods to measure the extent to which competing groups develop antagonistic norms will be developed. For each area, procedures for data collection and statistical analysis as well as computer software will be developed. For each area, data will be analyzed to illustrate the new analytic method. Upon completion of this research, there will be a set of tools that can be used to measure the process by which group members create norms and the extent to which these norms influence the group members. The techniques can be applied in social psychology, organizational behavior, family studies, sociology and educational psychology.