Design and Analysis Issues in Group Research

小团体领域的研究对于全面理解社会行为是很重要的。目前，由于缺乏足够的统计工具来充分描述在小团体中发生的正在进行的过程，对群体的研究受到限制。群体研究中最有趣和最重要的一个方面是人们在群体中相互作用，并通过这种相互作用相互影响。今天可用的方法要么忽略，要么将群体中的人相互作用并因此相互联系这一事实视为统计上的麻烦。理解群体中人与人之间的联系将有助于澄清小团体中社会互动的本质。本研究将调查三种不同的研究设计。第一种设计，影响网络，涉及到人们在群体中相互影响程度的模型。这些类型的模型允许研究不同类型的影响等级对群体生产力和群体成员满意度的影响。第二种设计是轮换设计，即人们从一个组移动到另一个组。在轮换设计中，每个人都参加几个小组，这样当一个人成为一个新小组的成员时，个人行为的一致性就可以得到检验。第三种设计是世代设计。在这个设计中，有一个小组成员的更替。一些小组成员进入小组，其他成员离开。这个设计基本上模拟了家庭的出生和死亡周期。这种设计允许随着成员的变化来检验群体规范的稳定性。对于每个领域，研究将探索设计考虑和开发数据分析技术和计算机软件。这些方法对研究领导能力、社会影响、群体社会化、生产力和个性的研究人员应该是有用的。

Research in the area of small groups is important to the complete understanding of social behavior. Currently, the study of groups is limited by the lack of adequate statistical tools to describe fully the ongoing processes that occur in small groups. One of the most interesting and important aspects of group research is that people interact with one another in groups and, through this interaction, influence one another. Methods which are available today either ignore or treat as a statistical nuisance the fact that people in groups interact with one another and are, therefore, linked to one another. Understanding the links between people in groups will help clarify the nature of social interaction in small groups. This research will investigate three different research designs. The first design, influence networks, involves models of the extent to which people influence each other in groups. These types of models allow study of the effect of different types of influence hierarchies on group productivity and group member satisfaction. The second design is the rotation design, in which people move from group to group. In the rotation design, each person participates in several groups, so that the consistency of individual behavior when a person becomes a member of a new group can be examined. The third design is the generations design. In this design, there is a turnover in group membership. Some group members enter the group and other members leave. This design essentially models the birth and death cycles in families. This design allows examination of the stability of group norms with changing members. For each area, the research will explore design considerations and develop data analysis techniques and computer software. These methods should be of use to researchers of leadership, social influence, group socialization, productivity, and personality.