Why We Form Groups

Animals form groups for various reasons. We, the people also join together for many reasons. What leads us to this behavior? Similarity rather than differences, mutual attraction, help in constructive planning, co-operation, security etc., are a few of the main reasons why people come together and form groups.

Interpersonal relationships involve direct communication between friends, members of family, a club, a fraternity or members of a small work force. These groupings involve relationships among individuals who have relatively fixed roles and statuses. People meet at movies, in the train and in classrooms without constituting groups. These occasions are physical togetherness and do not involve any individual relationships with any common tie and hence they are not groups in the psychological sense though it may lead to one later. The students in a classroom may not be a unified group in the initial stages but they may become one later on as demanded by their togetherness.

When two or more people come together in some interdependent way, where each member's behavior influences the behavior of the others, we have a psychological group. This relationship is enhanced when the members share a set of beliefs and values. When they work together on common tasks, the members become unified in a way that sets them apart form member of other groups. For example, we have families, political clubs and various educational groups.

Social organization is a planned system of interrelated psychological groups formed to accomplish a predetermined goal. Thus, political clubs, cliques of community leaders and groups of friends may all get together and form a political party. A social organization can include some psychologically diverse groups. A political party, which includes union members and a corporate executives group, is an illustration for this.

Some groups come into being specifically to achieve the wants of their members; for example, the fraternal organization. Another group may come into being for power and protection as in a labor union. The newborn child automatically becomes a member of the family group. One person may freely choose membership in a sports club. Another becomes a member of a police unit by getting drafted. Some one may join a radical group to gain attention or because he is lonely rather than from the conviction that the group's goals are his own. Also, sometimes people get together to unite on opposition.

Broadly, all groups help satisfy the need for power of some of the members and need to belong. In many cases, group identifications often become important to the individual. Similarly, attitudes, personality and career ambitions bring people together into groups. Occupational groups are common these days.

People work in different fields and at different levels and this place them in various groups. The unskilled and uneducated person is largely at the mercy of others in making his living. He may involuntarily become a member of a group for his welfare needs. The skilled worker falls into a group with slightly better independence. The manager represents another occupational group where career mobility can be identified and planned for with greater independence.

Professional occupations give the physician and the scientist even more freedom in groupings. At the managerial and professional levels, getting ahead is related to personal aspirations and opportunities. Still, most people do not move out of their occupational groups

In summary, whether a membership in a particular group, either large or small is forced upon a person due to external pressure or he has chosen it at free will, depends on what his membership will mean to him, in satisfying his needs.