Week 7 - Theories of Group Formation and Behaviour

So why do we join groups or communities? what is it that we get out of them, and how does this affect our behaviour?

Well the main reasons we join communities are;

• For "Gains" or to get Rewards - this is behavioral psychology, as we want to get something out of it for ourselves, but if the cost on us of getting the information (not necessarily money wise) is more than the reward we are getting from it, then we leave.
• To Recapture Lost Family - This is Sigman Freud's theory that poeple join communities in order to try and recapture the family we had when we were children, i have to say i find this very interesting.
• Evolutionary - This is meaning that we need to form groups and communities in order for us to survive and evolve as humans.

The discussion in the tutorial about how an online group differs from a face-to-face one was really interesting. The Tuckman life cycle for face-to-face and Kat Nagal's for an online group are really informative and help a lot in showing why certain thing happen, and what will happen next. Although the lifecycles look diferrent they are infact quite similar, one of the main differences is that the storming (conflicts as roles are contested) starts quicker in a face-to-face group than an online one, i think this is because we can assess each other much better and quicker face-to-face, also this is usually before rules are established. An online discussion usually goes through a state of norming, where people work together and accept the rules, before storming happens. Another main difference is that in a face-to-face group it usually performs its purpose and then terminates, whareas an online group might terminate before it ever completes theirs.

If i was to analyse the current state of the online communities im currently associated with using Kat Nagal's life cycle then i would say:

FriendsReunited: Growth (Forming)
MoneySavingExpert: Community (Norming)