Investigating Human Behavior by Reflecting on the Experiences

Group Dynamics Reflection Paper
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Group development constitutes one of the most significant aspects of group dynamics the group members experienced during research project execution. Group development dictated and shaped the group members ability to collaborate with other students during project development. Again, it equipped the group members with relevant skills and competencies, including upholding opennesses and professionalism central to creating meaningful collaboration with other group members to research and present information required in the project. The research project group was required to investigate the risk factors of depression among the aging population. The group consisted of five participants, including two ladies and three gentlemen. The paper will critically investigate human behavior by reflecting on the experiences regarding group formation and structure constructs, including group development, norm development, and collaboration among group members, and connecting such experiences to existing research and theories on group dynamics.
Group Development
Tuckman’s theory of group development identifies and discusses four main phases that individuals pass through when working as a group to accomplish a given task. The group development stages related to the experiences working in the team are forming, storming, norming, and performing (Jones, 2019). During the project group development process, the group members adapted Tuckman’s theory of group development by applying the stages as would be delineated in the subsequent sections.
Forming was the first phase of development that the group underwent during project execution. The group members elected a group leader to supervise the meetings and lead the project team toward collecting the appropriate information needed for the research question. According to Tuckman’s theory, it was important to share project timelines and each group member to introduce themselves including their areas of specialization and interests in the forming phase (Jones, 2019). This phase entails getting acquainted and establishing group leadership guidelines. After forming, the group proceeded to the storming phase. The complex nature of the research project prompted the need for extensive discussions that often culminated in arguments. It was difficult for members to agree on the themes to include or exclude from the research project paper. Members were comfortable and felt free to voice concerns regarding the right project methodology to apply to support the result’s validity, thus offering an impetus for in-fights and conflicts within the team (Vaida & Șerban, 2021). The conflicts and power struggles among members during the discussion coincides with Tuckman's group development model. According to Turkman, the storming phase entails a power struggle and evokes emotions and battles as the members challenge each other’s perspectives and place within the group.
Norming constitutes was the next phase and it played a central role in mobilizing team members to achieve the objectives. The group members collaborated by actively listening and conforming to others’ suggestions during the project discussion meetings (Jones, 2019). Accordingly, due to the limited time remaining to accomplish the project, group members demonstrated focus and actively participated in presenting their research findings to finish and achieve better performance in the project. This relates to Tuckman’s model of group development, which states that during the norming stage, group members should find an approach to create and enhance harmony among members to accomplish the project in time as well as record exemplary performance (Jones, 2019).
Performing constituted the fourth and the last phase that the group members experienced during project implementation teamwork. During this stage, the group members negotiated, participated, and supported each other to obtain reliable data to present in the project. They also demonstrated trust in their work toward achieving the research project objectives (Jones, 2019). This relates to Tuckman's theory which argues that the performing phase is characterized by high-performance efficiency and coordination among group members attributed to the established mutual understanding.
Norms Development
Group norms can be conceptualized as the rules that outline what type of behavior is wanted or unwanted within the group. These policies offer directives for the behavior members should observe when interacting with each other. Members who wish to conform to such groups must adhere to the stipulated rules; otherwise, they will be expelled (Bar-On & Lamm, 2023). During the project’s development and management, the group leader collaborated with group members to formulate data collection guidelines to present during group meetings. Accordingly, the group leader instilled a sense of belonging and responsibility within the team by designing mechanisms such as punishment for participants who were willingly absent from project meetings. Formulating rules that respected each member’s role and contribution in decision-making processes during project discussion meetings was important to achieving a team-based consensus. This relates to Tajfel's social identity theory which postulates that people are unique and different from others in the context of social identity. An individual's emotional importance and group belonging dictate their group identification. Group identification activates feelings of social identity that influence the individual ability to internalize the values, beliefs, and norms shared in the group (Paricio et al., 2020). In this regard, internalizing the specified norms affects the person's attitudes, behaviors, and emotions, increasing the probability of them observing and adhering to the group's regulations to which they belong.
Collaboration Between Group Members
Collaborative learning theory can be defined as the process whereby groups of students learn by exchanging ideas with each other via working together to accomplish a given task. Collaboration between the project team members can be understood via Lev Vygotsky's theory of social interactions which focuses on the significance of soci...