Blog Entry 5 "Individuals in Groups"

Individuals that take part in groups, often act differently in a group setting than if they were by themselves. They are more responsive when it comes to emergency situations. Those who are alone and witness a disaster or danger tend to call for help, whereas the individuals in groups hold back. For instance, Carol Tavris mentions in her article “Individuals in Group” while conducting an experiment of students by themselves and students in groups of three, the students in the groups of three did not make a move. On the other hand, the individual students hesitated at first but later investigated the problem and made a report. I think every individual in a group serves a purpose because everyone is different and can bring different ideas to the group.

            “The reason has more to do with nature of groups than the nature of individuals” said Carol Tavris, from the article “Individuals in Groups”.  In a lot of movies and TV shows, when someone is choking, everyone is usually standing around just watching and waiting for someone to help, which usually turns out to be an individual that is working in the restaurant or an individual in the group with the person choking. In the movie Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps, while at dinner, Sherman Klump (played by Eddie Murphy) exposes Papa Klump (also played by Eddie Murphy) for being fired, which causes him to choke on his food. Sherman immediately reacts to his father choking and gives him the Heimlich maneuver, saving his life as the whole restaurant watches in shock.

            The larger the group, the lazier each individual in the group becomes. “Psychologists call this diffusion of responsibility” according to Tavris. In some cases this is not true. In my English class I had to work in a group of six people, some of us never even spoke to each other before. Each of us had a specific task to carry out. For example, I had to research how music changed from the year 2005-2010 in New York, while the other five members researched from 1980-2004. We all co-operated with each other and the end result was a B+.