Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice

Development and validation of a team attributional style questionnaire.
The purpose of the study was to develop a psychometrically sound team attributional style questionnaire. A four-phase questionnaire development protocol was employed. In the first phase, Rees, Ingledew, and Hardy's (2005) four-dimension attribution model (i.e., controllability, stability, globality, and universality) was adopted to guide item generation. Phase two consisted of the development of the questionnaire and the assessment of the content validity of the items. In phase three, the reliability and validity of the newly developed questionnaire was assessed using a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) confirmatory factor analysis on a sample of 240 athletes. The results indicated an acceptable fit between the four-factor model and data. Phase four assessed the criterion validity of the measure using the partial least squares (PLS) structural modeling technique. A sample of 198 athletes completed the new questionnaire and the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985). The four-factor attributional style model accounted for 19% of the variation for Group Integration–Task cohesion and 15% of the variance for Individual Attractions to Group–Task cohesion. Issues related to assessing team attributional style are discussed and future research directions are recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Co-leader similarity and group climate in group interventions: Testing the co-leadership, team cognition-team diversity model.
This study tested a coleadership, team cognition-team diversity model of coleader similarity and dissimilarity and its effect on group processes. This model suggests that group coleaders will be most effective when coleaders share cognitions about the group but are dissimilar in terms of their skill sets and behavior within the group. Specifically, the current study examined whether coleader dissimilarity in behavior was related to the group climate in eight coled intergroup dialogue groups at a large university. Results gave partial support to the coleader, team cognition-team diversity model, as coleader dissimilarity was related to increased overall engagement and conflict within the group. Coleader dissimilarity was related to decreasing conflict and increasing avoiding, suggesting that the relationship between coleader similarity and group processes is more complex than implied by the coleadership, team cognition-team diversity model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The role of affect in knowledge transfer.
In two experimental studies of two-party information sharing, we demonstrate that affective state plays a role in the knowledge-transfer process. Study 1 (N = 108 MBA students) found that affective state has a larger impact on those in need of knowledge (“receivers”) than on those in possession of knowledge (“senders”), with elated/happy receivers more likely than angry/frustrated receivers to absorb and act on new information. Study 2 (N = 180 undergraduates) replicated this finding and also demonstrated that having receivers and senders in the same high-arousal affective state as each other (affective congruence) enhances knowledge transfer, regardless of whether the affective state is positive (elated/happy) or negative (angry/frustrated). These findings help fill an important gap in the literature regarding the influence of affect on knowledge transfer in groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
“If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” Social identity salience moderates support for retaliation in response to collective threat.
Researchers have recently asserted that social identity salience moderates the way in which people react to external stressors. However, previous research has mainly investigated this idea in the context of internal coping processes in response to personal threat. The present research examines people's willingness to respond to collective threat by means of aggressive acts of revenge. A study with 80 female participants revealed that aggressive revenge intentions were most pronounced when the form of collective threat was relevant to a currently salient social identity. Specifically, we found that a threat to national identity (the 7/7/2005 London bombings) led to greater aggression and greater support for revenge when national rather than gender identity was salient. In contrast, a threat to gender identity (Taliban misogyny) led to greater aggression and greater support for revenge when gender rather than national identity was salient. Implications for research on social identity, stress, and responses to terrorism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Modeling longitudinal data from a rolling therapy group program with membership turnover: Does group culture affect individual alliance?
Many community- and hospital-based group treatment programs have an open enrolment, that is, a rolling admissions structure, in which a group member who drops out or successfully completes therapy is replaced by another individual. Although practically efficient and perhaps clinically useful, the interdependence of these group participants' data may result in incorrect inferences drawn from the data analyses if this interdependence is not accounted for. We present an analytic strategy that uses time varying covariates in multilevel models to illustrate a methodology to address these data analysis problems. Participants were adults with eating disorders (N = 229) who attended an average of 12 weeks of a rolling admissions group-based day hospital program during an 8-year period, and who completed a group therapy alliance measure weekly. Individual alliance to the group increased from week to week, and this growth remained significant even after controlling for the time varying level of other group members' alliance to the group. Further, the level of an individual's alliance score during any given week was positively related to the group's alliance during that week. The multilevel time varying covariate models presented here add to a very small but emerging set of analytic strategies available for researchers to address some of the hurdles to correctly analyze data from rolling admissions group-based treatment programs. Results from this study provide evidence that a group's culture is passed on and affects an individual's alliance to the group despite changes in group membership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Groupness and adherence in structured exercise settings.
This study examined the relationship between groupness and self-reported exercise adherence. Exercise participants (N = 86) recalled a structured setting where they had been active with others during the last six months. To capture groupness, five group variables (i.e., common fate, mutual benefit, social structure, group processes, and self-categorization) were assessed. Indicators of self-reported adherence were participant's recall of frequency (times/month) and percent attendance in a specified structured exercise setting. Results from structural equation modeling revealed an acceptable fit: χ² = 18.89, p > .05, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.075, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.95 for the hypothesized model. Groupness was positively related to self-reported adherence explaining 20% of the variance in adherence. These findings provide preliminary support for the idea that perceiving a collection of exercise participants as being more like a group may be associated with adherence in a structured exercise setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Team composition, cognition, and effectiveness: Examining mental model similarity and accuracy.
This study examined the relationships between team cognitive ability and personality composition in relation to the similarity (MM-similarity) and accuracy (MM-accuracy) of team task-focused mental models. The relationships between MM-accuracy and MM-similarity with multiple indicators of team effectiveness were also examined. Sixty-seven three-person teams performed a simulated search and capture task. Results indicate that the team mean-level of cognitive ability was positively related to both MM-accuracy and MM-similarity, and the team mean-level of team agreeableness was positively related to MM-similarity. In turn, MM-accuracy was positively related to perceived coordination processes and goal accomplishment, but not team viability. In contrast, MM-similarity was positively related to team viability, but not goal accomplishment or perceived coordination processes. Implications of the findings for understanding factors that facilitate the emergence of task-focused mental models in teams with a limited life span or during the early stages of team development are discussed, along with the implications of team mental models for team success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice - Vol 14, Iss 2