Group emotion

Last updated

Group emotion refers to the moods, emotions and dispositional affects of a group of people. It can be seen as either an emotional entity influencing individual members' emotional states (top down) or the sum of the individuals' emotional states (bottom up). [1]

Contents

Top down approach

This view sees the group's dynamic processes as responsible for an elusive feeling state which influences the members' feelings and behavior. This view, that groups have an existence as entities beyond the characters that comprise them, has several angles.

Effects on individuals

One angle of this approach was depicted in early works such as Le Bon's [2] and Freud's [3] who reasoned that there is a general influence of a crowd or group which makes the members of the group "feel, think and act" differently than they would have as isolated individuals. The reassurance of belonging to a crowd makes people act more extremely. Also, the intense uniformity of feelings is overwhelming and causes people to be emotionally swept to join the group's atmosphere. Thus, the effect of the group causes emotions to be exaggerated. [1]

Norms

Another aspect of the group as a whole perspective sees the normative forces a group has on its members' emotional behavior such as norms for the amount of feelings' expression and even which emotions it is best to feel. The group's norms control which emotions would (or at least should) be displayed at a specific situation according to the group's best interest and goals. The norms help differentiate felt emotions, what the individuals actually feel, from expressed emotions, what they display in the current situation. This perspective has practical implications as shown by researchers. [4] [5] Thus, according to this angle the group causes the emotions to be moderated and controlled.

Binding force

Another perspective emphasizes the importance of emotional attraction in group settings. It defines group emotion as members' desire to be together, and finds that emotional ties are a type of glue which holds groups together and influences the group's cohesiveness and the commitment to the task. This perspective focuses on the positive emotions of liking the other group members and the task at hand. [1]

Indicator

This perspective of the group as a whole approach studies the dynamic development of the group, from its establishment to its disassembly. Along the course the group changes in its interrelationships and interdependence amongst its members. These changes are accompanied by emotional processes which shape the outcome of the group. For instance, the midpoint in a group's development is characterized by anxiety and anticipation about the capacity of the team to complete its goals, which drives teams to restructure their interaction patterns following the midpoint. Should the group harness these feelings and overcome the crisis stronger, its chances of completing the group's goals are higher. In other cases, negative emotions towards members of the group or towards the task might jeopardize the group's existence. This perspective sees the temporal changes of the emotions that govern the group. [1]

Bottom up

Contrary to the former approach, this approach views group-level emotion as the sum of its individuals' affective compositions. These affective compositions are actually the emotional features each member brings with him to the group, such as: dispositional affect, mood, acute emotions, emotional intelligence, and sentiments (affective evaluations of the group). [6] The team affective composition approach helps to understand the group emotion and its origins, and how these individual members' affective predisposition combine to become one common entity. For the purpose of combining these individual characteristics, one can embrace several viewpoints:

Average mood

Research has shown that by averaging the members' dispositional affective tone it is possible to predict group-level behavior such as absenteeism and prosocial behavior. Also, when the average mood of employees was positive, it was positively related to the team's performance. [1]

Emotional variance

Affective-homogenous groups are expected to behave differently from heterogeneous ones. The verdict is yet to be decided as to whether homogeneity is better than heterogeneity. In favor of affective homogeneity stand the notion that familiarity and similarity bring feelings of liking, comfort and positive emotions, and thus presumably better group outcomes and performances. It has long been found that people prefer to be in a group similar to them in many perspectives. A support for the positive effects of homogeneity can be found in a study that examined homogeneity in managers' positive affectivity (PA) and its influence on several aspects of performance such as satisfaction, cooperation and financial outcome of the organization. [7] On the other hand, according to the view of opposites being beneficial, affective heterogeneity may lead to more emotional checks and balances which could then lead to better team performance. This was found to be true especially in groups where creativity is needed to complete the task appropriately. Homogeneity might lead to groupthink and hamper performance. It is necessary though for group members in heterogeneous groups to accept and allow one another to enact their different emotional roles. [1]

Emotionally extreme members

Even if there is only one member in an otherwise averaged group which is extremely negative (or positive) in effect, that person might influence the affective state of the other members and cause the group to be much more negative (or positive) than would be expected from its mean-level dispositional affect. This mood shift might happen through emotional contagion, in which members are "infected" by others' emotions, as well as through other processes. Emotional contagion has been observed even in absence of non-verbal cues, for example on online social networks like Facebook and Twitter. [8] [9]

Combining approaches

The above approaches can be combined in a way that they maintain reciprocal relations. For instance, members bring dispositional affective states and norms for expressing them to the team. These components are then factors determining the creation of group norms, which may in turn alter the moods, feelings and their expression by the members. Thus, the top-down and bottom-up approaches coalesce along the dynamic formation and lifespan of teams. [1]

Empirical definition

One study compared the reports of team members to reports of outside-observers. It showed that team affect and emotions were observable by and agreed upon by outsiders as well as by members of the team interacting face to face. [10] So, it is possible to identify the group's affective tone by aggregating self-reports of members of the group, as well as by viewing the group from the outside and looking for emotional gestures, both verbal and nonverbal.

Affecting group emotion

Studies show that the leader of the team has an important part in determining the moods of his team's members. Such that members of a team with a leader in a negative affective state tend to be more negative themselves than members of teams with a leader in a positive mood. [11] However, any member of the group might influence the other members' emotions. He may do so either by way of implicit, automatic, emotional contagion or by explicit, deliberate, emotional influence in order to promote his interests. Other factors that affect the forming of the group's emotional state are its emotional history, its norms for expressing feelings and the broader organizational norms regarding emotions. [6]

Influence on performance

The emotional state of the group influences team processes and outcomes. For example, a group in a positive mood displays more coordination between members, yet sometimes the effort they apply is not as high as groups in a negative mood. [11] Another role emotions play in group dynamics and performance is the relation between intra-group task-conflicts and relationship-conflicts. It is assumed that conflicts related to the task can be beneficial for achieving the goal, unless these task-conflicts lead to relationship-conflicts among the team members, in which case the performance is hindered. The traits that decouple task from relationship conflicts are emotional attributes such as emotional intelligence, intragroup relational ties, and norms for reducing or preventing negative emotionality. Hence aspects of group emotion affect the outcome. [12] Other findings are that an increase in positive mood will lead to greater cooperativeness and less group conflict. Also, positive mood results in elevated perceptions of task performance. [13]

Evolutionary-psychological perspective

According to the evolutionary psychology approach, group affect has a function of helping communication between members of the group. The emotional state of the group informs its members about factors in the environment. For instance, if everyone is in a bad mood it is necessary to change the conditions, or perhaps work harder to achieve the goal and improve the conditions. Also, shared affect in groups coordinates group activity through fostering group bonds and group loyalty. [14]

Emotional aperture

Emotional aperture has been defined as the ability or skill to perceive features of group emotions. [15] Examples of features of group emotions include the level of variability of emotions among members (i.e., affective diversity), the proportion of positive or negative emotions, and the modal (i.e., most common) emotion present in a group. The term "emotional aperture" was first defined by the social psychologist, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks and organizational theorist, Quy Huy. [16] Analogous to adjusting a camera's aperture setting to increase depth of field, emotional aperture involves adjusting one's depth of field to bring into focus not solely the emotions of one person but also others scattered across a visual landscape. The difference between perceiving individual-level emotions versus group-level emotions is builds upon the distinction between analytic versus holistic perception. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotion</span> Conscious subjective experience of humans

Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.

In psychology, a mood is an affective state. In contrast to emotions or feelings, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event. Moods are typically described as having either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people usually talk about being in a good mood or a bad mood. There are many different factors that influence mood, and these can lead to positive or negative effects on mood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Job satisfaction</span> Attitude of a person towards work

Job satisfaction, employee satisfaction or work satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentment with their job, whether they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. Job satisfaction can be measured in cognitive (evaluative), affective, and behavioral components. Researchers have also noted that job satisfaction measures vary in the extent to which they measure feelings about the job. or cognitions about the job.

Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their personas during interactions with customers, co-workers, clients, and managers. This includes analysis and decision-making in terms of the expression of emotion, whether actually felt or not, as well as its opposite: the suppression of emotions that are felt but not expressed. This is done so as to produce a certain feeling in the customer or client that will allow the company or organization to succeed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social exchange theory</span> Generalization theory explaining social behaviour regarding society and economics

Social exchange theory is a sociological and psychological theory that studies the social behavior in the interaction of two parties that implement a cost-benefit analysis to determine risks and benefits. The theory also involves economic relationships—the cost-benefit analysis occurs when each party has goods that the other parties value. Social exchange theory suggests that these calculations occur in romantic relationships, friendships, professional relationships, and ephemeral relationships as simple as exchanging words with a customer at the cash register. Social exchange theory says that if the costs of the relationship are higher than the rewards, such as if a lot of effort or money were put into a relationship and not reciprocated, then the relationship may be terminated or abandoned.

Emotional contagion is a form of social contagion that involves the spontaneous spread of emotions and related behaviors. Such emotional convergence can happen from one person to another, or in a larger group. Emotions can be shared across individuals in many ways, both implicitly or explicitly. For instance, conscious reasoning, analysis, and imagination have all been found to contribute to the phenomenon. The behaviour has been found in humans, other primates, dogs, and chickens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affect (psychology)</span> Experience of feeling or emotion

Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood. In psychology, "affect" refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. It encompasses a wide range of emotional states and can be positive or negative. Affect is a fundamental aspect of human experience and plays a central role in many psychological theories and studies. It can be understood as a combination of three components: emotion, mood, and affectivity. In psychology, the term "affect" is often used interchangeably with several related terms and concepts, though each term may have slightly different nuances. These terms encompass: emotion, feeling, mood, emotional state, sentiment, affective state, emotional response, affective reactivity, disposition. Researchers and psychologists may employ specific terms based on their focus and the context of their work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affective events theory</span> Psychological model

Affective events theory (AET) is an industrial and organizational psychology model developed by organizational psychologists Howard M. Weiss and Russell Cropanzano to explain how emotions and moods influence job performance and job satisfaction. The model explains the linkages between employees' internal influences and their reactions to incidents that occur in their work environment that affect their performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The theory proposes that affective work behaviors are explained by employee mood and emotions, while cognitive-based behaviors are the best predictors of job satisfaction. The theory proposes that positive-inducing as well as negative-inducing emotional incidents at work are distinguishable and have a significant psychological impact upon workers' job satisfaction. This results in lasting internal and external affective reactions exhibited through job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

Dispositional affect, similar to mood, is a personality trait or overall tendency to respond to situations in stable, predictable ways. This trait is expressed by the tendency to see things in a positive or negative way. People with high positive affectivity tend to perceive things through "pink lens" while people with high negative affectivity tend to perceive things through "black lens". The level of dispositional affect affects the sensations and behavior immediately and most of the time in unconscious ways, and its effect can be prolonged. Research shows that there is a correlation between dispositional affect and important aspects in psychology and social science, such as personality, culture, decision making, negotiation, psychological resilience, perception of career barriers, and coping with stressful life events. That is why this topic is important both in social psychology research and organizational psychology research.

Affect displays are the verbal and non-verbal displays of affect (emotion). These displays can be through facial expressions, gestures and body language, volume and tone of voice, laughing, crying, etc. Affect displays can be altered or faked so one may appear one way, when they feel another. Affect can be conscious or non-conscious and can be discreet or obvious. The display of positive emotions, such as smiling, laughing, etc., is termed "positive affect", while the displays of more negative emotions, such as crying and tense gestures, is respectively termed "negative affect".

Emotional aperture has been defined as the ability to perceive features of group emotions. This skill involves the perceptual ability to adjust one's focus from a single individual's emotional cues to the broader patterns of shared emotional cues that comprise the emotional composition of the collective.

Emotional self-regulation or emotion regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. It can also be defined as extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions. Emotional self-regulation belongs to the broader set of emotion regulation processes, which includes both the regulation of one's own feelings and the regulation of other people's feelings.

Positive affectivity (PA) is a human characteristic that describes how much people experience positive affects ; and as a consequence how they interact with others and with their surroundings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negative affectivity</span> Personality variable

Negative affectivity (NA), or negative affect, is a personality variable that involves the experience of negative emotions and poor self-concept. Negative affectivity subsumes a variety of negative emotions, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness. Low negative affectivity is characterized by frequent states of calmness and serenity, along with states of confidence, activeness, and great enthusiasm.

Group affective tone represents the consistent or homogeneous affective reactions within a group.

Emotions in the workplace play a large role in how an entire organization communicates within itself and to the outside world. "Events at work have real emotional impact on participants. The consequences of emotional states in the workplace, both behaviors and attitudes, have substantial significance for individuals, groups, and society". "Positive emotions in the workplace help employees obtain favorable outcomes including achievement, job enrichment and higher quality social context". "Negative emotions, such as fear, anger, stress, hostility, sadness, and guilt, however increase the predictability of workplace deviance,", and how the outside world views the organization.

Limbic resonance is the idea that the capacity for sharing deep emotional states arises from the limbic system of the brain. These states include the dopamine circuit-promoted feelings of empathic harmony, and the norepinephrine circuit-originated emotional states of fear, anxiety and anger.

Interpersonal emotion regulation is the process of changing the emotional experience of one's self or another person through social interaction. It encompasses both intrinsic emotion regulation, in which one attempts to alter their own feelings by recruiting social resources, as well as extrinsic emotion regulation, in which one deliberately attempts to alter the trajectory of other people's feelings.

Emotional climate is a concept that quantifies the “climate” of a community, being a small group, a classroom, an organization, or a geographical region. It refers to the emotional relationships among members of a community and describes the overall emotional environment within a specific context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigal G. Barsade</span> American business theorist (1965–2022)

Sigal G. Barsade was an Israeli-American business theorist and researcher, and was the Joseph Frank Bernstein Professor of Management at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to research, she worked as a speaker and consultant to large corporations across a variety of industries, such as Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Google, IBM, KPMG and Merrill Lynch, healthcare organizations such as GlaxoSmithKline and Penn Medicine, and public and nonprofit corporations such as the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barsade co-chaired a task force of scholars aiming to utilize behavioral science to increase COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Barsade S.G. & Gibson D.E. "Group Emotion: A View from Top and Bottom". Research on Managing Groups and Teams. 1: 81–102.
  2. ↑ Le Bon, G. (1896). The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (PDF). London, UK: Ernest Benn.
  3. ↑ Freud, S. (1922/1959). Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (trans. James Strachey). New York: W. W. Norton.
  4. ↑ Rafaeli, A. & Sutton, R. I. (1987). "The expression of emotion as part of the work role". Academy of Management Review. 12 (1): 23–37. doi:10.2307/257991. JSTOR   257991.
  5. ↑ Rafaeli, A. & Sutton, R. I. 1989. "The expression of emotion in organizational life". In L. L. Cummings & B. M. Staw (eds.). Research in Organizational Behavior (PDF). Vol. 11. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. pp. 1–42.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. 1 2 Kelly, J.R. & Barsade, S.G. (2001). "Mood and Emotions in Small Groups and Work Teams". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 86 (1): 99–130. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.724.4130 . doi:10.1006/obhd.2001.2974.
  7. ↑ Barsade, S.G.; Ward, A.J.; Turner, J.D.F.; Sonnenfeld, J.A. (2000). "To your heart's content: A model of affective diversity in top management teams" (PDF). Administrative Science Quarterly. 45 (4): 802–836. doi:10.2307/2667020. JSTOR   2667020. S2CID   144870339. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-16.
  8. ↑ A. Kramer; et al. (2014-06-17). "Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks". PNAS. 111 (24): 8788–8790. Bibcode:2014PNAS..111.8788K. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1320040111 . PMC   4066473 . PMID   24889601.
  9. ↑ E Ferrara & Z Yang (2015). "Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media". PLoS ONE . 10 (1): e0142390. arXiv: 1506.06021 . Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1042390F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142390 . PMC   4636231 . PMID   26544688.
  10. ↑ Bartel C.A., Saavedra R. (2000). "The Collective Construction of Work Group Moods" (PDF). Administrative Science Quarterly. 45 (2): 197–231. doi:10.2307/2667070. JSTOR   2667070. S2CID   144568089. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-29.
  11. 1 2 Sy T.; Cote S.; Saavedra R. (2005). "The Contagious Leader: Impact of the Leader's Mood on the Mood of Group Members, Group Affective Tone, and Group Processes". Journal of Applied Psychology. 90 (2): 295–305. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.90.2.295. PMID   15769239.
  12. ↑ Yang J. & Mossholder K.W. (2004). "Decoupling Task and Relationship Conflict: The Role of Intragroup Emotional Processing". Journal of Organizational Behavior. 25 (5): 589–605. doi:10.1002/job.258. Archived from the original on 2012-12-16.
  13. ↑ Barsade S.G. (2002). "The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and Its Influence on Group Behavior" (PDF). Administrative Science Quarterly. 47 (4): 644–675. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.476.4921 . doi:10.2307/3094912. JSTOR   3094912. S2CID   1397435. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2007.
  14. ↑ Spoor J. R. & Kelly J. R. (2004). "The Evolutionary Significance of Affect in Groups: Communication and Group Bonding". Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. 7 (4): 398–412. doi:10.1177/1368430204046145. S2CID   143848904.
  15. ↑ Sanchez-Burks, J. & Huy, Q. (2008) "Emotional Aperture: The Accurate Recognition of Collective Emotions." Organization Science, pp. 1–13
  16. ↑ Sanchez-Burks, J. & Huy, Q. (2009). "Emotional Aperture: The Accurate Recognition of Collective Emotions". Organization Science. 20 (1): 22–34. doi:10.1287/orsc.1070.0347.
  17. ↑ Nisbett, R. E.; Peng, K.; Choi, I. & Norenzayan, A. (2001). "Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition" (PDF). Psychological Review. 108 (2): 291–310. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.108.2.291. PMID   11381831. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-10. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.