The Influence And Impact Of Social Groups On Interpersonal Relationships

How can an interpersonal relationship be influenced by group membership?

The Relationship Between Social Groups and Interpersonal Relationships

This assignment focuses on the influence and impact of social groups on the interpersonal relationships. Moreover, it is concerned with how such groups create changes in interpersonal relationships and bring an enormous change. A group is not a pairing of two individuals.  It is sharing of each other’s thoughts, beliefs and actions which when channelized properly will grow better. Socio-psychology is a discipline that uses methods to understand and explain each other’s thoughts, and their behavior are influenced by the presence of other human beings or other social groups.  As with interpersonal relationships, be, it friends, parents, coworkers etc., group members interact with each other and leave a strong influence at their personal levels.

To explain such a relationship, the assignment will highlight why group membership plays an important part in promoting interpersonal relationships. To do so, the analysis will focus on the Socio-psychological theory, also called the Neo Freudian Theory. This theory explains the strong relation and the interdependence of the relationships on the social groups. Then, conflictive findings will also be presented which will explain that the socio-psychological theory is not always successful.  Socio-psychology is not only about social influences. Social perception and social interaction are also essential to understand interpersonal relationships. People that are present around us help us in shaping our thoughts and feelings. There might not be behavior changes in the individual irrespective of the impact from the social groups. It also explains that social groups help in shaping the personality of an individual. Also, real-life examples will be drawn to explain the connection between individuals and their social groups. This example will be a Wall and Chain campaign produced by AIRbnb. It is based on a 1987 Berlin story which focuses on the impact of the environment on the individual (Zaikin, 2017).

According to the socio-psychological theory, the individual and society are interlinked. The individual struggles hard to achieve its goals and the society helps him in doing so. Therefore, the desires of the person are fulfilled and the personality of the individual is determined. This theory is a contribution of Adler, Horney Forman and, Sullivan.  Karen Horney was a social theorist. She believed in the fact that the personality of an individual is shaped as he strives to fulfill his basic needs and anxieties which comes from the parent-child relationships. Building a successful interpersonal relationship, involves a mutual give-n-take between partners. This theory reveals that group membership, i.e. the social groups are not the biological determinants, but they play a major role in shaping an interpersonal relationship. Here, motivation plays a greater role. As long as the individual in any interpersonal relationship is self-motivated, he knows how to meet his needs and desires, the social groups will keep putting an impact on the individual’s’ life. Social behavior is always goal-oriented. Social-psychology is, therefore, a study of how people think and behave in a particular situation, and how they get influenced in the presence of social groups. People spend a lot of time understanding social situations and how they put an impact on the individual.  Social groups and structures strongly affect the formation of healthy interpersonal relationships. Also, it is stated, that, the socio-psychological factors, are the combination of social like the family, religion, friends and the psychological factors like the individual’s thoughts, beliefs play an important role in influencing an interpersonal relationship (Yamagishi, 2012).

The Socio-Psychological Theory

To make it more concise, it can be said that it is the society only from where the individual inculcates different types of behavior and qualities which helps in grooming the personality of an individual and also teaches him how to react to the external environment (XIN & XIN, 2013).

There are various psychological factors which determine the personality of an individual in any interpersonal relationship. The first psychological factor is the perception of two individuals where both decide to stay with each other, they understand each other’s likes and dislikes, their shortcomings and still accept each other demonstrates their willingness to stay connected (ZHANG, TIAN & ZHANG, 2013).

 Second, is the motivation in any interpersonal relationship which drives the relation. It is the basic needs and social needs which motivates the individuals to grab influence from the social group and seek satisfaction. The individuals have certain attitudes and beliefs on which their relationship rests. Their tendency to respond to each other marks their existence in society.  Here, social groups like family, religion, society have a genuine role to play in shaping the interpersonal relationship. The relationship might get destroyed if the groups have a bad influence and vice versa. It now depends on the individuals to decide what to grab and strengthen their relationship (van Schaik, Endedijk, Stapel & Hunnius, 2016).

 Self-disclosure goes well in interpersonal relationships. These relationships are formed as a result of social groups. There are various examples that explain the direct connection with the social psychological theory. The example is based on a true story which has been formulated into an ad campaign by AIRbnb. The company started a wall and chain campaign video to promote the feeling of belongingness in the society. It also highlights the interpersonal relationships between two individuals. Airbnb picked up this Berlin- based true story for its campaign. The story is of two security guards who render their services at the eastern and western side of the Berlin wall. The story shows the belongingness of the individuals to the society. Being slaved by the chains at one place, their personality is getting shattered, but still, they continue to work tirelessly. The guard’s family, therefore, decides to bring their father back to Berlin City so that he could enjoy the life again. There they meet a stranger, become familiar after talking and feel comfortable in each other’s company. AIRbnb is an accommodation site, which produced this story in the form of wall and chain campaign which told the story of two security guards from opposite sides of the walls of the Berlin wall reuniting. This video went viral, with over 6 million views in the first month. It was nominated for various awards as well, thus improving brand recognition. This was a good story to promote behavior changes in an individual (Paulus & Wentura, 2013).

Conflictive Findings on the Socio-Psychological Theory

Studies show that a good story has immense power to activate various parts of your brain, bringing out various social and psychological changes, thus making it more meaningful and impactful. The guards, in spite of no recreation, were happily rendering their services at the Berlin wall.  AIRbnb wanted to reinforce their vision of Belong anywhere through this authentic and emotive story. It highlights the connections between individuals which later on transform into good relations (MacInnis & Hodson, 2014).

However, there may be exceptional cases, when the socio-psychological theory might not be successful. The social groups like family, society, and religion might not create an impact on the individual’s thoughts and beliefs (Fitness, 2018).

 It might not change the behavior in interpersonal relationships. Theorists in the social identity approach, Henri Tajfal [1981], Michael Billig[1976], and Donald Horowitz[1985] state that every individual in an interpersonal relationship divide themselves into distinct classes or so- called categories like gender, location, ethnicity etc. for individuals that belong to a minority group, achieving a positive social identity is difficult as there is an inferior status compared to the majority (Du Plooy, 2016).

 If the social group is illegitimate, the minority group might look for an alternative. The conflicting theories are quite young and have emerged in the 1960s. The first one to emerge was the Realistic group conflict theory. The theory was introduced by Muzafir Sherif in 1966. The theory assumes that intergroup conflict arises the way group members perceive the situation with regard to real competition for scarce resources. He justified the theory with Robbers cave experiment which involved a group of boys in a summer camp who had never met before (Clow & Ricciardelli, 2011).

 When they were split into two groups making it a competitive environment with conflicting goals, inter group emerged very quickly. They would make goals at the expense of the other group. These conflict theories locate the manner in which individuals perceive the environment, locate themselves in it and transform them into individual and group identities which direct their behavior and actions. The Conflict theory, by Karl Marx, has a different opinion to suggest (Cheng, Conley & Ziegler, 2013).

It states those social groups are always in competition because of limited resources. Power and domination drive such social groups. Those who have immense wealth and power try to hold by any means, while those who cannot have to strive for existence. The theory believes that both the individuals and the social groups work to maximize their own benefits (Zimmermann, 2011).

Perceptions in Interpersonal Relationships

The social-psychological theory and models best describe the behavior of the social groups and their influence on the interpersonal relationships. These theories have a great potential of understanding the strength of the social groups and how they affect an individual’s life. They provide a framework for understanding the behavior and the adaptability of the behavior by the interpersonal relationship (CHEN & LI, 2014).

 Lambert in 1972 framed a social-psychological model which emphasized the social and psychological aspects. The model is based on acquiring personal identity and bilingual development. And here, social groups like parents and the society make the individual or the child aware of their social identity. Here, motivation can be instrumental or integrative. If the individual learns for its own self, it would be instrumental, whereas if he wants to enter any social group, manipulate and modify it, then the language would be integrative. The more an individual becomes proficient in his language, the more likely he is to be adopted by the social groups and the chances of existence are quite more. Thus, the social group, i.e.  Society plays an important role in shaping the personality of an individual (Allouah & Besbes, 2017).

In addition to the social –psychological theory, the wall and chain campaign introduced by AIRbnb also spreads a message that social groups highly influence an individual’s personality or any interpersonal relationship. The individual feels a state of belongingness when he meets and connects with other people (Bong, 2013).

 Moreover, their attitudes and behavior are also likely to change under the impact of the society, parents, religion, co-workers etc. both the guards on the two sides of the wall were suffering, but still managed to work because they were connected to each other, they could feel each other’s pains and emotions and that is why they could survive the adverse effects of the external situation (Ayala, 2009).

 Group membership or a group is a fundamental part of the society. There can be smaller or larger groups. Their impact can be highly rewarding to an individual or a group as a whole. The influence of the group on the interpersonal relationships might encourage or benefit the individuals. The influence might be negative sometimes, but the individuals connected in the relationship should have the power to adopt the good ones as it shapes their personality and behavior. Interpersonal relationships like the sibling relationships will always continue to be affected by social groups. The siblings though belong to the same family and parents, but they might have a different perception to view the world. Their tastes, likes, and dislikes might vary. The social groups might have emotional and psychological changes in the individuals which might differentiate them from each other. Their bond and proximity might decrease with time, but they will continue to affect each other’s lives.

Motivations in Interpersonal Relationships

It can be concluded in the way that interpersonal relationships are highly influenced by the group membership or the social groups. There are various characteristics shared in an interpersonal relationship which are caused due to the influence of social groups, friends, co-workers etc. research findings show that interpersonal relationships have tremendously affected by the social groups. Keeping this benefit in mind, the companies have started using the power of groups by organizing their employees into small self-managed teams. Not only relationships but the individual’s general behavior and personality are also affected and shaped. They bring emotional and psychological changes in the relationship. All the factors affect the members of the group, but personality is the only factor which affects all the members of the group. The likes and dislikes of an individual in any interpersonal relationship will keep changing with time and the person will be prone to change with the change in social groups or the external environment. In a group membership, some members might not participate, some little, and some may participate at different stages of the discussion, but will continue to affect each other during the course of discussion and will lead to the development of the group and the individuals.

References

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