Group Dynamics and Learning Experiences

This document presents a personal reflection on a group assignment experience. The author describes helping a fellow group member with their work, the feelings and learning outcomes of this experience, and an evaluation of both positive and negative aspects. The analysis concludes that the overall situation was beneficial for knowledge acquisition and skill improvement. The author also outlines an action plan for future similar situations and reflects on the broader impact of the group process on interpersonal and group dynamics skills development.

Running head: EVALUATION AND REFLECTION
Evaluation and Reflection
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EVALUATION AND REFLECTION
Introduction
The group dynamics is considered as a system of behaviors as well as psychological
processes which takes place within a group or between different social groups (Forsyth 2018). I
realize the fact that the group dynamics is an important activity for doing the group projects in an
effective manner. The group dynamics are important for understanding effecting decision
making pattern in the team. They are also important for allowing the popularity of new ideas as
well as techniques in the group project. There are three important applications in the field of
group dynamics and team cohesion such as personal, leadership and environmental (Levi 2015).
This reflective essay would analyze my positive experiences as well as negative experiences
while working on the group project.
Reflection
The interpersonal skills are important for being successful in group project. They indicate
how people tend to communicate as well as interact with other people working in the same
project (Hackett and Parker 2016). It is observed that the people with a high degree of
interpersonal skills are usually more successful in their lives. I have realized the fact that I need
time to mix well with people. It is not true that I lack communication skills and I stammer while
speaking. But, I am shy and I am unable to approach people first. I have taken the MBTI (Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator) test and found out that I display the INTP- T personality (Refer to
Appendix). INTP stands for Introversion, Intuition, Thinking and Perceiving. I have all the
characteristics of INTP and have seen their evidences in real life.
I have seen that while I was doing the project on the “Likely Impact of Brexit on future
UEFA Champions League Rights Deal, amidst increasing choice about how to distribute

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content” I communicated effectively with the team but was unable to keep my point in front of
others. There were some group members who were loud and rude. I cannot be rude to people and
also I am not being able to shout at the top of my voices. Hence, I found difficult to express my
viewpoint at times. I have felt that there are times when I needed to express my viewpoint but
were unable to do so. I felt sometimes that I am being overpowered by the other team members
and this caused anger in me. However, I was not being able to do anything to change my
situation. I have found out that when there were one or two group members, I was able to express
my views. But, when there were more people, I found it difficult to communicate. In such
situations, I found that I kept silent and listened to others. This makes me realize that I display
some characteristics of introversion in my behavior.
I have an intuitive nature, which indicates that I have the ability of knowing something
without any reasoning process or any other direct process. When we were doing the group work,
one of the team members were getting romantically involved with a girl and I had the feeling that
this would ruin our project. This exactly happened as the member gave most of his time to his
partner and gave least time to work. On the end, he decided to marry all of a sudden and this
ruined our project completely. He was unable to complete his part and hence we had the burden
of completing our own portions along with his portion. This created huge burden for us and
hence the quality of the project dropped.
I do excessive thinking at times, which hampers my work. I tend to get away by my
emotions and hence I tend to waste a lot of time in this process. I usually day dream a lot and try
to think a lot about any incidents or situations that have arisen. In this process, I have realized
that my productivity tends to decrease and I am unable to submit my work on time. This has
resulted in a decrease in the quality of my project and there were times when my team members

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were upset by me. I have analyzed one incident by Gibbs reflective cycle. The Gibbs reflective
cycle helps one to understand systematically about the different phases of a single activity and
thereby structure the reflection (Forsyth 2018). The reflective cycle comprises of different
components such as description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. One
negative incident is analyzed below-
Description
There was once an incident in which I had a huge quarrel with one of my group members. She was
arguing about a particular research structure which I felt was not correct. On the other hand, I was arguing
about a different research structure, due to which there were misunderstanding between us.
Feelings
I was feeling sad as there were misunderstanding in the same team and this affected my mental state of
mind. I was feeling lonely and felt as if I was responsible for it.
Evaluation
I felt that one thing was good in this argument that the right assignment structure was followed as if I
kept silent, then my assignment quality would have deteriorated. One bad thing which I felt was that this
caused us to lose some of our precious time and we lost the track of our project.
Analysis
I felt that this situation was somewhat good for our project as the confusion was cleared off.
Conclusion
I felt that this could have been done in a more amicable manner and there was no reason for arguing in
a professional environment.
Action Plan
If this situation arose again, then I would not fight again and instead keep my point in a polite manner.

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I perceive in nature, which implies that I am being able to understand the emotions of
other people in a more transparent manner. I do not like to control or lead people and I am
extremely flexible in situations. I would like to share one positive incident in which I have
applied the Gibbs reflective cycle-
Description
Once, one group member requested me to complete one assignment for him, which he himself
was supposed to do. I had lot of other things to do but still I am unable to say no to people and decided to
help him by doing his assignment.
Feelings
I felt that I was not only helping another individual but was also using tools to improve my own
knowledge and skills.
Evaluation
I felt that one thing that happened during this process is that I was able to learn new things and
one bad thing was that I wasted time by not doing my own project.
Analysis
I felt that the overall situation was good and helped me to improve my own knowledge in the
process.
Conclusion
I concluded that this process have been a learning process for me.
Action Plan
If such situation arises again, then I would be happy to help them once again.

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Conclusion
The group process has helped me to learn some of the most important lessons on
interpersonal skills and group dynamics. I had lot of positive experiences as well as negative
experiences during this process. I am fortunate that I am being able to channelize these learning
so that I can improve myself in the future. This assignment has helped me to improve my own
group skills and interpersonal skills.

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References
Forsyth, D.R., 2018. Group dynamics. Cengage Learning.
Hackett, E.J. and Parker, J.N., 2016. Ecology reconfigured: Organizational innovation, group
dynamics and scientific change. In The Local Configuration of New Research Fields(pp. 153-
171). Springer International Publishing.
Levi, D., 2015. Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.

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Bibliography
Anderson, T., McClintock, A.S., Himawan, L., Song, X. and Patterson, C.L., 2016. A
prospective study of therapist facilitative interpersonal skills as a predictor of treatment
outcome. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 84(1), p.57.
Cheruvelil, K.S., Soranno, P.A., Weathers, K.C., Hanson, P.C., Goring, S.J., Filstrup, C.T. and
Read, E.K., 2014. Creating and maintaining high‐performing collaborative research teams: the
importance of diversity and interpersonal skills. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment, 12(1), pp.31-38.
Furnham, A., 2017. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). In Encyclopedia of Personality and
Individual Differences (pp. 1-4). Springer International Publishing.
Harris, R.D., 2014. Hispanic College Students' Learning Styles, Personality Types, and Gender
Differences: A Collective Case Study of Ten Hispanic College Students Exposed to the Myers
Briggs Type Indicator. ProQuest LLC.
Koprowska, J., 2014. Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Learning Matters.
Prather, Z. and Bates, J., 2015. Personality Types and Physical Touch. Undergraduate Research
Journal for the Human Sciences, 14(1).Tananchai, A., 2017. The Personality of Students
Studying the Social Etiquette and Personality Development Course by Myers Briggs Type
Indicators (MBTI) Theory. AJE, 3(2).

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Appendix

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