PSYCHOLOGY 5: Reflection on Group Dynamics and Personality Analysis

This psychology assignment reflects on group dynamics and personality types within a team setting. The student identifies and describes two personality types, a 'leader/director' and a 'perfectionist', detailing their advantages and disadvantages in a group environment. It applies William Schutz's Theory of Interpersonal Needs to identify potential conflicts arising from differing needs for control, inclusion, and affection, and suggests strategies for balancing these needs. The assignment also outlines the five developmental stages of a group (Orientation, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Closure), including relevant dialectics. Finally, it explores different types of group norms (explicit, interaction, procedural-status, and achievement) and their significance in group functioning. The assignment is a comprehensive analysis of group dynamics, demonstrating an understanding of psychological theories and practical applications.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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1. I have got the opportunity to work in teams during my previous assignment. Working
in groups can make you understand various personality types. A combination of
various personalities in a team can create stronger and more balanced work. I think,
that this preliminary encounter with these personalities will help me in my future
professional practice.
Among the various types of personality types, that I have encountered, that two
significant personality type that I have encountered is the ‘leader/director” and the
“perfectionist”. Some of the other personality types are socializer and stabilizer. The
driver or the leader of the team was very goal oriented and practical. He was not very
detail oriented and most of the time loved to delegate tasks to others. The person with
this type of personality did not generally like much restraints to be put on them and
preferred to work independently (Lvina, 2015, May).
The strength of this personality was that she was very good at manipulating the
members to complete the project within the deadline. One of the strength of this type of
personality is that, since they are goal oriented they are not very well aware of the
feelings of the co-workers.
Another type of personality in our team was a perfectionist. This type of
personality could go to any extent for getting a work perfect. This quality was very
important as well as a requirement for our project due to her habit of fixating on every
possible steps, which had helped us to remove many flaws.

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One of the weakness is that his attention towards achieving high standards could make
the entire project slower and they tend to get impatient with or hypercritical of the
others. This generated a conflict between the other team members.
According to William Schutz’s Theory of Interpersonal Needs, the three needs that can
be problematic in reaching the goal of the groups are control, inclusion and affection.
It was evident from above answer, that there had been much difference in
concept of both the driver and the perfectionist. To maintain a satisfactory relationship
of their extreme needs we made it sure that there were regular sessions, where each of
the members were given the chance to express their ideas about the assignment and
how they will be implemented. Thus, respecting other member’s need for appreciation
and recognition. Each of materials proposed by the members were being approved
from the driver before incorporating in the assignment, thus not much scope was given
to him to seek total control. The person who was the perfectionist was allocated as the
researcher as, it was known that she will keep no stones unturned to make a successful
assignment. However, she was provided with a time line to do everything within the
deadline, such the assignment was finished on time.
2. Developmental stages in a group
Orientation- In this stage group has just initiated to come together, driven by the desire
to be accepted by group members. The two dialectics are homogenous↔
heterogeneous and single ↔ team goals.

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Storming stage – In this stage the dispute as well as the competition are at its greatest
as they have an understanding of the work. The two dialectics at this stage are
cohesion-conflict and unity- disparities.
Norming stage- In this stage the interaction becomes a lot easier. The dialectics at this
stage is conflict ↔ cohesion dialectic and the leadership ↔ followership dialectic
(Harms, 2017).
Performing stage- In this stage, the group members rends to acknowledge the skills,
talents and the experience that each of the members bring to the group.
Appreciation↔ criticism and engaged ↔ disengaged are the two dialectics of this stage.
Closure – this stage is reached with the completion of the task. The two dialectics are-
similarities ↔dissimilarities, open ↔ closed system (Harms, 2017).
3. Explicit norm- Some of the group norms, that are stated outright, either orally or in a
written form by an authority figure in an explicit norm. This norm is important for a
group, as the written document can give a clear instruction to the members who can
work on the basis of the set guidelines.
Interaction norm- These norms specify as of how individuals in a team should interact
or communicate in a group. These might be useful to eradicate ay cultural differences or
can reduce the chance of any conflict due to miscommunication (Dastani, van der Torre
& Yorke-Smith, 2017).

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Procedural- status- this norms identifies the functioning of a group. This gives a clear
idea about things like timelines of a meeting, or who would speak first how the work will
progress or after what time the group will again meet together (Dastani, van der Torre &
Yorke-Smith, 2017).
Achievement norm- This norm relates to the standards that a group normally sets for
the nature and the amount of the work. It assist the team members to work as per pre-
set guidelines. This lessens down the scope or errors and reduces delays (Dastani, van
der Torre & Yorke-Smith, 2017).
.

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REFERENCES
Dastani, M., van der Torre, L., & Yorke-Smith, N. (2017). Commitments and interaction
norms in organisations. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 31(2),
207-249.
Harms, J. D. (2017). Exploring the Connection between Interpersonal Needs and
Conflict Resolution Styles.
Lvina, E. (2015, May). Building political skill to ensure team trust and performance. In
Specialized conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business (p. 132).