A-Level PE AQA Sport Psychology: Group Cohesion

. A desire of the group members to achieve their goals
. They are forces acting to keep members within the group integrated and focussed
. This can lead to success or can come from success
. It can either be task or social

It is results based and outcome based

It is when members are working together and interact

Task and Social cohesion

Coaction is when everyone in a group completes the task at the same time but separately

Interaction happens when everyone completes different roles and integrates them all together

The factors that may affect cohesion

. Environmental factors
. Personal factors
. Team factors
. Leadership factors

. Age
. Geography
. Contractual obligations
. Time available
. Size of group - social loafing
. Ringleman effect

. Acceptance or roles
. Does the group align in terms of aspirations
. Work ethic
. Opinions
. Values
. Happiness

. Leadership style shown by captain or coach
. Leader and team relations

. Desire for success - more success = more cohesion
. Team ability
. Team productivity
. Shared experiences/goals

Individuals working together to achieve an end result/common goal

It allows members to make their own contribution

Individuals relating to each other to interact in the group?

It allows support for each other and trust to develop

. Poor tactics
. Lack of communication
. Misunderstanding of roles
. Bad timing
. Poor strategies
. Social loafing

. Communication
. Past success
. Sharing common goals
. Unequal pay/rewards
. Personality
. Threats to the team
. Type of sport
. Size of group
. Similarity of group members
. Likelihood of future success

Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity - Losses due to faulty processes (AP=PP-FP)

The performance of the team during the game, the result

The groups best performance/maximum capability when at optimal cohesiveness

Affected by skills and ability

Factors that go wrong and reduce cohesiveness

. Poor coordination or cooperation
. Not listening to the coach, misunderstood patterns/roles, motivation, poor cooperation and bad communication

. Ringleman effect
. Social loafing

. Tactics/strategies
. Communication/Interaction

When group performance decreases with group size

Individual loss of motivation in a team player due to lack of performance identification when individual efforts are not recognised

They take the easy option and make limited contribution to the cause because they are lazy

. Low confidence
. Lack of fitness
. Low ability
. Injury
. Negative attitude
. Failure to understand a role
. A belief your effort won't change the result
. Social inhibition
. Poor leadership
. No recognition of previous performances
. Lack of reinforcement
. High state/trait anxiety

. Highlight individual performance
. Statistics
. Give specific roles/responsibilities
. Praising rewarding behaviour
. Raising individuals confidence
. Punish social loafing
. Training with an audience present

. Social cohesion helps working together
. Successful teams display high task cohesion
. Cohesive groups usually successful
. Winning teams may not need social cohesion if committed to task, task cohesion is enough
. Task cohesion more important, can over-ride social cohesion
. Success follows when task and social cohesion are high
. Other factors promote success, not just cohesion

. Ringleman effect
. Motivational losses
. Social loafing

As group size increases the individual contribution decreases

Reduction in motivation and individual effort - individual hides in the group