group psychology & conflict model

Group Psychology

& Conflict Model

PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH

1. The essence of a group, that which holds it together, is the system of libidinal ties among the members which is derived from aim-inhibited sexual impulses.

2. A primary group is a number of individuals who have taken the same person (the leader) for their ideal and who, by virtue of having a common ideal, identify themselves with one another (Freud, 1921)

GROUP IDENTIFICATION

1. Group identification generates emotional bonds between leader and the group members.

2. Bond with leader is more important for group stability than ties between members.

3. When ties of members with leader is broken the group dissolves unless another person acquires the status of an ideal figure.

THE EFFECT OF GROUP MEMBERSHIP

The effect of group membership

1. It intensifies the emotions of the members2. It inhibits the intellectual functioning

These effects result from the libidinal relationships within the group. The person is more governed by his id than by his ego.

GROUP ARCHAIC PROTOTYPE

• The archaic prototype of a primary group is a father and his sons – the libido – denied discharge – producing identification between sons and father.

GROUP FORMATION

Group formation is a revival of the primal horde, in which primal father is the group ideal which governs the ego in place of the ego ideal.

THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY

• TOTEM AND TABOO (1913)• MOSES AND MONOTHEISM (1939)• Down of society, group lived under strong leadership• The father as leader• Leader having unlimited power – used sadistically against his

sons• All female members as property• When jealous, killed, castrated, driven out of the tribe• Sons stealing wives from other tribes leading to inter tribal

warfare – further strengthen group ties

THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY

• Favored son chosen as tribal leader/successor• Driven sons killed father identified father by incorporating a part of

him• Intra-conflict among sons for power lead to discovery of fraternal

aggression dangerous • Social contract formed, renunciation of instinctual gratification• This ensure group solidarity, establishment of taboo against incest

and the law of exogamy (marrying other group member).• Thus, first society developed out of the family• Aggression was directed to other group to solidified the in-group

and restore brotherly love.

CONFLIT MODEL

Freud’s TheoriesId, Ego, Superego

• Conflict Model: The self is NOT UNIFIED; it is not a coherent, singular entity. Not entirely rational, not entirely under one’s control.

• There are competing elements within a person.• No way to resolve competing elements – only way to stay

healthy is to not let any one of them “get the upper hand” or sickness (i.e. neurosis or psychosis) can occur.


• Freud’s conflict model is based on the idea of the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. These are the components of the self.

• First:• THE ID: The oldest part of our mind – most primal,

most fundamental, most primitive.• The Id precedes culture! and is universal.


• “Id” does NOT stand for “Identity.” • Rather, it means “It” – n NOW!• It is irrational, emotional, demanding…and

STRONG


• The ID: The source for libido (psychic energy, not just sexual in meaning)

• Psychic energy fuels our thoughts, memories, sexual desires, perceptions, etc.

• Psychic energy – fixed amount (neither be created nor destroyed)


• The Id is ruled by The Pleasure Principle: (Always demands/wants)

• Pleasure Principle: Cares only about immediate self-gratification; does not care about holding back, doesn’t care about others.

• ID IS SELFISH


• A new baby is all Id. New born must successfully navigate the treacherous path to adulthood.

• A new baby only wants to eat, sleep, urinate, defecate, be comfortable, and gain sexual pleasure and wants it all now.


• The Ego: “I”

• Functions with the rational part of the mind. The Ego develops in the child by about age 3.

• Child learns that it is often unwise and there are consequences if s/he cannot learn to delay her/his gratification.


• The Ego is ruled by The Reality Principle, the Ego is pragmatic. “One can’t always get what one want.”

• The Ego mediates between the Id and the world. The Ego develops strategies to help the Id make it until the urge can be satisfied.

• It takes a tremendous amount of psychic energy to help suppress the Id’s urges.


• The Ego is in service to the Id, yet it uses some of the Id’s psychic energy to control the Id by reasonably satisfying the Id.

• Over time, the Ego becomes pretty good to keep the Id gratified.

• This causes the Ego to become aware of itself as an entity – now the individual experiences him/herself as a “self”, not just a big ball of urges.


• The Superego: “Over-I” • It is the last part of the mind to develop (by about

age 5).• The moral part of the mind (because the Ego is not

necessarily moral).• Represents societal and parental values. “Steps In”

when Mom or the Cops aren’t around.


• Two components to Superego: Ego Ideal and Conscience. (Don’t confuse with “conscious”)

• Ego Ideal: The rules or standards for what constitutes good or appropriate behavior. dictates what is right and wrong.

• Conscience: The rules or standards for what constitutes bad, immoral, embarrassing behavior.

• Dictates what is good and bad.


• If, as an adult, one’s Id is too dominant? (very self-absorbed, don’t care about others, only out for yourself)

• If, as an adult, one’s Ego is too dominant? (distant, rational, efficient, unemotional, cold)

• If, as an adult, one’s Superego is too dominant? (guilt-ridden or sanctimonious).

OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY(Volkan n Ross 88,93)

• According to this version of the theory, ego, while becoming separate from id, acquires certain functions that have to do with the external world, i.e. relations of one's self with objects (persons and things).

• One of those functions is constructing images and representations: Self images as well as images of other persons and objects.

Volkan (1988 see also Ross, 1993) claims that the ability to construct images develops in infancy and early childhood in three stages:

STAGE 1

• Infant begin differentiate from one to others• FORM simple images of self n others• Fail to grasp that pleasure n pain can be evoked

by same object/person (mom feeding/depriving)• Images formed are "all good/all bad" . It is

"unwelded" and "unintegrated."

STAGE 2

• 2/3 year infant begins integrating opposing images

• Integration (welding) can never be completed • Some good/bad images remain unintegrated,

absolute, and primitive

STAGE 3

• Super-ego formation:• The unintegrated images of self and parents are

idealized• Children externalize those unwelded or idealized

positive and negative images into certain people or objects of the outside world.

• It is necessary to maintain cohesion of the integrated self and object images/representations

There are Suitable Targets of Externalization (STEs) (reservoirs of images) determined by

• CULTURE (familiar objects of a child's environment)

• PARENTS OR OTHER ADULTS

Suitable Target of Externalization

– STEs…symbols as flags, songs, dishes, places of worship, religious icons, memorials, certain animals, people, group of people…Some STEs are negative (–) n some are (positive) +.

– POSITIVE (+) STEs are reservoirs of unintegrated good representations are seen as allies, friends, leaders, etc

– NEGATIVE (–) STEs reservoirs of unintegrated bad representations are regarded as enemies.

• Every person needs STEs to maintain his cohesiveness, sense of self, and to differentiate it from the representation of others.

• As personality begin to crystallize in mid adolescence so do one's Positive + and Negative – STEs.

GROUP IDENTITIES

• It is adopted. How it prevails over individual identity? How it contribute to intergroup conflict?

• In every culture there roughly the same set of POSITIVE and NEGATIVE Suitable Target for Externalizations (STE) for children belonging to that culture.

• STEs ties them together, by adopting them, they connect to each other, that further reinforce STEs

• The connection through common STEs contribute to group cohesion.

INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY AND GROUP IDENTITY

• Each ethnic group have their own identity. It is like garment. He wears it. It belongs to him, it protect him from harmful effects of the environment.

• Each ethnic group also has a group identity. It is like a "large tent" that protects the individuals like "a mother"

• As long as tent remains strong and stable, group go out daily without paying much attention to it…without a need to prove or express their ethnic identity

• If the tent shaken or disturbed, those under it become collectively preoccupied "shore it up" again. At that time group identity supersedes individual identity.

HOW ETHNIC (GROUP) IDENTITY IS DEFINED?

Cultural symbols, rituals help to define ethnic identity but apart from it…to define it positively it need MORE THAN SYMBOLS AND RITUALS

• ENEMIES (helps to define them who they are not)• CHOSEN GLORIES (important, mythologized n idealized

achievements that took place in the past)• CHOSEN TRAUMAS (losses, defeats, humiliations (also

mythologized) that is usually difficult to mourn• BORDERS (physical n mental) that help eliminate the

confusion about the in-group and the out-group, about "we" and "them". Borders are extremely necessary when "they" are enemies.

CONFLICT N’ MAJORITY ACTION

1.Minorities considered as non-assimilable easily become targets for externalization (projection) of Majority's negative feelings and images.• Such minorities attracts the hatred, suspicion, rage

of majority• They also serve as reservoirs of the majority's

negative self-images.

2. Dreadful psychological dynamic can be seen in majority-minority relations

• Relation with minority becomes more strained if minority is linked to state or nation that in the past inflicted a deep TRAUMA upon majority group…a trauma so painful that cannot be mourned.

• When balance of power change to majority, the minority may be seen as so dangerous, contaminated that it should be eliminated.

• The govt supported majority may try to purify the society from "dirty and harmful" elements.

• This perception may lead to "ethnic cleansing" for mass expulsion, massacres and even genocides.

• Such strategies to deal with minorities are "malignant forms of purification rituals"

SIT description of Conflict Types

THEORETICAL IMPLICATION ON DISTINCTION BETWEEN INTERPERSONAL AND

INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR:

Theoretical implication• First, intergroup phenomenon is very unpredictive if

explained from interpersonal relation• Second, Individual if depersonalized, group has its effect,

intergroup behavior is influenced by intergroup relations of status, power etc. not by interpersonal relations. (e.g., Friend but Boss)

• Third, some variables that may have effect on interpersonal relations may have a different effect on intergroup relations. E.g., similarity may have attractive properties at an interpersonal level but it may threaten group distinctiveness and may lead to intergroup discrimination (BROWN, 1984)

Tajfel (1979): intergroup behavior requires a different level of analysis from intra-group or interpersonal behavior.

TYPES OF CONFLICTS• Objective conflict• Subjective conflict

OBJECTIVE & SUBJECTIVE CONFLICT

• Objective conflict: Conflict over power, wealth, or territory• Outside the realm of psy…require an analysis in terms of

social, economic, political and historical structures.• Objective conflict is distinct from psychological,

symbolic/subjective conflict, such as attempts to establish positively valued distinctiveness (subjective).

• Distinct but both are interwoven & subjective conflict can exist long after objective disparities disappear (Deutsch, 1973…destructive conflicts)

EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT CONFLICT

EXPLICIT CONFLICT• Explicit conflict is legitimized and institutionalized

by rules or norms (Sherif's study)• According to Tajfel & Turner (1979) behavior

toward out-group can be classified into 2 categories:

• Instrumental behavior: action aimed at causing the in-group to win the competition

Non-instrumental behavior

• Non-instrumental behavior: behavior is more interesting psychologically, because it is gratuitous (without cause) discrimination against out-groups and has no sense outside the context of intergroup relations…negative stereotypes to members of out-group & to a group as a whole.– Generally a set of traits is attribute to all members of category– Individuals belonging to this category are assumed to be similar to each

other…different from in-group on particular traits.– Treting out-group in this way makes them more predictable, can be used to

justify discriminatory behavior.– Helps members to differentiate the in-group positively from the out group.

Implicit conflict

• This conflict exist in the absence of explicit institutionalization) no conflict of interest yet it remains.Differentiations are made yet no reasons for these differentiations to occur (e.g., Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda).

•

EXAMPLE

Hutu & Tutsi are not ethnic or tribal groups…same language, religion, and culture, history of extensive intermarriage and even exchange identities. Essentially the same people. Difference were emphasized by colonialists leading to exaggeration of quite small differences in physical attributes such as height and skin color….social differenctiation concluded with a deliberate genocide…causes complex but include a psychological component (Tajfel experiment…no conflict of interest…simply categorization)

Social psychological significance:• Most evident in the case of implicit conflict• When objective and subjective conflicts become

inseparable…and where a contemporary subjective conflict has outlived a more ancient objective one.

• Many pointless conflicts becomes more understandable when viewed as, at least in part, attempts to establish, maintain, or defend cherished social identities.

Final words…

IS IT POSSIBLE TO INCREASE SELF ESTEEM BY minorities?

• Exhibit high level of self-hatred and they try to confront it:• Legitimate n stable social system has no visible alternatives to the status

que…out-group (if minority) accept the inferiority• If (social system) seen as illegitimate soon alternative is searched (e.g.,

equality). System loses stability, oppression and terror begins• If majority-minority relations perceived as illegitimate…system no longer

stable, rejection follows…redefine the group's characteristics and try to transform social identity into a positive one.

• When minority reject their status, when there is unstable intergroup boundaries, they prefer assimilation.

• Social wall penetrated or prevented.• If economic and political interests are there between group…interethnic

violence and bloodshed erupts.

One way• If the social system is perceived as legitimate

and stable, and there are no visible alternatives to the status quo, or there is no conceivable prospect of any change in the nature of the system (such as in a feudal society ), they just accept their inferiority; they acquiesce (they agree or express agreement) .

group psychology & conflict model

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