Teaching Resources
Chapter 7
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Discussion Questions
1) Think back to your groups of friends as you were growing up. How would you describe your friendship groups in junior high and high school? What was important to you as friends? Has that changed at all in college? If so, how?
2) What makes families a unique small group archetype?
- How is it different from other archetypes like “team”?
- If you are part of a group and one of the other members refers to it as a “family,” what does that make you think of?
- How would this metaphor shape your expectations for how people should act in this group?
3) What is the difference between task conflict and relational conflict? Is one better than the other? In your experience, do groups deal with these two types of conflicts differently?
4) Why is it important to think about whether or not group members want to understand the conflict accurately?
- What would prevent someone from wanting to understand the conflict accurately?
- Is it always important to make sure you have accurate understanding of the conflict? When might that not be as important?
- If someone in your group does not want to get an accurate understanding of the conflict, how does that influence what happens in the group?
5) What is the right amount of cohesion for a group? How do you know if your group is too cohesive?
Classroom activities
1) Relational tensions in small groups
Students should use the relational tensions described in Table 7.1 to analyze a group interaction. One way to do this is as a homework assignment (short reflection paper) where students are asked to reflect on their own experience of their class work group or a group they are part of outside of class (family, friendship group, etc.).
Another option is to have students do this analysis in response to a video clip of a group interaction. The video clip should provide a good look at group life in family or friendship groups. Some examples could be from the television shows described in the chapter. Other possibilities include clips from movies such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Breakfast Club, The Big Night, The Joy Luck Club, The Sum of Us, Moonstruck, Roommates, Soul Food, Smoke Signals, and many others.
Students should:
- identify and explain the relational tensions are most evident to them and
- provide examples from their group that demonstrate the tensions
- explain what strategies the group seems to communicate about and/or manage these tensions.
During class, instructors can have students share one of their observations with their group and/or call on student examples during the lecture/discussion of relational tensions.
2) Conflict in Groups
The goal of this activity is to help students think about their own personal approaches to conflict in groups and connect that self-knowledge with an understanding of other group members’ approaches.
Individual Assessment
Students should take a personal conflict styles inventory. (The Thomas-Kilman inventory is a commonly used inventory that works well for this activity.) Ask students to answer the questions by thinking about how they respond to conflict in group settings. The instructions on the instrument are more general, but remind the students that the goal here is to think about how they typically approach conflict situations in groups. Sometimes students might find it helpful to think about a particular situation that they think typifies their approach and answer the questions with that situation in mind.
After students complete the questionnaire, instructors can hand out the scoring instrument (3rd page of the inventory) and students can score themselves to see what the questionnaire indicates about their preferred conflict style(s).
Partner Conversation
Students should talk through their results with a partner and reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the style that the questionnaire indicates as their strongest, or most preferred, style. Students can reflect on when this kind of conflict style is useful, what can be difficult about it, how well they think it works for them in group settings, etc.
Class Discussion
I recommend debriefing a bit at this point by talking as a class about each of the styles indicated by the Thomas-Kilman inventory and noting some of the strengths and weaknesses of each style. This conversation about general strengths and weaknesses can help make part four of this activity go more smoothly by giving students a vocabulary to talk about their approach to conflict and validating each student’s preferred style as potentially valuable in some circumstances.
At this point, draw their attention to the comment in the chapter “it is important to look beyond individual differences in conflict orientations to consider the juxtaposition of different members’ approaches” (p. 127). Instructors can facilitate a conversation with the students about why it is important to consider how different members’ styles relate to each other. This conversation can also address what other things are important to consider when trying to figure out how groups can productively manage conflict (e.g., context, history of the group, type of conflict, etc.).
Taking it to the Group
Students should then get into their work groups for the class and discuss their individual styles and what they think that means for their particular group. Groups should refer to Table 7.2 in this discussion. Given what they know about each of their members’ preferred approaches to conflict, what kinds of strategies can they use to productively manage conflict in their group? Groups should write down two or three recommendations that describe how they think they should go about managing their potential conflicts in productive ways.
3) Cohesion, Bonding, and Hectic Life for American Families
Ask students to read the following article from MSNBC on “Strained life of the nonstop American family: Researchers find intimacy, playtime falling by the wayside” (Mar. 21, 2005) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7184763/. It provides an in-depth look at contemporary American family life and is a good illustration of the concepts articulated in chapter seven. For this reason, it makes a good case to focus on as a conceptual summary, application, and synthesis. It is also likely to ring true to at least some of the students’ experiences and can serve as a counterpoint for others.
In groups they should discuss their responses to this article and analyze the findings presented according to the model presented in Figure 7.2 in the textbook chapter.
Specific questions to consider are:
- How well do you think these findings apply to your own life or families you know?
- Do you agree with the authors’ argument that American families are so busy that they have trouble making time to maintain their relationships? How do the families in the news story manage the stresses that come from being so busy?
- Use the model provided in Figure 7.2 to analyze the situations described in the news story. What are the relational tensions in affect here? What kinds of tasks and relational needs do family members have? What is their relational communication like? How cohesive are these families?
- Based on your analysis, what do you think is the most important thing families can do to cope with time issues and maintain strong relational bonds?