Instructor’s resource manual and test bank for joining together: Group Theory and Group Skills, 11e (стр. 28 )

Win–Lose Rejection Confirmation

 1.  2.  3.*

 7.  8.  9.

13. 14. 15.

19. 20. 21.

25. 26. 27.

Total Total Total

Group Average Group Average Group Average

Perspective Taking Avoidance Problem Solving

 4.  5.  6.

10. 11. 12.

16.* 17. 18.

22. 23. 24.

28. 29. 30.

Total Total Total

Group Average Group Average Group Average

*Reverse the scoring on this question by substituting 1 for 5, 2 for 4, and so on.

Controversy Questionnaire

Write your scores in the spaces provided. If your score is above 15, it means that you are likely to engage in this strategy. If your score is less than 15, it means that you are not likely to engage in this strategy. Add the scores of all group members for each strategy and divide by the number of members in the group. This will give you your group average for each strategy.

Constructive Your Group Destructive Your Group
Strategy Score Average Strategy Score Average

Problem solving Win–lose

Confirmation Rejection

Perspective taking Avoidance

Procedure

pare your scores for the constructive and destructive strategies.

pare your scores with your actual behavior (as reported by an observer) in the controversy exercise.

3. Discuss the strategies that are difficult for you to engage in.

4. On the basis of the group average scores and the actual behavior of the group members in the controversy exercise, characterize the group’s tendencies toward constructive and destructive controversy.

Scoring Criteria: Constructive Scales

If you scored less than 15 on any of the scales, you need to begin consciously practicing the skill several times a day until you have mastered the skill and have integrated it into your behavioral repertoire. If you scored between 16 and 20 on any of the scales, you need to find more opportunities to use the skill and make it a more automatic response in many situations. If you scored over 21, you should congratulate yourself and keep up the good work.

Scoring Criteria: Destructive Scales

If you scored over 15, you need to begin to consciously stop engaging in the behavior until the skill is no longer an automatic habit pattern. You should replace the destructive actions with constructive ones. If you scored between 10 and 14, you need to reduce your destructive actions and seek opportunities to engage in the constructive scales. If you scored less than 10 on a scale, you should congratulate yourself and keep up the good work.

Stranded in the Desert

Few places are as beautiful as the desert at night, but few places are more dangerous to be stranded than the desert during the night or day. In such a situation, effective decision making is a matter of life or death, and since the emotional content of the arguments over what a stranded group should do will be high, skills in managing controversies constructively are essential. The purpose of this exercise is to examine the dynamics of controversy and its effects on the decision making of a group caught in a survival dilemma. The materials needed for the exercise are a description of the situation, a group decision form, a postdecision questionnaire, a summary table, a controversy observation form, and a constructive controversy checklist. Approximately sixty minutes are needed for the exercise. The procedure for the coordinator is as follows:

 1. Introduce the exercise by stating its objective and reviewing the overall procedure and tasks.

 2. Divide the class into five groups. Give each group member a Stranded in the Desert ­Situation Sheet and a copy of the appropriate role-playing instructions. The role-­playing instructions for each group are as follows:

a. Group 1: Your position is that the group members have to walk to the nearest ranch if they are to survive. Plan carefully the best procedure for doing so. Select the five or six possessions of the group that are most important for implementing your plan and rank them from 1 (most important) to 5 or 6 (least important).

b. Group 2: Your position is that the group members have to signal search planes
and vehicles if they are to survive. Plan carefully the best procedure for doing
so. Select the five or six possessions of the group that are most important for ­implementing your plan and rank them from 1 (most important) to 5 or 6 (least ­important).

c. Group 3: Your position is that the group members have to protect themselves from the heat of the day and the cold of the night if they are to survive. Plan carefully the best procedure for doing so. Select the five or six possessions of the group that are most important for implementing your plan and rank them from 1 (most important) to 5 or 6 (least important).

d. Group 4: Your position is that the group members must stay by the wreck and keep physical movement to a minimum if they are to survive. Plan carefully the best procedure for doing so. Select the five or six possessions of the group that are most important for implementing your plan and rank them from 1 (most important) to 5 or 6 (least important).

e. Group 5: Your responsibility is to be observers. The observer’s role is to record the nature of each member’s participation in the group, using the accompanying observation form. Each observer needs two copies of this form. Make sure all ­members understand the role of the observer and how to use the observation form.

 3. Within each group have participants divide into preparation pairs (one triad if there
are an odd number of participants in the group). The preparation pairs are responsible for the following:

a. Planning a rationale for their assigned position.

b. Selecting the five or six possessions of the group that are most important for implementing their plan and rank them from 1 (most important) to 5 or 6 (least important).

c. Planning a persuasive presentation of their position and its rationale.

 4. Introduce the situation. Have the groups read the description of the situation and
their role assignment sheets. Tell them to construct as good a rationale for their position as possible and plan a persuasive presentation of it. Give them fifteen minutes to do so.

 5. Form new groups of five by taking one participant from each of the previous groups and placing them together in a new group. Each member of the group should be representing a different position (with the exception of the observer).

 6. Have the new groups read the situation description and then rank the twelve possessions of the group from 1 (the most important possession for the survival of the group members) to 12 (the least important possession). All members must agree on the ranking and be able to explain the rationale for why it is ranked where it is. Give the groups twenty minutes to decide on their ranking.

 7. Have participants complete the postdecision questionnaire and give their responses to the group observer. Have the observers determine the group mean for each question while you share the correct/experts’ ranking (see pp. 567–569 in the Appendix). Have each group score their ranking.

 8. Record the results from each group in the Summary Table on page 333.

 9. Instruct each group to discuss its experience and derive at least four conclusions, using the following:

a. The decision and questionnaire results

b. The information collected by the observers

c. The impressions of the group members

d. The constructive controversy checklist

10. Have each group share their conclusion with the entire class.

Stranded in the Desert Situation

You are one of the members of a geology club that is on a field trip to study unusual formations in the New Mexico desert. It is the last week in July. You have been driving over old trails, far from any road, in order to see out-of-the-way formations. At about 10:30 a. m. the specially equipped minibus in which your club is riding overturns, rolls into a twenty-foot ravine, and burns. The driver and the professional adviser to the club are killed. The rest of you are relatively uninjured.

You know that the nearest ranch is approximately forty-five miles east of where you are. There is no closer habitation. When your club does not report to its motel that evening, you will be missed. Several persons know generally where you are, but because of the nature of your outing they will not be able to pinpoint your exact whereabouts.

The area around you is rather rugged and very dry. There is a shallow water hole nearby, but the water is contaminated by worms, animal feces and urine, and several dead mice. You heard from a weather report before you left that the temperature would reach 108°F, making the surface temperature 128°F. You are all dressed in lightweight summer clothing and you all have hats and sunglasses.

While escaping from the minibus, each member of your group salvaged a couple of items; there are twelve in all. Your group’s task is to rank these items according to their importance to your survival, from 1 (most important) to 12 (least important).

You may assume that the number of club members is the same as the number of persons in your group and that the group has agreed to stick together.

Stranded in the Desert Decision Form

Rank the following items according to their importance to your survival, from 1 (most important) to 12 (least important).

Magnetic compass

20 ˘ 20-ft piece of heavy-duty light blue canvas

Book, Plants of the Desert

Rearview mirror

Large knife

Flashlight (four-battery size)

One jacket per person

One transparent plastic ground cloth (6 x 4 ft) per person

.38-caliber loaded pistol

One 2-quart plastic canteen per person, full of water

Accurate map of the area

Large box of kitchen matches

Postdecision Questionnaire

1. To what extent did other members of the group listen to and understand your ideas?

Not at all 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 Completely