8 - How Important is the Group?

We assume that people value groups whether the family, friendships, clubs, the community, or our society as a whole.

Just how important is group contact for human beings? Suppose an individual commits a serious crime not accepted or tolerated by society. Punishment means removal from society by incarceration. In prison, further misbehaviour follows. What, then, is the ultimate form of punishment? Solitary confinement. Depriving people of contact with other human beings through isolation or shunning is a very serious type of reprimand.

students outside

The special control a group exerts over individual behaviour is important. Groups are assumed to have characteristics different from merely the sum of the collective characteristics of their individual members. Group behaviour is unique. In some respects a small group is a miniature replica of the larger society.

Social motives are very important in controlling individual behaviour. Some people will go to great length to gain social approval, including killing someone, or enduring humiliation, pain, or death. Many of our highly valued activities are undertaken, not for their own sake, but as instrumental steps in getting other people to notice, appreciate, help, love, or honour us.