Group Size
Another aspect of groups is group size. The size of a group changes the dynamics in a variety of ways. Typically, the smaller the group, the more informal and intimate it tends to be.
Sociologist George Simmel identified a couple of groups based on size: dyads, triads, and coalitions.
Dyads are the smallest type of social group with two people.
Dyads are the most intimate. A dyad might be you and a friend, a couple who are dating, or two co-workers working on a project. Dyads are the most unstable type of group. They are unstable because if one person leaves the group, the group no longer exists.
Triads are a group of three people.
Triad groups are slightly more stable because if one person leaves the group, a dyad can still exist. However, these groups are somewhat more formal and less intimate. This might be three friends or a couple with a child. One aspect of a triad that is somewhat unique is that coalitions are possible
Coalition is when two group members pressure the third member into some sort of behavior that is potentially positive or negative.
Ultimately, as group numbers grow, dynamics change. The number of people in a group plays an important structural role in the nature of the group's functioning. Dyads are the simplest groups because 2 people have only 1 relationship between them. Triads have three relationships. A group of 4 people has 6 relationships, 5 has 10, and so on. The more people that are in the group, the more relationships exist.
When triads form it looks much like a triangle and these typically take much more energy than dyads. A newly married couple (a dyad) experiences great freedoms and opportunities to nurture their marital relationship. A triad forms when their first child is born; they experience a tremendous incursion upon their marital relationship from the child and the care demanded by the child. Ultimately, the relationship becomes less intimate and the dynamics change.
Here's another example of group size and group dynamics:
Two students were BFF's since elementary school. They went to college together and even pursued the same major. Their friendship became stressed when one started dating a young man. The other friend felt pressure to get along with her best friend's boyfriend, so she worked at the friendship and soon all three of them were friends. Some time later, the boyfriend and girlfriend broke up, and it put the friend in an awkward position. Since she had established a friendship with the guy, she did not want to lose a friend. But since her best friend broke up with him, she felt like she had to end her friendship with him too.
The example on the previous slide shows a very clear transition from a dyad to a triad. It also shows that the triad required more work and put stress on the dyad. You can imagine the pressure that the girl experienced in the group to end her friendship with the young man just out of loyalty to her longtime friend. Of course, in many cases, group membership takes on different dynamics for each person involved.
The dynamic also depends on the type of group (primary or secondary, for instance). The best friend situation described is not supposed to happen in a work environment where you have specific goals to accomplish on a daily basis.
We all belong to multiple groups simultaneously and they are instrumental to our lives.
