Group Think

Group think

Group Think Overview
Definition:   Groupthink is a thought process shared between a group that tends to limit contradictory views and/or individual critical thinking.   Groupthink spawns from group cohesiveness.   At times faulty decision making is the result of Groupthink.   Faulty decision making has its roots in leadership style, traditional group procedures, and patterns of group behavior (Schafer & Crichlow, 1996).   When group decisions are being made, in some cases people hold their tongue’s, in belief that they are doing it for the greater good of the group.   At times this may be a subconscious or conscious behavior throughout groups (McCauley, 1989)
Even though William H. Whyte coined the term “Groupthink”, Irving L. Janis is known as the face of groupthink.   Irving Janis believes that when a group has high cohesiveness, in order to avoid conflict within the group, member’s use of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment” tends to deteriorate (Janis, 1972, p. 9). Irving L. Janis used many examples of where she believed Groupthink played a major role in the decision making process; Most believe that Groupthink theory is a part of the meta-theoretical stance , Group think is a theory that descends from the socio-psychological tradition, the group communication context and is classified under empirical scientific.   “The goal of which is to provide empirically well-supported explanations that increase our capacity to predict and control communication processes” “A person’s decision making process is influenced by a person’s bias, personality, feelings, which in groups affect one another.” Manipulation can achieve specific outcomes, which can be the case in the theory of groupthink (Craig and Muller , 2007).
Group Think Symptoms
--1-- Illusion of invulnerability (Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks)
--2-- Collective rationalization (Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions)... [continues]

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