I found the topic of cohesiveness (and subsequently, groupthink) to be something we can all relate to. When reading this chapter I know I especially thought of my high school friends. There was a certain cohesiveness that brought us together – music we all liked, hobbies (video games, concerts, movies, music), the fact that we were all kind of “outsiders”. While it is our background and the things that we all enjoyed that brought and kept us together, it is that cohesiveness that also caused problems. Sometimes groupthink crept in and all of the group did – or did not – want to go along with what was happening. I found myself on the wrong end of this because a lot of times the entire group wanted to do something that I did not want to do. I can especially remember one occasion where everyone wanted to walk to the corner store in the dead of winter when it was snowing out. I ended up slipping on some ice and getting a really bad knee injury and had to go to the hospital the next day. I didn’t even want to go in the first place!
I think this concept can be applied to a lot of bad decisions you hear about college sports teams, too. I know the SJSU hockey team just got in trouble for alcohol consumption after a game. I remember the De Anza baseball team (some members) got in trouble for possible sexual assault at a house party. Sometimes, when some members of the group, or just one powerful member – eggs the other members on because they or he/she wants to do something, others follow and get in trouble because of it.
I agree sometimes groups of friends can get you into situations that you could have avoided if you just didn't follow them. Sometimes just one member of a group can do something so horrible that it can make everyone in that group look bad. The sexual assault by De Anza baseball team for example makes the whole baseball team look bad even if only a few people were involved.I never really had those problems growing up though because i always did what i wanted to do. I learn very early in life being a follower and associating with then wrong people would get me no where in life.
ReplyDeleteI went in a different direction when talking about cohesiveness but I agree with the points you bring up. I like when you talked about shared interest making groups more cohesive. It makes a lot of sense to me because having shared interest would lead to individuals being more open in the group and would bring the group together like you mentioned. I also agree with you when you brought up making bad decisions as a group. When you are in a cohesive group it seems as you go with what the group wants. If one person does not want to go with the rest of the group they usually go alone with it anyways and it can lead to bad things like you mentioned. I can relate to this 100 percent being on the football team here at san jose state. There are a lot of guys on the team and I consider almost all of them good friends because the amount of time I spend with them. When we are out we usually do things as a group and we have fallen into some trouble but nothing extreme like you mentioned.
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