Communication Homework

Prepare your blog for the following prompt questions. As you post your response keep in mind that the purpose of a blog is to allow you to record your opinions and information. In essence write as if you are the expert who wants to share your knowledge about the topic. Voice your opinion and provide the information (documentation) to support those opinions.

1. Think of the groups in which you have been a part. Identify some of the different factors which brought members to those groups (perhaps make a list). Analyze what effect on the group these differences had.

2. Contemplate the effects of our interpersonal needs on group participation. (E.g., how might the behavior of a person motivated by inclusion needs differ from that of a person motivated by a need for respect?)

3. Observe a group discussion on television eg PBS or other news and entertainment channels. Periodically stop and identify the phase of the group's cycle (forming, storming , norming, and performing) the group is operating in.

a. What are the verbal and nonverbal cues that lead you to this conclusion?

b. Continue and note the group's strategies for passing from one phase into the next. Can you observe any differences in the members' communicative behavior as the group repeats the cycle?