Blackwell Reference Online

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Small groups have been an important research focus in social psychology for decades. Although relevant work has waxed and waned ( McGrath, 1984 ; Moreland, Hogg, & Haines, 1994 ; Steiner, 1986 ), a massive literature on small groups has accumulated. As a result, we know much about such diverse topics as group composition, group structure, conflict in groups, group performance, and the ecology of groups (see Levine & Moreland, 1998 , for a review of contemporary work). Some of these topics, of course, have received more attention than others. In particular, the ecology of groups, defined as the physical, social, and temporal environments that groups occupy, has been relatively neglected. In this chapter we focus on the temporal environment. After considering how relations between groups and individuals change over time, we examine the conditions under which newcomers can produce change, or innovation, in the groups they enter. To clarify temporal changes in individual–group relations, Moreland and Levine (1982) developed a model of group socialization that analyzes the passage of individuals through groups. The model seeks to describe and explain the affective, cognitive, and behavioral changes that groups and individuals produce in one another over the course of their relationship. Two fundamental assumptions underlie the model. The first assumption is that relationships ... log in or subscribe to read full text