First and foremost, Psychology is a science of the individual, human consciousness and behavior. Even so, professional interest in group psychology and group personality goes back decades. The academic theme is that groups evolve a unified character, a projected persona expressive of its behavioral history the same way as individuals. Research in the area is primarily focused upon common behavioral traits and/or some configurational matrix of group members’ behavioral and social data.
Indeed, a group does exhibit personality characteristics akin to those ascribed to the individual. At their core they are both representative of the same inherent thermal activity when the dynamic of personality development is viewed as a mechanical system. Both arise from the same energy source (human consciousness) and require a locale (the psyche) where energy is either stored or transmitted immediately to produce an end product (behavior) that embodies value.
Philosophy, and more specifically metaphysics, creatively presents ontological theses of human consciousness primarily by means of abstraction and/or symbology. This is unavoidable while bringing forward in discussion the primal ingredients of human consciousness and the life process.
Deeply inspired and exotic mystical theology has evolved all sorts of systems crafted to display the intricacies of the self, consciousness and awareness. Hebraic Kabbalah, Christian mysticism, Sufism and a myriad array of Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and Shinto esoteric traditions attest to the enduring cultural varieties found around the globe.
As with the individual, here the discussion of group personality begins with a look at the basic thermal activity of a mechanical system. The analysis requires first that the system be clearly defined along with some statement of expected work efficiency regarding production results and value.
However, the scholarly study of psychological and social systems is not always so straightforward. The main reason is that one must now account for the inestimable factor of human consciousness at the very onset of the design process. Here, the dominance of scientific methodology must cede some territory to moral philosophy.
Ancient Greek philosophers apparently grasped this for they argued extensively about the individual, ethical behavior, societal morality and what registered as virtuous character as assessed by observable conduct, one’s actions. Any discussion of personality in this day-n-age, individual or group, remains hollow without attention to this fundamental ingredient of human consciousness and manifest behavior.
We humans are very fortunate in that consciousness innately provides each of us with a utility generally referred to as a moral compass. It registers in one’s awareness as an involuntary common sense permeating the decision-making process. Whether or not we pay heed to the benefits of this thermal activity, and to what degree, remains a matter of individual choice.
More than a directional signpost though dharma’s eternal function is to affirm life. Since dharma is thermally bound to counter the universal tendency of entropy, it is destined to affect organizational structure out of disorder. Thus, its psychological impulse is realized as proper and ethical behavior in human affairs. Dharma emanates from the psyche and penetrates the inextricable personality center of an individual that is sensitive to all of one’s unique propensities throughout life.
The lack of an actual graviton does not negate the known effects of gravity upon a galaxy cluster. Similarly, the effects of dharma can be observed from a group’s behavior. The personality of the group’s overall countenance and character provides a window of the ongoing thermal dynamics deep within its psyche. As with the individual, the thermal activity within the group psyche sets the homeostatic guardrails and determines an expected range of normal group behavior throughout its life process.
It should be obvious that the energy input to the group personality system is derived from its members. Here the thermal dynamic of the group psyche is an amalgam of individual psyches and will indicate the overall system’s operational efficiency.
Consensual agreement is the collective interplay of human psyches that generate a singular, idiosyncratic assessment of value regarding the group’s purpose and the resultant behavior it intends to perform. Group meetings, community gatherings, newsletters and social media are common venues where the energy of the group can be stored or immediately transmitted to its environment by the behavior of its members.
Manifest behavior through time establishes a group’s countenance and character, its personality. The degree to which a group adheres to its initial design purpose, its reason to form and exist within a specified social environment, contributes greatly to the overall and ongoing homeostatic thermal dynamic of the group’s personality.
The energy dynamic within the group psyche highlights the all too familiar variables of (mind) set and (social) setting which must factor into a group’s personality assessment. A group that is socially apt and remains true to what it promotes of itself will engender respect within its self-created environment of affirmative growth that bespeaks of trustworthiness and reliability.
For a variety of reasons unique to each group, it may decide to alter, amend and/or make some basic changes to its system’s operation. This will necessarily have an impact upon the ongoing thermal activity within the group psyche
Positive changes, those consistent with previous group behavior, integrate affirmatively within the group psyche. The system’s basic work and efficiency is retained if not improved with the change(s), and continues to support the group’s initial ambitions. Members remain loyal while membership stands steady, or perhaps increases. Social and cultural observers will generally report amicably of the group’s new persona and activity.
It should be obvious that the opposite occurs when group decisions are made that are at variance and discordant with its initial design directives. Negative changes waste available energy; they work to impede and restrict, or even shut down the prevailing personality system.
These types of adverse decisions will disrupt the homeostatic balance within the group psyche beyond what was deemed reliable thermal tolerance. According to degree, dysfunctional groups can potentially create a vortex of disorder and chaos for themselves and their immediate environment.
Continued inimical deviations from a group’s normal behavior will in time fracture the trust that members retain of the group’s initial mission. Internal disappointment is soon followed by declining membership and likely accompanied by reduced financial support, poor public imaging and possibly negative media reporting.
Here, the group’s behavioral rebranding choices act as a destructive force inhibiting dharma. The new personality system may become so antithetical to existing personality modalities that it can eventually lead to a complete dissolution of the old group’s design and purpose.* This is a case of thermal annihilation within the group psyche, maximum psychic entropy.
Initial analysis of group personality assumes a normal behavioral history and character that substantiate a group’s elan vital. Some groups, like personal friendships or a local bridge club, start small and remain such. Then there are those groups that maybe start small but intentionally seek an expanding path forward. Representative groups of this type show up every week on ABC’s Shark Tank. Finally, there are those that start big and continue to expand. Select your favorite bureaucracy as an example.
Indeed, groups are by nature collectivist solutions to social issues within a specified environment. Informal groups maintain a tacit understanding among its members, an accepted protocol regarding its reason for forming and gathering. By contrast, more formally constructed organizations inform their social environment explicitly with a Statement of Purpose or Mission Statement. Their public announcements will usually define their group’s system, how they intend to function, and what one should expect from their behavior.
Sustenance for any group’s raison d’etre is provided by consensual agreement among its individual members. This is how the energy dynamics of the system and its operative efficiency are determined. It becomes the collective interplay of human psyches that generate a singular, idiosyncratic assessment of value regarding the group’s purpose and the resultant behavior it intends to perform.
It always remains that one’s innate individual psychic energy dynamics are never and cannot be intentionally abandoned when one opts to join a group. Simply put, it is ultimately beyond the personal ego’s ability to do so. Although the influence of dharma may be cognitively suppressed or ignored it remains inexhaustible, always indicating correct from incorrect behavior within an individual’s psyche. And so, it remains always available to guide the evolution of the group’s ethos and personality throughout its life process too.
Additionally, the identical energy dynamic holds true for any size group, even abstract entities like contractual agreements created among nations. Sure, size and intangibility can breed complexity to an operative system, but the bedrock thermal dynamics of personality development remains the same regardless of magnitude. Every group is but a derivative fractal of the individual’s innate psychic energy dynamic and is carried forth with every human creation.
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* Clinically, one might conclude that this is representative of dissociative identity disorder, a multiple personality dynamic one might observe with acutely dysfunctional individuals.