THE CORRELATION OF JOINT COPING AND THE LEVEL OF GROUP COHESION IN THE FORMULATION OF GROUP DECISIONS

Abstract

The paper addresses the problem of group coping. The authors note that today the situation of group reactions to difficulties are studied mainly in the framework of dyadic interaction (family coping) or within large social groups (collective coping). The study focused on group coping with the difficulties at the level of small groups, an attempt is made to distinguish it from group defense mechanisms. Group coping refers to the way shared by all group members to cope with the objective stressful situation that threatens the integrity of the group and mobilizes its resources. The paper presents the data of an experimental study showing that the strategies of group coping are not a set of group members‘ individual copings, and that there is a correlation between the strategies of group coping with the effectiveness of group decisions and the level of group cohesion.

Keywords

• coping with difficult life situations, individual coping strategies, resources, coping, collective coping, family coping, group coping with difficult situations, group decisions, the level of group cohesion