Group Membership Reflection Paper

This paper is a retrospective analysis of a group membership experience. Choose a group in which you were a member. It might be a social group, a committee, a task group, or another kind of group. It must be one in which you participated over time (more than one meeting).

Address the following prompts in a paper:

  • Identify the purpose of the group, the setting, the frequency of meetings, and the time boundaries. Clarify whether it was a task group or a treatment group. Was participation voluntary or involuntary? Provide a definition of “group” and explain how and why your group qualifies in meeting that definition. Ensure that you provide a citation for your definition.
  • Describe the group composition. Give a brief descriptor of each participant. Discuss the presence (or absence) of diversity in the group and how this influenced the group dynamics. Consider the people in the group, the environment where the group met, and the issues the group was meant to handle. Address whether group membership changed over time and how that change (or stability) impacted the group’s ability to do its work.
  • Discuss patterns of leadership and communication within the group. What roles did members take on or assume? Were there subgroups or alliances within the larger group? What did you observe regarding acceptance and judgment of other group members? Were there quiet members in the group? Why do you think they were quiet? What was the group’s perception of the quiet members?
  • Groups go through stages of development, including a forming stage (when group members are just meeting and getting to know one another); a transition stage (when group members establish “rules” and norms, as well as determine who will fill the roles/positions in the groupboth formal and informal); a working stage (when the function of the group is happening); and a closing/ending stage. Use the index of your textbook to find further information on these stages. Identify one stage of development you can recall the group experiencing and describe specific events from the group that support your belief that the group was in that particular stage of development.
  • In reflecting on the group experience, what do you think would have helped the group reach an even higher level of functioning? Explain. Discuss how your group might integrate practice-based evidence (PBE) in a useful way.