Group Communication No matter how much I might prefer to think that I am unique and that my communications patters are unlike any other person's, my social relations also fall into the patterns described by scholars on communications. This paper will outline two occasions in which I have noticed my own life to be affected by a group communications concept we have studied in class, describe the concept and describe my observation of its real world effect on my life.

Cohesion is the level of group identity that members feel (Myers & Anderson, 221). In very closely linked groups, there is a great deal of cohesion, which also is correlated with a high degree of satisfaction. Those members feel tightly bound to each other. How people communicate can...

Cohesion can be built by emphasizing similarities between group members. Cohesion and participation both build each other -- participation can help build cohesion, and a feeling of group identity promotes participation.
I have noticed the concept of group cohesion affecting communication working in my volunteer work in an animal shelter. Here, I think that we are too cohesive. The other volunteers and I seem to want to promote cohesion above everything else. We are hesitant to disagree with each other and thus tend to come up with the same ideas, and promote each others ideas above thinking critically.

The power structure of groups also affects their communication intimately (Wood 247). Power…