ARE GROUPS A REALITY?

W.I Thomas(1928) proposed the Thomas theorem which maintains that an individual's understanding of a social situation, even if incorrect, will determine how he or she will act in a situation "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences". this notion has to be the premise i shall depart in answering the question of if groups are real. this ofcourse puts me in an interactionist school of thought which is the viewpoint i adopted in addressing most of the concepts in the articles below. "Group dynamics describes both a subject matter and a scientific field of study.When Kurt Lewin (1951) described the way groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstances, he named these processes group dynamics" Forsyth, 2009. Lewin however used the term to describe a scientific discipline devoted to the study of these dynamics.Later Dorwin Cartwright and Alvin Zander(1968) supplied a formal definition, calling it a “field of inquiry dedicated to advancing knowledge about the nature of groups, the laws of their development, and their interrelations with individuals, other groups, and larger institutions”. this field of scientific inquiry can't exist if groups are not real. the purpose of all subsequent entries on this blog will be to convince you that groups are real by looking at some working definitions of groups, groups structure and also some group related concepts which researchers identified doing group studies. the entries are not structured in a particular manner because there is no real guiding structure for posting them and i also want to buttress on the points i was trying to make in the article about diversity. the outcome of these entries should be for the reader to be able to understand what groups mean and also see the relevance of group studies in addressing social issues in society. hope you have a pleasant time reading the articles.