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Defining ‘group’ : 
 
As researchers turned to the systematic exploration of group 
life, different foci for attention emerged. Some social psychologists, 
looked at the ways in which, for example, working in the presence 
of others tend to raise performance (Allport 1924). Others looked at 
different aspects of group process. Kurt Lewin (1948), for example, 
found that nearly all groups were based on interdependence among 
their members – and this applied whether the group was large or 
small, formally structured or loose, or focused on this activity or 
that. In a famous piece Lewin wrote, ‘it is not similarity or 
dissimilarity of individuals that constitutes a group, but 
interdependence of fate’ (op. cit.: 165). In other words, groups 
come about in a psychological sense because people realize they 
are ‘in the same boat’ (Brown 1988: 28).

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“Hundreds of fish swimming together are called a school. A 
pack of foraging baboons is a troupe. A half dozen crows on a 
telephone line is a murder. A gam is a group of whales. But what is 
a collection of human beings called? A group. …. [C]ollections of 
people may seem unique, but each possesses that one critical 
element that defines a group: connections linking the individual 
members…. [M]embers are linked together in a web of 
interpersonal relationships. Thus, a group is defined as two or more 
individuals who are connected to one another by social 
relationships”. [ Donelson R. Forsyth (2006: 2-3) ] 
In part differences in definition occur because writers often 
select those things that are of special importance in their work and 
then posit 'these as the criteria for group existence' (Benson 2001: 
5). This said, it is possible, as Jarlath F. Benson has done, to 
identify a list of attributes: 
A set of people engage in frequent interactions. 
They identify with one another. 
They are defined by others as a group. 
They share beliefs, values, and norms about areas of 
common interest. 
They define themselves as a group. 
They come together to work on common tasks and for 
agreed purposes (Benson 2000: 5).