A quarter of all US students are immigrants, children of immigrants, or immigrant-origin youth. In this article, we examine how school practices can either support or hinder these students' feelings of belonging. Given the important relation between students' feelings of belonging and a range of academic, motivational, and socioemotional outcomes,…

This study sought to determine whether coaches' immediacy behaviors serve as predictors of athletes' satisfaction and team cohesion levels. Participants included 307 male and female high school athletes who completed measures assessing perceptions of their coaches' verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors, as well as their own levels of…

Dimensions of group self-disclosure, intimacy and immediacy, were examined in two experiments using college student (N=273) subjects who viewed four videotapes of group interactions. Groups in which members made more disclosures about intimate topics were percieved as more cohesive. Higher immediacy, however, was not associated with increased…

The stimulus value of group boundaries was investigated in a field experiment. It was hypothesized that the size of a group and the status of its members would reduce the permeability of a boundary around an interacting group. Two or 4 interacting people of high or low status interrupted the traffic flow in a university hallway. Results indicate…

Suggests eleven ways to increase the cohesiveness of a group and five ways to decrease lack of cohesiveness among group members. (TO)

A study of doctrinaire rhetoric and extremism which notes consistent patterns of thought and of audience-speaker interaction amoung diverse doctrinaire groups. Concludes that doctrine shapes rhetorical styles as well as content and suggests the possibility of interpreting and evaluating social phenomena through the analysis of rehetoric. (JB)

Upon the death of a family member societally imposed role expectancies emerge. The participant observer method utilized in the context of a bereavement self-help group revealed not only the emergence of distinct roles but also five groups to which these roles were related. Generally, the group members and the groups themselves spanned a continuum…

The degree of acquaintance among group members (friends or strangers) and the opportunity for group members to observe each other's actions (anonymous or non-anonymous) were manipulated in a 2 x 2 factorial design, to determine the amount of aversive stimulation that would be administered to a target person. When group members could not observe…

The acculturation of two ethnic groups in Oklahoma was compared. Hispanics seemed to be more assimilated than Southeast Asians. Both groups were more assimilated in their work places and residences than in friendships. Ethnic networking reduced assimilation. Biculturalism was the most satisfactory form of acculturation, followed by assimilation,…

Research has suggested that people not sharing a common fate lack a sense of group identity, thus decreasing the tendency for helping behavior. To study the effects of stress and commonality of fate on helping behavior, 60 female college students participated in a replication of an earlier study which used male subjects. Participants were assigned…

To assess whether communication behaviors differ between high and low consensus groups, a study considered the comparative interaction of the first meetings of high and low consensus groups, the first and final meetings of high consensus groups, and the first and final meetings of low consensus groups. Subjects, 84 students in a small group…

Focuses on the effects of high-density housing on the helping behaviors and social interactions of the residents living within such buildings. Concludes by recommending ways to overcome some of the negative effects of high-density housing. (Author)

This study examined the social competency of at-risk kindergarten students as they demonstrated the need to establish social communities in order to increase group motivation and peer learning. The study explores the patterns of behaviors that these children demonstrate in order to form social communities, explores the purpose behind their need to…