Chapter 1 introduces the reader to many of the topics and concepts that will be discussed in the book. The concept of a group and what differentiates it from a team, or a simple gathering of people is discussed. Additionally, the influence of social media on group establishment and membership is explored, along with a brief introduction to many other concepts. The chapter is intended to draw the reader in and to set the stage for much further and deeper investigation and discussion of the contents of the chapters that follow.

Political factions at Carthage cannot be identified beyond a simple polarity: supporters and opponents of Hannibal’s family, ‘Barcids’ and ‘anti-Barcids’. At Rome, the richer naming system has encouraged prosopographic studies, conjectures about political alliances based on kinship, marriage ties, and shared local origins. But more than temporary existence of such ‘groups’ is doubtful. It is also disputed whether Republican Rome was any sort of democracy: Polybius controversially claimed that tribunes of the plebs were there to do the people’s will. In the second Punic war, where we rely on Livy, elections do not look very democratic, but there is a special and temporary reason for this: demography. Casualties in the 218−216 disasters produced a top-heavy senate for years to come. The trials of the Scipios (180s) do not support the idea of groups but rather exemplify the ruling class’s concern to prevent ambitious individuals from upsetting a competitive equilibrium.

Makes a case for the indispensibility of psychology to developing a sociology at the level of the individual. The pluality of factors affecting each agent include Dispositions, Socialization, Temporality and Situational Contexts.

Chapter 7 examines the detrimental effects that polarization between different groups can have on individuals, groups, communities, and societies. The book thereby contrasts itself with positive perspectives on polarization and conflict in society. One important aspect that may start important instances of group polarization is how to respond to dissenting opinions, and the affective and defensive responses dissenters may trigger. Fairness concerns come with an important dark side. For example, people may go to great lengths to protect their views that they live in fair and just societies and that their group and culture are involved in what is morally right. Indeed, desperately wanting to be involved in what is morally pure can strengthen important aspects of group polarization in our modern society. This is especially the case when groups have clear group boundaries, involve some form of (authoritative or moral) direct leadership, and when group members think their tribe is fighting for a worthy moral cause. Thinking of individuals as members of other groups in abstract terms facilitates enemy thinking between different groups. People tend to adhere more to fairness principles when they act out of their own individual responsibilities than when they feel responsible to defend their group interests.

Chapter 8 studies what we can do so that people do not fall into traps of trying to believe in conspiracy theories that resist falsification. Belief in conspiracy theories often starts by looking at important societal authorities and a certain amount of suspicion about these authorities. The chapter examines when conspiracy thinking feels so good that people exaggerate their levels of suspicion of what is actually going on in society. The chapter also explains how the online quality of our modern way of living tends to amplify levels of suspicion and the ease with which conspiracy theories are spread. The chapter distinguishes between three different motivations that often are equated with each other, yet that drive conspiracy thinking in different ways. One important motivation is epistemic and concerns people trying to make sense of what is going on in their world. Another important motivation is existential and concerns people trying to deal with threats in their life. Yet another motivation concerns group identification. This includes people wanting to belong to unique groups that give them a sense of belonging. The three motivations point out different ways of trying to intervene when people start falling for exaggerated suspicion and conspiracy thoughts.

When does a collection of individuals become a group or a community? What holds groups, communities, and societies together, even as individuals come and go? These questions concern social cohesion, the bonds through which otherwise disconnected individuals become part of something larger and more lasting than themselves. Social cohesion is perhaps the most central issue in the founding of sociology as a discipline, and its relevance persists today. Social network analysis has much to offer in making the study of social cohesion more formal and precise. Whereas in the previous chapter, we examined structures from the standpoint of their constituent elements of dyads and triads, here we step back to try to see more of the bigger structural picture through the overall pattern of ties in a network.

Staff in the caring professions often have to contain troubling and unpredictable communications (projections) from those they work with. It is usual and expected for staff to have feelings in response to these communications – this is part of the process of emotional containment. If reflected on, the professional’s feelings and inner responses (countertransference) can be a vital source of information about the relational dynamics the service user carries with them and how the staff member is responding to these. However, if staff members do not reflect on and process their countertransference, there is the potential for increased stress for the staff member, and to inadvertently re-enact the patient’s relational difficulties rather than provide containment for them. A reflective practice (RP) group brings a whole clinical team together with the primary task being to reflect on and process staff-patient, teamm and organisational dynamics, to sustain caring relationships with patients and reduce the stresses of the work for staff. This chapter offers an introduction to psychodynamic RP groups, aimed at both participants and group facilitators. We discuss the theory of RP groups and their intended purpose, outline a process of starting a group, and consider what is expected for both participants and facilitators.

This is a relatively comprehensive review of computational modeling work in social psychology and personality psychology, from the beginning of computer modeling in this area in the early sixties, shortly after the founding of artificial intelligence, to the current day.Among the major topics covered are social perception, group perception and stereotyping, attitudes and attitude change, social influence, group behavior, such as group formation and gossip, human mating strategies, culture, the self, and personality. The major modeling techniques used in this area are connectionist models and multi-agent systems.Occasionally researchers use mathematical models.Connectionist models are typically used to simulate intrapersonal processes, such as social perception and attitude change, whereas cellular automata and multi-agent models are typically used to simulate interpersonal processes, such as social influence, gossip, culture, and human mating strategies.

The role of affect in individual creativity is well established in extensive theory and empirical research. Scholars have proven that positive and negative feelings can promote creativity due to psychological processes associated with information processing and motivation. However, the function of group-level affect, namely, the shared feelings experienced among members of the same groups, for the same outcomes, have received limited attention in research and practice. This chapter addresses this dearth of knowledge by examining and summarizing the studies available in this field of inquiry and proposing a theoretical elaboration to better understand why group-level affect matters for creativity in groups. Based on this work, we propose that the influences of group affect on creativity outcomes occur through social integration mechanisms such as cohesion, trust, and collaboration. Finally, we identify and suggest future opportunities for research.

After defining the basic concepts of group theory, we discuss some particularly interesting finite groups. Then, we introduce the formalism of Young diagrams and an alternative definition of groups through their presentation. The final part of the chapter is devoted to continuous groups and to groups acting on a set.