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Summary Response Essay

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Wisam Eidhah Alharthi

Francis Jones

Level 5

Essay summery

June 6 /2016

In Group we Shrink by Carol Tavris

In the article, In Group we Shrink, Carol Tavris discusses the disadvantages associated

with acting in groups as opposed to acting individually. The question as to whether people acting

individually can respond better to situations as opposed to those acting in groups has raised lot of

controversy in the society. Some people believe that people in groups respond better to situations

whereas others believe that individuals who have no one around them respond the best. In her

article, Carol Tavris’ main idea on the issue is that groups make people shrink and render them

unable to respond promptly to situations. After reading the article, I concur with Carol Tavris’

idea that individuals are more helpful when responding to situations than a group.

In a nut shell, Carol Tavris claims that, in groups, individuals forget their distinctness

from one another and their social and moral responsibility becomes swallowed in the comfort of

the group. They tend to forget their social responsibility either in faith that somebody else is

taking the responsibility, or in fear of how others will view them in case they act differently. To

illustrate her idea, she alludes to several instances and scenarios that show how people in groups

respond slowly to situations. One such scenario is the case where a behavioral psychology

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experiment was conducted; the individuals who were seated in groups did not react to the smoke

immediately. On the other hand, those that were alone acted immediately, raising an alarm as

they thought that there was fire. This shows that the students who were in groups felt that they

lacked responsibility towards the fire as they remained seated. She also uses the example of the

police officers who watched their partners beat Rodney King without taking action. In this case,

the officers might have feared destroying their relationship with the police officers in question.

I strongly support Tavris idea that, groups encourage running away from responsibility.

People who work and act in groups spend the most of their time looking at who is supposed to

act given a certain situation. The individuals separate themselves in the thought and belief that

somebody else in the group is taking care of the situation. For instance, in the Albuquerque,

N.M. fire case that Tavris cites, the witnesses watched the building burn half way without

contacting the fire department. The reason as to why the fire department was not contacted was

that everyone thought that somebody else in the group had taken the responsibility. They ran

away from their social responsibility.

I also support Tavri’s point that individuals may fail to act in response to situations while

in groups in fear that their response could be subject to criticism. For instance, looking at the

case where more than eleven police officers stared at Rodney King as five police officers beat

him we raise a lot of questions. Does this mean that all the eleven police officers approved of the

brutality? Or is it that they considered the race of Rodney King minor and voiceless in the

society? It is true to say that there must have been at least one officer who could have stopped

the five policemen from hurting King. However, due to the fear of destroying the relationship

between him and the other police officers in the group, he chose to remain silent. In a similar

manner, individuals fail to stand out and act in the face of a bad situation.

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Wisam Eidhah Alharthi Francis Jones Level 5 Essay summery June 6 /2016 In Group we Shrink by Carol Tavris In the article, In Group we Shrink, Carol Tavris discusses the disadvantages associated with acting in groups as opposed to acting individually. The question as to whether people acting individually can respond better to situations as opposed to those acting in groups has raised lot of controversy in the society. Some people believe that people in groups respond better to situations whereas others believe that individuals who have no one around them respond the best. In her article, Carol Tavris’ main idea on the issue is that groups make people shrink and render them unable to respond promptly to situations. After reading the article, I concur with Carol Tavris’ idea that individuals are more helpful when responding to situations than a group. In a nut shell, Carol Tavris claim ...
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