Groups and Collectives

Groups are collectives. Groups are made up of people, which is true for collectives. As it turns out, we all are members of groups and collectives. If we take a moment, it isn't difficult to list several collectives in our lives. There are families, communities, sports teams, political and religious affiliations and on and on. The question is this: Is there a psychology associated with groups and collectives?

Naturally there is. Anytime people are involved in anything, there is psychology involved. We are affiliated with groups because of social or psychological reasons, or both. So, let me introduce some of these reasons.

Groups might express something we like or something that we might express, include members who are like us, offer safety, offer a sense of identity, provide values and beliefs, help us to move along in life and so forth. I think you can begin to get the idea.

One of the main benefits of collectives is that they provide us with an identity. For many people, this is a benefit that must be appreciated. Their sense of self-esteem and self-value is wrapped up in their group identity. Their values and beliefs align with, or are completely adopted from, the collective. These are critical elements, but an important point must not be overlooked. The self-esteem, identity and self-value are social or collective characteristics, that is, social psychological elements. These are not individual psychological characteristics.

When social characteristics replace individual characteristics, people who think that they are being individuals and expressing personal characteristics, most of often are not. They are expressing social characteristics from a group or collective.

Groups and collectives are both beneficial and detrimental to a person. The social support, social identity, and so on, help a person to belong, to feel connected to others, to be willing to express opinions, to not be lonely and much more. All of these experiences are beneficial.

At the same time, it is easy to imagine how one group, or collective, will resent other groups because of differing social values, self-identities and beliefs. This can result in one group stereotyping another group, expressing discrimination and biases and being violent toward members of the other group. These attitudes and behaviors are a result of one group, or collective, psychologically projecting (that is, the unconscious (hidden) psychology is projected) onto the other group, or its members.

So, it is important to consider your collective affiliations, social values and beliefs and be careful not to project onto another group, or members of the group.