Group Roles

Last week in class, we talked about roles in groups. It was interesting to me that not a single one of those roles were formally assigned. I found it intriguing how many roles you can fall into and when we fall into them. For me, I know that I can be a variety of roles even within the same group.

In my family, I am usually the social specialist and the tension-reliever. This is one of the only groups where I am the social specialist. I was considering why that might be and I decided that I feel most comfortable around my family and therefore it is easy to support them.

In school, I am usually the star, mostly because I need to be actively involved in order to feel like I am contributing. I also jump between task-related roles because it would depend on my depth of knowledge around the subject. If I feel like I know, what I am talking about I will be an opinion and information giver and when I am less confident, I become a seeker. I feel as though I am always an analyzer but that may be more just my personality. I also find myself leaning towards being a tension reliever. I know that it is a thin line between joker and tension reliever and I think that sometimes I walk too closely and end up distracting instead of contributing.

In my group of friends, I am usually the expediter and a harmonizer. I always push my group to move forward and I like keeping a normal pace. I don’t like other people being uncomfortable and I try to minimize these situations by being a harmonizer.

My biggest flaw in groups would be that I become a withdrawer if I feel that my personal standards or goals are being compromised. I know that I should relax and try to engage but it is difficult at times.