A lot of people... or a group?

Daniel Bar-Tal is an Israeli psychologist. His studies and research are part of the social psychology area, from the basic group structure to the particular conflicts that define some of them, like the Israeli-Jewish society. Some of his work focused to the basics of the socio-psychology is so well explained that my Social Psychology teacher uses them as basic bibliography for the class. That’s where I read it for the first time.

The concept of “group beliefs” is used to talk about everything that defines a psychological group. If we want to say that a group of people is a psychological group, they must share a lot of concepts, values, goals, and well, beliefs, about themselves and the world around them. This means they have to see thing in a similar way, if they want to understand each other and live happily ever after, without the group breaking apart.

For example, if they like a soccer team, they must all like the same one; if anyone likes another one, that person should not be part of that psychological group, because his/her beliefs are different and set him apart. Of course, this is only when the group existence is about football. Maybe they don’t like the same music, but that’s not the reason they are together, so, it doesn’t matter.

I like social psychology, and I like simple things that have big implications. The “group beliefs” is a basic concept, but it explains, in my opinion, a big part of how groups are born. I mean, Bar-Tal explains that the most basic belief that must be shared is “we are a group”, what can be more obvious, and a same time, more important?

Yeah...