Relating Cohesion to Stress, Strain, Disintegration, and Performance: An Organizing Framework

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to propose new directions for group cohesion research, specifically for military psychology, and more broadly, for social psychology. In addition to group members' provision of mutual support, military studies of cohesion often include descriptions of stressful events, individual experiences of stress or strain, group members' departure from the group, and individual and group performance of assigned tasks or mission. Yet, conspicuously absent is an organizing framework that ties together these variables, indicates their interrelations, and specifies hypotheses to be tested. By drawing on early sociological definitions of cohesion and by linking evidence regarding the parallel relation of social support to both stress and individual functioning, we propose a conceptual framework incorporating stress, strain, group disintegration, and performance as important and relevant concepts in studying cohesion. The framework offers specific directions for theory, analysis, and practice in future cohesion studies.