Laughner Community TLT Group Tailored Website

Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC)

Four Factors (Membership, Influence, Integration, Fulfillment of Needs)

Excerpts from Dissertation Proposal:

Summary of the work of McMillan and Chavis.

Thomas C. Laughner [thomas.c.laughner.1@nd.edu]

Some scholars have maintained that even more important than what comprises a community is whether individuals feel a sense of community. McMillan and Chavis (1986) describe four factors that determine whether someone has a psychological sense of community. They are membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and a shared emotional connection. They define a sense of community as a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through commitment to be together. There are four criteria that must be met in order for an individual to develop a psychological sense of community (PSOC).

Membership

McMillan and Chavis (1986) describe membership as an investment that one makes to belong to a community. It is a feeling of belonging. There are five components to membership:

· Boundaries – the sense that not only is an individual a member of a group, but that there are others who are not able to participate in the group. For example, a university community consists of people who have been admitted to attend the school. A student at the university senses, and possibly even promotes, the idea that those who are not students at the university cannot be part of that community.

· Emotional safety – the creation of boundaries forms group cohesion, and therefore provides a sense of security.

· Sense of belonging and identification – the state when an individual takes ownership of a group, possibly indicated by statements such as “It is my group” or “I am part of this group.” This is usually at a stage where the individual feels accepted by the other members in the group and is in turn willing to “sacrifice” for the group.

· Personal investment – When an individual has to work for membership in the group, s/he will have more of a feeling that they have earned a place in the group.

· Common symbol system – The group’s language, traditions, style of dress, or rites of passage serve to unify the members and contributes to the boundaries of the group. A school’s alma mater, for example, may serve to create unity among students and/or alumni of the institution.

Influence

The notion of influence works two ways. On one hand, a member feels that s/he has the ability to influence the direction of the group. At the same time, though, in order for the group to function, members of the group must have influence over individuals, with expectations for certain actions or behaviors. There are four characteristics of influence:

"1. Members are more attracted to a community in which they feel that they are influential.

2. There is a significant positive relationship between cohesiveness and a community’s influence on its members to conform. Thus, both conformity and community influence on members indicate the strength of the bond.

3. The pressure for conformity and uniformity comes from the needs of the individual and the community for consensual validation. Thus, conformity serves as a force for closeness as well as an indicator of cohesiveness.

4. Influence of a member on the community and influence of the community on a member operate concurrently, and one might expect to see the force of both operating simultaneously in a tight knit community.” (McMillan and Chavis, 1986)

Integration and fulfillment of needs

Integration and fulfillment of needs relates to the requirement that participants need to have rewarding experiences as part of their association with the group.

“1. Reinforcement and need fulfillment is a primary function of a strong community.

2. Some of the rewards that are effective reinforcers of communities are status of membership, success of the community, and competence or capabilities of other members.

3. There are many other undocumented needs that communities fill, but individual values are the source of these needs. The extent to which individual values are shared among community members will determine the ability of a community to organize and prioritize its need-fulfillment activities.

4. A strong community is able to fit people together so that people meet others’ needs while they meet their own.”

Shared emotional connection

The interactions of individuals in a group create a shared history and connection to the group. The features of shared emotional connection are:

“1. … The more people interact, the more likely they are to become close.

2. The more positive the experience and the relationships, the greater the bond. Success facilitates cohesion.

3. If the interaction is ambiguous and the community’s tasks are left unresolved, group cohesiveness will be inhibited.

4. The more important the shared event is to those involved, the greater the community bond.

5. … The amount of interpersonal emotional risk one takes with the other members and the extent to which one opens oneself to emotional pain from the community life will affect one’s general sense of community.

6. …Reward or humiliation in the presence of [the] community has a significant impact on attractiveness (or adverseness) of the community to the person.”

7. The final feature is “spiritual bond” which ties directly to Tonnie's use of gemeinschaft. This is an overall, unexplainable feeling of connection one has with other people. For example, individuals of a certain faith may feel a spiritual connection with a university simply because that institution is affiliated with the same denomination.