2
Group Observation Paper 4 – Conflict Observed in a Group
For this group observation paper, I decided to analyze a group conflict I heard and
observed from one of the girls on my hall. The conflict occurring is between he and roommate
amongst the rest of her quad. I had a conversation with her about what was going on and then
asked if I could come over and just observe one day. I was very out of my comfort zone because
I did not belong in this quad and was a new person coming in their quad.
Before I even started observing the quad and the conflict going on between the quad you
felt the tension as soon as you walked into the quad. I went into the quad with just basis
information of the quad already being established and the girl I talked to and her roommate
feeling like outsiders amongst this group of established friends. These girls have tried everything
they have been friendly and welcoming however they were good at the beginning of the semester
with the rest of the quad. However, as the semester went on issues occurred amongst the quad.
The one girl in their quad has an emotional support cat that she does not take care of very well
from what was said. This girl allows other to take care of the cat but the two girls I spoked to
said that is not their job but the other girls in the quad that are friends with the girl who owns the
cat had the assumption everyone would help including them. The two girls went to the RA’s and
the RAs had to speak to the whole quad and state whoever’s cat it is needs to be taking care of it
not the whole quad. This talked changed everything there was a lot of tension amongst the group
and have not spoken to each other since this occurred. However, the quad has been doing little
things to not include them and annoy them purposely. Therefore, as it states in the textbook, they
started at the forming stage and quickly moved onto the stage of storming and have not moved
pasted this stage (Forsyth, 2022).
3
Then when it came to the observing part of this process was nothing that I could imagine
it was things that were done purposely to hurt the girls and make them not feel welcomed. I was
able to spend the weekend in the quad and just see the dynamics of the group. Which reminded
me a lot of the trucking game experiment shared in the textbook because of resolving the conflict
their quad mates were just intensifying the conflict making it worse than it was (Forsyth,2022).
For example, I stayed in the girls room for the weekend I was there and I received zero sleep.
What their quad mates did was they put the cat in the hall and locked it out of there room and
allowed the cat to scream all night. These girls said this has been occurring for the past month
and their quad mates have been talked to about but will not stop. What I also observed being
there is them purposely avoiding talking to them and not speaking to them at all. However,
speaking to others in the living room besides them they spoke to me, and I have never met them
before. Then when one of the girls try to have small talk with them, they were completely
ignored. They would also purposely hog the TV in the living room just so the other girls were
not able to sit out there and use it. Finally the last thing that I recall is at night or in the morning
when the girls were getting ready in the bathroom rather than going to the one the girls were in.
They all decided to pack all seven of them into the one bathroom rather than sharing it with the
two other girls in the bathroom and being less cramped.
Therefore, when I first heard the things, the girl was telling me I did not believe it all and
thought they were overexaggerating. However, after seeing how these girls were treating and the
group conflict going on within this group it is way much more than I believe most people could
handle. This was very interesting to observe and see the different types of conflict we have
spoken about in class occurring in a group knowing that it could be occurring in others around
me. These girls continue to push through and have a smile on their face going through this
4
conflict that from the looks of it will get worse before it gets better. To conclude they shared the
only reason they are getting through this is because the other girls on the hall have just joined
around them in community sharing the love of God onto them. Which as it speaks in other
textbook on how were are supposed to build that fellowship and community with believers in
Christ just pouring all of our love out on them (Icenogle, 1994).
