Analysis of William Goldings Lord of the Flies - Article Example

PSYCHOLOGY William Golding’s Lord of the Flies The novel Lord of the Flies sets out to tell a story about a group of boys who are forced to find means of how to survive after the plane they were on was shot down and it landed on an abandoned island. The plot of the story is dated back to World War two whereby survival was meant to be achieved through means of team work despite the fact that every man was for himself. However, it is difficult to imagine how young boys can become savages in a bid to survive. It is based on these assumptions that the author Golding plots his story of the events that befell the boys who were in an abandoned island without any adult to protect and guide them. As the author illustrates the concept of human nature, it is quite clear that there are some aspects of group processes, which can be depicted among the boys. At the start of the novel, Piggy and Ralph are the first boys to meet after the crash. They are lucky enough to find a conch shell, which assists them to signal the other boys of their whereabouts. Immediately, the boys gather together they decide to choose Ralph as their leader for them to have an organized way on how they will work together to survive. However, Simon and Jack have planned to scope the island of everything that it has. Jack and the choirboys are elected to be the hunters and to keep watch of the fire that signals their whereabouts (Golding & Haldar, 2006). After staying and working together for weeks, Ralph and Piggy realise that they actually dislike each other and Jack, the leader of the hunters, wants total power over the group. It is from this point that the aspect of leadership becomes a challenge and the issue of a monster in the island makes the boys quite uneasy based on the fact that it becomes survival for the fittest with the concept leadership in jeopardise (Golding & Haldar, 2006). Group dynamics refers to the interactions that mainly influence the behaviour and attitudes of a group of individuals who are grouped together accidentally or by circumstances (Hogg, 2007). The group of boys were forced by circumstances resulting from the plane crash to be grouped together. Their behaviours and attitudes are mainly influenced by their desires to survive and be rescued amidst the situation that they have to deal with. From the novel, the concept of group processes can be depicted in different categories. Group processes in a psychology context entails the means of embracing cooperation of a group in a given circumstance (Hogg, 2007). Therefore, based on this definition and the plot of the story in discussion, the group processes that will be looked at in detail are leadership, group cohesiveness, group polarization, social loafing and groupthink. To start with, leadership is regarded as a process that revolves around social influence whereby one person is accorded support by others in order to fulfil a common task. With leadership, there are some aspects that are used to steer up the whole concept. These are power, charisma, vision, values, behaviour, intelligence, function and situational interaction among others (Messick & Kramer, 2005). In the novel, Piggy and Ralph met after the crash they had no direction, but when they made the move to signal other boys who were not with them they created the concept of leadership. For the boys to be able to survive in the deserted island, they had to plan out how they were to go about with their mission. The first thought that came to their minds is the fact that they had to select a leader amongst them who would influence their decisions on what they were to do. As a result, Ralph was selected as the worthy leader. Here, the concept of leadership is well depicted on how best the social aspect influenced the boys to select Ralph as their leader. The second concept is group cohesiveness. Group cohesiveness refers to a process in which a group of people come together in sole unity in order to achieve a certain mission or goal (Hogg, 1992). There are many aspects of group cohesiveness that are depicted from this definition. These are the dynamic nature, the emotional dimension as well as the multidimensionality aspect. Group cohesiveness is mainly determined by how stable a group is. In the sense that the bond of the group based on the perception of the members can be able to hold until the group is able to accomplish its mission. If the group cohesion is not strong, then the group will not be able to hold. At the beginning of the story, the boys had a sense of direction whereby they resulted into selecting a leader who would guide them through their survival as they waited to be rescued. The arrangement from the start was well sought out until an alarming concern regarding the existence of a monster came to their notice as well as the inhumane way in which the boys began to display. Ralph and Jack could not stand each other and the struggle for leadership as well as survival despite the uneasy situation, which the boys started having made the group cohesiveness to be shaken. A study conducted on group cohesion and performance using a multidimensional approach indicated that a cohesive group that had a positive relationship performed 18% much better than a non-cohesive group. The study critically examined the multidimensionality of both group performance and group cohesion in which the results indicated that stronger group cohesion was accompanied by positive relationships depicted from the social interaction of the group individuals. (Chang, 2001). If the boys had maintained the leadership of Ralph it is evident that they would have exhibited positive relationships thus enabling them to achieve their task faster. Group polarization refers to a process whereby a group may tend to make a decision that is quite extreme based on their situation (Hogg, 2007). This process involves decisions that may not be in line with all the members of the group. At the beginning, Ralph was the sole leader of the group but along the way Jack wanted entire power over the group and he resulted into forming his own group. Later on even though some of the boys were loyal to Ralph, they ended up following Jack’s group. Ralph at some point danced to the tune and joined Jack, who was a cruel leader. The group was forced to make an extreme decision on which side they should be loyal to Ralph’s or Jack’s. A study conducted on group polarization by Daniel Isenberg focused on two primary explanatory mechanisms which were thought to steer up the concept of group polarization. These two mechanisms were persuasive argumentation and social comparison processes. The articles reviewed under this critical study and meta-analysis indicated that the effects of persuasive argumentation were much more dominant in contributing to group polarization. Therefore, the results of the study simply focus on integrating various aspects that tend to bring out the entire aspect of group polarization based on the two mechanisms: persuasive argumentation and social comparison (Isenberg, 1986). Relating the study to the novel the boys had to make a decision based on the tasks characteristics and the leadership that they would follow. This resulted in a persuasive argumentation situation whereby the boys had to make a decision based on the confusing circumstance that led them to take sides. This critical review and meta-analysis study clearly depicts the manner in which the boys had to make a decision based on the challenge that they were facing. Another process is social loafing. Social loafing is regarded as a process whereby a group of people tend to use less effort in achieving a goal that each of the members would have done better while working alone (Chang, 2011). The group of the boys decided to work together in order to achieve their goal of surviving and being rescued. However, at the start, the boys began playing with the water without paying attention to the fire that was meant to signal their whereabouts. If it was not for Piggy and Ralph, the fire could have gone unnoticed. Some of the boys had completely relaxed and as a result they forgot about the challenging situation that they were in which required them to be alert and put in effort to survive. This clearly depicts the concept of social loafing. Finally, groupthink refers to a process in which a group’s desire to achieve harmony leads the members to make a dysfunctional decision. This process tends to rely mostly on loyalty. For instance, when the boys had to choose which side they should be on, loyalty propelled some of the boys to remain under the leadership of Ralph, but in the end, all the boys made a dysfunctional decision to join Jack, which was the worst decision that they could make. References Chang, Y. (2011). Social loafing and moral emotions. S.I Proquest Umi Dissertatio. Chang, A. (2001). A Multidimensional Approach to the Group Cohesion-Group Performance Relationship. University of Technology. Sage Journals. Golding, W., & Haldar, S. (2006). Lord of the Flies. New Delhi: Atlantic. Hogg, M. (2007). Group Processes. Malden Mass: Blackwell Pub. Hogg, M. (1992). The social psychology of group cohesiveness. New York: New York University Press. Isenberg, D.J. (1986). Group Polarization: A critical review and meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 50(6). Messick, D., & Kramer, R. (2005). The psychology of leadership. Mahwah, Erlbaum Associates. Read More