Some effects of status, role clarity, and group goal clarity upon the individual's relations to group process.

One of the factors which affects an individual's motivation to perform on a group task, as well as his feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction, is the clarity of the social structure within which the individual functions psychologists B.R. Raven and J. Rietsema in a recent experiment were concerned with some effects upon a group member of the clarity of the group's goal and the path to that goal. With a very ingenious method, utilizing a tape recording, they were able to induce two degrees of goal clarity the subject (S) was given the task of cutting out geometrical figures presumably to be used by the other members of his group in constructing some three-dimensional objects. While S was involved in his paper cutting, he was permitted to hear, over a loud speaker, what the others were doing with the pieces he had provided. One half of the Ss were given, through the recorded discussion, a clear picture of the goal the others were working toward and what they were doing to achieve it. The recording heard by the other Ss presented the group task as quite vague and ambiguous.