Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game ). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, individuals, economic and social groups, etc. The rivalry can be over attainment of any exclusive goal, including recognition .
125-763: [REDACTED] Look up certamen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Certamen , Latin for competition , may refer to: Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi , a Greek narrative of an imagined poetical agon between Homer and Hesiod Certamen (quiz bowl) , a competition with classics-themed questions CS Certamen , an Italian cable ship, formerly CCGS John Cabot (1965) See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] Search for "certamen" on Misplaced Pages. Competition (disambiguation) Agon All pages with titles beginning with Certamen All pages with titles containing Certamen Topics referred to by
250-575: A process. It is a process of rivalry between firms (or consumers) intensifying selective pressures for improvements. One can restate this as a process of discovery. Three levels of end-state economic competition have been classified: In addition, companies compete for financing on the capital markets (equity or debt) in order to generate the necessary cash for their operations. Investor typically consider alternative investment opportunities given their risk profile, and not only look at companies just competing on product ( direct competitors ). Enlarging
375-484: A 'group mind,' which had a distinct existence born from the interaction of individuals. Eventually, the social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) coined the term group dynamics to describe the positive and negative forces within groups of people. In 1945, he established The Group Dynamics Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , the first institute devoted explicitly to
500-400: A balance between these two desires. That is, to be similar to others (those who you share group membership with), but also to be different from others (those who are outside of your group). In the social sciences, group cohesion refers to the processes that keep members of a social group connected. Terms such as attraction, solidarity, and morale are often used to describe group cohesion. It
625-410: A ball, or defending territory on a playing field is not an innate biological factor in humans. Athletes in sports such as gymnastics and competitive diving compete against each other in order to come closest to a conceptual ideal of a perfect performance, which incorporates measurable criteria and standards which are translated into numerical ratings and scores by appointed judges. Sports competition
750-403: A collection of people watching a movie in a theater both constitute a group. Past research has identified four basic types of groups which include, but are not limited to: primary groups, social groups, collective groups, and categories. It is important to define these four types of groups because they are intuitive to most lay people. For example, in an experiment, participants were asked to sort
875-476: A combination of both. People that enjoy entering competitions are known as compers. Many philosophers and psychologists have identified a trait in most living organisms which can drive the particular organism to compete. This trait, called competitiveness, is viewed as having a high adaptive value , which coexists along with the urge for survival. Competitiveness, or the inclination to compete, though, has become synonymous with aggressiveness and ambition in
1000-427: A consistent, underlying premise: "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." A social group is an entity that has qualities which cannot be understood just by studying the individuals that make up the group. In 1924, Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer proposed "There are entities where the behaviour of the whole cannot be derived from its individual elements nor from the way these elements fit together; rather
1125-481: A decision. Sigmund Freud explained competition as a primal dilemma in which all infants find themselves. The infant competes with other family members for the attention and affection of the parent of the opposite sex or the primary caregiving parent. During this time, a boy develops a deep fear that the father (the son's prime rival) will punish him for these feelings of desire for the mother, by castrating him. Girls develop penis envy towards all males. The girl's envy
1250-432: A deliberate system of internal brand-versus-brand rivalry. The company was organized around different brands , with each brand allocated resources, including a dedicated group of employees willing to champion the brand. Each brand manager was given responsibility for the success or failure of the brand, and compensated accordingly. Most businesses also encourage competition between individual employees. An example of this
1375-473: A desire to be similar to others, but also a desire to differentiate themselves, ultimately seeking some balance of these two desires (to obtain optimal distinctiveness ). For example, one might imagine a young teenager in the United States who tries to balance these desires, not wanting to be ‘just like everyone else,’ but also wanting to ‘fit in’ and be similar to others. One's collective self may offer
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#17327943154171500-422: A distinct and valued social identity that benefits our self-esteem. Our social identity and group membership also satisfies a need to belong. Of course, individuals belong to multiple groups. Therefore, one's social identity can have several, qualitatively distinct parts (for example, one's ethnic identity, religious identity, and political identity). Optimal distinctiveness theory suggests that individuals have
1625-512: A fifth stage for the dissolution of a group called adjourning . ( Adjourning may also be referred to as mourning , i.e. mourning the adjournment of the group). This model refers to the overall pattern of the group, but of course individuals within a group work in different ways. If distrust persists, a group may never even get to the norming stage. M. Scott Peck developed stages for larger-scale groups (i.e., communities) which are similar to Tuckman's stages of group development. Peck describes
1750-548: A flash mob, an audience at a movie, and a crowd watching a building burn. Categories are characterized by a collection of individuals who are similar in some way. Categories become groups when their similarities have social implications. For example, when people treat others differently because of certain aspects of their appearance or heritage, for example, this creates groups of different races. For this reason, categories can appear to be higher in entitativity and essentialism than primary, social, and collective groups. Entitativity
1875-506: A fundamental aspect of group structure as they provide direction and motivation, and organize the social interactions of members. Norms are said to be emergent, as they develop gradually throughout interactions between group members. While many norms are widespread throughout society, groups may develop their own norms that members must learn when they join the group. There are various types of norms, including: prescriptive, proscriptive, descriptive, and injunctive. Intermember Relations are
2000-399: A game of basketball , two teams compete against one another to determine who can score the most points. When there is no set reward for the winning team, many players gain a sense of pride . In addition, extrinsic rewards may also be given. Athletes, besides competing against other humans, also compete against nature in sports such as whitewater kayaking or mountaineering , where the goal
2125-596: A given market. The two academic bodies of thought on the assessment of competitiveness are the Structure Conduct Performance Paradigm and the more contemporary New Empirical Industrial Organisation model. Predicting changes in the competitiveness of business sectors is becoming an integral and explicit step in public policymaking. Within capitalist economic systems, the drive of enterprises is to maintain and improve their own competitiveness. One-upmanship , also called "one-upsmanship",
2250-399: A group could not exist. As an extension of Lewin's work, Festinger (along with Stanley Schachter and Kurt Back) described cohesion as, “the total field of forces which act on members to remain in the group” (Festinger, Schachter, & Back, 1950, p. 37). Later, this definition was modified to describe the forces acting on individual members to remain in the group, termed attraction to
2375-399: A group is determined by a number of different factors, including an individual's personal traits; gender; social motives such as need for affiliation, need for power, and need for intimacy; attachment style; and prior group experiences. Groups can offer some advantages to its members that would not be possible if an individual decided to remain alone, including gaining social support in
2500-427: A group may be attractive to us in terms of costs and benefits, but that attractiveness alone does not determine whether or not we will join the group. Instead, our decision is based on two factors: our comparison level, and our comparison level for alternatives. In John Thibaut and Harold Kelley's social exchange theory , comparison level is the standard by which an individual will evaluate the desirability of becoming
2625-474: A group must prove themselves to the full members to become accepted, full members have undergone socialization and are already accepted within the group. They have more privilege than newcomers but more responsibility to help the group achieve its goals. Marginal members were once full members but lost membership because they failed to live up to the group's expectations. They can rejoin the group if they go through re-socialization. Therefore, full members' behavior
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#17327943154172750-415: A high level of agency thrive on competition, are self-motivated, and are willing to risk failure. Compared to their counterparts who are low in agency, these students are more likely to be flexible, adaptable and creative as adults. Merriam-Webster gives as one definition of competition (relating to business ) as "[...] rivalry: such as [...] the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure
2875-428: A high level of role differentiation would be categorized as having many different roles that are specialized and narrowly defined. A key role in a group is the leader, but there are other important roles as well, including task roles, relationship roles, and individual roles. Functional (task) roles are generally defined in relation to the tasks the team is expected to perform. Individuals engaged in task roles focus on
3000-669: A level of psychological distinctiveness is necessary for group formation. Through interaction, individuals begin to develop group norms, roles, and attitudes which define the group, and are internalized to influence behaviour. Emergent groups arise from a relatively spontaneous process of group formation. For example, in response to a natural disaster, an emergent response group may form. These groups are characterized as having no preexisting structure (e.g. group membership, allocated roles) or prior experience working together. Yet, these groups still express high levels of interdependence and coordinate knowledge, resources, and tasks. Joining
3125-618: A means for aspiring writers to gain recognition. Awards for fiction include those sponsored by the Missouri Review , Boston Review , Indiana Review , North American Review and Southwest Review . The Albee Award, sponsored by the Yale Drama Series, is among the most prestigious playwriting awards. Margaret Heffernan 's study, A Bigger Prize , examines the perils and disadvantages of competition in (for example) biology, families, sport, education, commerce and
3250-449: A member of the group and forming new social relationships within the group. This comparison level is influenced by previous relationships and membership in different groups. Those individuals who have experienced positive rewards with few costs in previous relationships and groups will have a higher comparison level than a person who experienced more negative costs and fewer rewards in previous relationships and group memberships. According to
3375-634: A number of groups into categories based on their own criteria. Examples of groups to be sorted were a sports team, a family, people at a bus stop and women. It was found that participants consistently sorted groups into four categories: intimacy groups, task groups, loose associations, and social categories. These categories are conceptually similar to the four basic types to be discussed. Therefore, it seems that individuals intuitively define aggregations of individuals in this way. Primary groups are characterized by relatively small, long-lasting groups of individuals who share personally meaningful relationships. Since
3500-467: A rallying point for the team. However, some values (such as conformity ) can also be dysfunction and lead to poor decisions by the team. Communication patterns describe the flow of information within the group and they are typically described as either centralized or decentralized. With a centralized pattern, communications tend to flow from one source to all group members. Centralized communications allow standardization of information, but may restrict
3625-461: A sense of collective conscious and an emotion-based sense of community. Beliefs within the ingroup are based on how individuals in the group see their other members. Individuals tend to upgrade likeable in-group members and deviate from unlikeable group members, making them a separate outgroup. This is called the black sheep effect. The way a person judges socially desirable and socially undesirable individuals depends upon whether they are part of
3750-504: A simple concept to measure heights that firms can climb may help improve execution of strategies. International competitiveness can be measured on several criteria but few are as flexible and versatile to be applied across levels as Trade Competitiveness Index (TCI) The tendency toward extreme, unhealthy competition has been termed hypercompetitiveness . This concept originated in Karen Horney 's theories on neurosis ; specifically,
3875-401: A study of the individual. On the sociological side, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who was influenced by Wundt, also recognized collective phenomena, such as public knowledge. Other key theorists include Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931) who believed that crowds possessed a 'racial unconscious' with primitive, aggressive, and antisocial instincts, and William McDougall (psychologist) , who believed in
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4000-457: A whole in an increasingly less positive manner after they became full members. However, there is no evidence that this affects the way they are judged by other members. Nevertheless, depending on the self-esteem of an individual, members of the in-group may experience different private beliefs about the group's activities but will publicly express the opposite—that they actually share these beliefs. One member may not personally agree with something
4125-600: A wide array of economic phenomena and approaches, such as auctions , bargaining , mergers & acquisitions pricing, fair division , duopolies , oligopolies , social network formation, agent-based computational economics , general equilibrium , mechanism design , and voting systems ; and across such broad areas as experimental economics , behavioral economics , information economics , industrial organization , and political economy . This research usually focuses on particular sets of strategies known as "solution concepts" or "equilibria" . A common assumption
4250-402: Is a contest between sales representatives. The sales representative with the highest sales (or the best improvement in sales) over a period of time would gain benefits from the employer. This is also known as intra-brand competition . Shalev and Asbjornsen found that success (i.e. the saving resulted) of reverse auctions correlated most closely with competition. The literature widely supported
4375-429: Is a free entry lottery run to promote goods or services supplied by a business. An example is where you purchase goods or services and then given the chance to enter into the lottery and possibly win a prize. A trade promotion lottery can be called a lotto, competition, contest, sweepstake, or giveaway. Such competitions can be games of luck (randomly drawn) or skill (judged on an entry question or submission), or possibly
4500-442: Is a major factor in education. On a global scale, national education systems, intending to bring out the best in the next generation, encourage competitiveness among students through scholarships . Countries such as England and Singapore have special education programmes which cater for specialist students, prompting charges of academic elitism . Upon receipt of their academic results, students tend to compare their grades to see who
4625-408: Is a part of social exchange theory that states that people will join and remain in a group that can provide them with the maximum amount of valuable rewards while at the same time, ensuring the minimum amount of costs to themselves. However, this does not necessarily mean that a person will join a group simply because the reward/cost ratio seems attractive. According to Howard Kelley and John Thibaut,
4750-452: Is also found in trade . For nations, as well as firms it is important to understand trade dynamics in order to market their goods and services effectively in international markets. Balance of trade can be considered a crude, but widely used proxy for international competitiveness across levels: country , industry or even firm . “We share a common belief that innovation comes from the edges,” said Luisa Delgado, an SAP HR director, who noted
4875-489: Is better. In severe cases, the pressure to perform in some countries is so high that it can result in stigmatization of intellectually deficient students, or even suicide as a consequence of failing the exams. Critics of competition as a motivating factor in education systems, such as Alfie Kohn , assert that competition actually has a net negative influence on the achievement levels of students, and that it "turns all of us into losers". Economist Richard Layard has commented on
5000-703: Is characterized by a formally organized group of individuals who are not as emotionally involved with each other as those in a primary group. These groups tend to be larger, with shorter memberships compared to primary groups. Further, social groups do not have as stable memberships, since members are able to leave their social group and join new groups. The goals of social groups are often task-oriented as opposed to relationship-oriented. Examples of social groups include coworkers, clubs, and sports teams. Collectives are characterized by large groups of individuals who display similar actions or outlooks. They are loosely formed, spontaneous, and brief. Examples of collectives include
5125-589: Is closely connected with the law on deregulation of access to markets, providing state aids and subsidies, the privatisation of state-owned assets and the use of independent sector regulators, such as the United Kingdom telecommunications watchdog Ofcom . Behind the practice lies the theory, which over the last fifty years has been dominated by neo-classical economics . Markets are seen as the most efficient method of allocating resources, although sometimes they fail , and regulation becomes necessary to protect
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5250-436: Is defined by Campbell as the extent to which collections of individuals are perceived to be a group. The degree of entitativity that a group has is influenced by whether a collection of individuals experience the same fate, display similarities, and are close in proximity. If individuals believe that a group is high in entitativity, then they are likely to believe that the group has unchanging characteristics that are essential to
5375-414: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Competition Competition occurs in nature, between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment . Animals compete over water supplies, food, mates, and other biological resources . Humans usually compete for food and mates , though when these needs are met deep rivalries often arise over
5500-460: Is generally broken down into three categories: individual sports, such as archery ; dual sports, such as doubles tennis , and team sports competition, such as cricket or football . While most sports competitions are recreation, there exist several major and minor professional sports leagues throughout the world. The Olympic Games , held every four years, is usually regarded as the international pinnacle of sports competition. Competition
5625-502: Is important that other group members perceive an individual's status to be warranted and deserved, as otherwise they may not have authority within the group. Status differentials may affect the relative amount of pay among group members and they may also affect the group's tolerance to violation of group norms (e.g. people with higher status may be given more freedom to violate group norms). Forsyth suggests that while many daily tasks undertaken by individuals could be performed in isolation,
5750-416: Is mainly used in economics , political science , and psychology , as well as logic , computer science , biology and poker . Originally, it mainly addressed zero-sum games , in which one person's gains result in losses for the other participants. Game theory is a major method used in mathematical economics and business for modeling competing behaviors of interacting agents . Applications include
5875-552: Is more efficient than perfect competition . Competition, according to the theory, causes commercial firms to develop new products, services and technologies, which would give consumers greater selection and better products. The greater selection typically causes lower prices for the products, compared to what the price would be if there was no competition ( monopoly ) or little competition ( oligopoly ). However, competition may also lead to wasted (duplicated) effort and to increased costs (and prices) in some circumstances. For example,
6000-433: Is often their first experience with a group. For example, individuals are born into a primary group, their family, which creates a foundation for them to base their future relationships. Individuals can be born into a primary group; however, primary groups can also form when individuals interact for extended periods of time in meaningful ways. Examples of primary groups include family, close friends, and gangs. A social group
6125-776: Is often useful in the context of work settings, team sports, and political activism. However, the influence of groups on the individual can also generate extremely negative behaviours, evident in Nazi Germany, the My Lai Massacre , and in the Abu Ghraib prison (also see Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse ). A group's structure is the internal framework that defines members' relations to one another over time. Frequently studied elements of group structure include roles, norms, values, communication patterns, and status differentials. Group structure has also been defined as
6250-406: Is paramount to define the ingroup's image. Bogart and Ryan surveyed the development of new members' stereotypes about in-groups and out-groups during socialization. Results showed that the new members judged themselves as consistent with the stereotypes of their in-groups, even when they had recently committed to join those groups or existed as marginal members. They also tended to judge the group as
6375-474: Is rooted in the biologic fact that, without a penis, she cannot sexually possess mother, as the infantile id demands, resultantly, the girl redirects her desire for sexual union upon father in competitive rivalry with her mother. This constellation of feelings is known as Oedipus Complex (after the Greek Mythology figure who accidentally killed his father and married his mother). This is associated with
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#17327943154176500-415: Is similar to the study of culture . For example, there are group dynamics in the U.S. South that sustain a culture of honor , which is associated with norms of toughness, honour-related violence, and self-defence. Group formation starts with a psychological bond between individuals. The social cohesion approach suggests that group formation comes out of bonds of interpersonal attraction . In contrast,
6625-442: Is taken to be unambiguously good, even where that competition leaks into the rules of the game. He claims this drives financialisation (the approximate doubling of proportion of economic resources dedicated to finance and to 'rule making and administering' professions such as law, accountancy and auditing. Competition between countries is quite subtle to detect, but is quite evident in the world economy . Countries compete to provide
6750-585: Is that players act rationally. In non-cooperative games, the most famous of these is the Nash equilibrium . A set of strategies is a Nash equilibrium if each represents a best response to the other strategies. If all the players are playing the strategies in a Nash equilibrium, they have no unilateral incentive to deviate, since their strategy is the best they can do given what others are doing. Literary competitions, such as contests sponsored by literary journals , publishing houses and theaters, have increasingly become
6875-583: Is the art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor . The term was first used in the title of a book by Stephen Potter , published in 1952 as a follow-up to The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship (or the Art of Winning Games without Actually Cheating) (1947). Other Lifemanship titles in his series of tongue-in-cheek self-help books , as well as film and television derivatives, teach various ploys to achieve this. This comic satire of self-help style guides manipulates traditional British conventions for
7000-422: Is thought to be one of the most important characteristics of a group, and has been linked to group performance, intergroup conflict and therapeutic change. Group cohesion, as a scientifically studied property of groups, is commonly associated with Kurt Lewin and his student, Leon Festinger . Lewin defined group cohesion as the willingness of individuals to stick together, and believed that without cohesiveness
7125-460: Is to reach a destination, with only natural barriers impeding the process. A regularly scheduled (for instance annual) competition meant to determine the "best" competitor of that cycle is called a championship . Competitive sports are governed by codified rules agreed upon by the participants. Violating these rules is considered to be unfair competition . Thus, sports provide artificial (not natural) competition; for example, competing for control of
7250-471: Is top dog here?), and affection (do I belong here?). Schutz sees groups resolving each issue in turn in order to be able to progress to the next stage. Conversely, a struggling group can devolve to an earlier stage, if unable to resolve outstanding issues at its present stage. Schutz referred to these group dynamics as "the interpersonal underworld," group processes which are largely unseen and un-acknowledged, as opposed to "content" issues, which are nominally
7375-460: The social identity approach suggests that a group starts when a collection of individuals perceive that they share some social category (‘smokers’, ‘nurses,’ ‘students,’ ‘hockey players’), and that interpersonal attraction only secondarily enhances the connection between individuals. Additionally, from the social identity approach, group formation involves both identifying with some individuals and explicitly not identifying with others. So to say,
7500-463: The English language . More advanced civilizations integrate aggressiveness and competitiveness into their interactions , as a way to distribute resources and adapt. Many plants compete with neighboring ones for sunlight. The term also applies to econometrics . Here, it is a comparative measure of the ability and performance of a firm or sub-sector to sell and produce/supply goods and/or services in
7625-612: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States and the European Commission's Competition Directorate General (DGCOMP) have formed international support- and enforcement-networks. Competition law is growing in importance every day, which warrants for its careful study. Game theory is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers." Game theory
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#17327943154177750-525: The United States as antitrust law, has three main functions: In all three cases, competition law aims to protect the welfare of consumers by ensuring that each business must compete for its share of the market economy . In recent decades, competition law has also been sold as good medicine to provide better public services , traditionally funded by tax -payers and administered by democratically accountable governments . Hence competition law
7875-469: The boundaries of the group. Often, there are distinct subgroups within a more broadly defined group. For example, one could define U.S. residents (‘Americans’) as a group, but could also define a more specific set of U.S. residents (for example, 'Americans in the South'). For each of these groups, there are distinct dynamics that can be discussed. Notably, on this very broad level, the study of group dynamics
8000-621: The phallic stage of childhood development where intense primal emotions of competitive rivalry with (usually) the parent of the same sex are rampant and create a crisis that must be negotiated successfully for healthy psychological development to proceed. Unresolved Oedipus complex competitiveness issues can lead to lifelong neuroses manifesting in various ways related to an overdetermined relationship to competition. Gandhi speaks of egoistic competition. For him, such qualities glorified and/or left unbridled, can lead to violence, conflict, discord and destructiveness. For Gandhi, competition comes from
8125-429: The social exchange theory , group membership will be more satisfying to a new prospective member if the group's outcomes, in terms of costs and rewards, are above the individual's comparison level. As well, group membership will be unsatisfying to a new member if the outcomes are below the individual's comparison level. Comparison level only predicts how satisfied a new member will be with the social relationships within
8250-442: The "comparison level for alternatives can be defined informally as the lowest level of outcomes a member will accept in the light of available alternative opportunities.” Joining and leaving groups is ultimately dependent on the comparison level for alternatives, whereas member satisfaction within a group depends on the comparison level. To summarize, if membership in the group is above the comparison level for alternatives and above
8375-468: The Pattern of Fascist Propaganda , and said that "It is not an overstatement if we say that Freud, though he was hardly interested in the political phase of the problem, clearly foresaw the rise and nature of fascist mass movements in purely psychological categories." Jacob L. Moreno was a psychiatrist, dramatist, philosopher and theoretician who coined the term "group psychotherapy" in the early 1930s and
8500-629: The Soviet Union. Karl Marx insisted that "the capitalist system fosters competition and egoism in all its members and thoroughly undermines all genuine forms of community". It promotes a "climate of competitive egoism and individualism", with competition for jobs and competition between employees; Marx said competition between workers exceeds that demonstrated by company owners. He also points out that competition separates individuals from one another and while concentration of workers and development of better communication alleviate this, they are not
8625-444: The United Kingdom, competitions or lotto are the equivalent of what are commonly known as sweepstakes in the United States. The correct technical name for Australian consumer competitions is a trade promotion lottery or lotto. Competition or trade promotion lottery entrants enter to win a prize or prizes, hence many entrants are all in competition, or competing for a limited number of prizes. A trade promotion lottery or competition
8750-535: The ability of a group to accomplish the work it was nominally engaged in. Bion's experiences are reported in his published books, especially Experiences in Groups. The Tavistock Institute has further developed and applied the theory and practices developed by Bion. Bruce Tuckman (1965) proposed the four-stage model called Tuckman's Stages for a group. Tuckman's model states that the ideal group decision-making process should occur in four stages: Tuckman later added
8875-513: The agenda of group meetings. Wilfred Bion (1961) studied group dynamics from a psychoanalytic perspective, and stated that he was much influenced by Wilfred Trotter for whom he worked at University College Hospital London, as did another key figure in the Psychoanalytic movement, Ernest Jones . He discovered several mass group processes which involved the group as a whole adopting an orientation which, in his opinion, interfered with
9000-436: The best possible business environment for multinational corporations . Such competition is evident by the policies undertaken by these countries to educate the future workforce. For example, East Asian economies such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea tend to compete by allocating a large portion of the budget to the education sector, including by implementing programmes such as gifted education . Competition law , known in
9125-425: The branch of mathematics known as game theory . Competition has been studied in several fields, including psychology , sociology and anthropology . Social psychologists , for instance, study the nature of competition. They investigate the natural urge of competition and its circumstances. They also study group dynamics , to detect how competition emerges and what its effects are. Sociologists , meanwhile, study
9250-432: The business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms". Adam Smith in his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations and later economists described competition in general as allocating productive resources to their most highly valued uses and encouraging efficiency . Later microeconomic theory distinguished between perfect competition and imperfect competition , concluding that no system of resource allocation
9375-620: The cases of a government monopoly or of a government-granted monopoly . Governments may institute tariffs , subsidies or other protectionist measures in order to prevent or reduce competition. Depending on the respective economic policy, pure competition is to a greater or lesser extent regulated by competition policy and competition law . Another component of these activities is the discovery process , with instances of higher government regulations typically leading to less competitive businesses being launched. Nicholas Gruen has referred to The Competition Delusion , in which competition
9500-447: The chance that groups will be successful. These include: Intragroup dynamics (also referred to as ingroup-, within-group, or commonly just ‘group dynamics’) are the underlying processes that give rise to a set of norms, roles, relations, and common goals that characterize a particular social group . Examples of groups include religious, political, military, and environmental groups, sports teams, work groups, and therapy groups. Amongst
9625-465: The company may produce or develop. Competition is often considered to be the opposite of cooperation ; however, in the real world, mixtures of cooperation and competition are the norm. In economies, as the philosopher R. G. Collingwood argued "the presence of these two opposites together is essential to an economic system. The parties to an economic action co-operate in competing, like two chess players". Optimal strategies to achieve goals are studied in
9750-522: The company so that each division would compete with the other divisions. For example, the Chevrolet division would compete with the Pontiac division for some market segments . The competing brands by the same company allowed parts to be designed by one division and shared by several divisions, for example parts designed by Chevrolet would also be used by Pontiac. In 1931 Procter & Gamble initiated
9875-520: The company valued the ability of many autistic people to “think differently and spark innovation.” SAP’s Bangalore office saw its productivity increase after deploying autistic hires. The company is working closely with a Danish not-for-profit specializing in IT job placements for individuals with autism spectrum disorders." Research data hints that exporting firms have a higher survival rate and achieve greater employment growth compared with non-exporters. Using
10000-427: The comparison level for alternatives but above the comparison level, membership is satisfying but an individual will be unlikely to join. If group membership is below both the comparison and alternative comparison levels, membership will be dissatisfying and the individual will be less likely to join the group. Groups can vary drastically from one another. For example, three best friends who interact every day as well as
10125-405: The comparison level, the membership within the group will be satisfying and an individual will be more likely to join the group. If membership in the group is above the comparison level for alternatives but below the comparison level, membership will be not be satisfactory; however, the individual will likely join the group since no other desirable options are available. When group membership is below
10250-406: The connections among the members of a group, or the social network within a group. Group members are linked to one another at varying levels. Examining the intermember relations of a group can highlight a group's density (how many members are linked to one another), or the degree centrality of members (number of ties between members). Analysing the intermember relations aspect of a group can highlight
10375-443: The degree centrality of each member in the group, which can lead to a better understanding of the roles of certain group (e.g. an individual who is a 'go-between' in a group will have closer ties to numerous group members which can aid in communication, etc.). Values are goals or ideas that serve as guiding principles for the group. Like norms, values may be communicated either explicitly or on an ad hoc basis. Values can serve as
10500-408: The effects of competition on society as a whole. Additionally, anthropologists study the history and prehistory of competition in various cultures. They also investigate how competition manifested itself in various cultural settings in the past, and how competition has developed over time. Competition within, between, and among species is one of the most important forces in biology, especially in
10625-439: The ego, and therefore society must be based on mutual love, cooperation and sacrifice for the well-being of humanity. In the society desired by Gandhi, each individual will cooperate and serve for the welfare of others and people will share each other's joys, sorrows and achievements as a norm of a social life. For him, in a non-violent society, competition does not have a place and this should become realized with more people making
10750-486: The end of which another election is usually held to determine the next holder of the office. In addition, there is inevitable competition inside a government. Because several offices are appointed, potential candidates compete against the others in order to gain the particular office. Departments may also compete for a limited amount of resources, such as for funding . Finally, where there are party systems , elected leaders of different parties will ultimately compete against
10875-408: The field of ecology . Competition between members of a species ("intraspecific") for resources such as food , water , territory , and sunlight may result in an increase in the frequency of a variant of the species best suited for survival and reproduction until its fixation within a population. However, competition among resources also has a strong tendency for diversification between members of
11000-408: The forms of emotional support, instrumental support, and informational support. It also offers friendship, potential new interests, learning new skills, and enhancing self esteem. However, joining a group may also cost an individual time, effort, and personal resources as they may conform to social pressures and strive to reap the benefits that may be offered by the group. The Minimax Principle
11125-468: The free flow of information. Decentralized communications make it easy to share information directly between group members. When decentralized, communications tend to flow more freely, but the delivery of information may not be as fast or accurate as with centralized communications. Another potential downside of decentralized communications is the sheer volume of information that can be generated, particularly with electronic media. Status differentials are
11250-414: The gamester. The principle being all life being a game, who understands that if you're not one-up, you're one-down. Potter's unprincipled principles apply to almost any possession, experience or situation, deriving maximum undeserved rewards and discomfitting the opposition. The 1960 film School for Scoundrels and its 2006 remake were satiric portrayals of how to use Potter's ideas. In that context,
11375-702: The goals of the group and on enabling the work that members do; examples of task roles include coordinator, recorder, critic, or technician. A group member engaged in a relationship role (or socioemotional role) is focused on maintaining the interpersonal and emotional needs of the groups' members; examples of relationship role include encourager, harmonizer, or compromiser. Norms are the informal rules that groups adopt to regulate members' behaviour. Norms refer to what should be done and represent value judgments about appropriate behaviour in social situations. Although they are infrequently written down or even discussed, norms have powerful influence on group behaviour. They are
11500-511: The group . Since then, several models for understanding the concept of group cohesion have been developed, including Albert Carron's hierarchical model and several bi-dimensional models (vertical v. horizontal cohesion, task v. social cohesion, belongingness and morale, and personal v. social attraction). Before Lewin and Festinger, there were, of course, descriptions of a very similar group property. For example, Emile Durkheim described two forms of solidarity (mechanical and organic), which created
11625-455: The group does, but to avoid the black sheep effect, they will publicly agree with the group and keep the private beliefs to themselves. If the person is privately self-aware , he or she is more likely to comply with the group even if they possibly have their own beliefs about the situation. In situations of hazing within fraternities and sororities on college campuses, pledges may encounter this type of situation and may outwardly comply with
11750-470: The group, known as essentialism. Examples of categories are New Yorkers, gamblers, and women. The social group is a critical source of information about individual identity. We naturally make comparisons between our own group and other groups, but we do not necessarily make objective comparisons. Instead, we make evaluations that are self-enhancing, emphasizing the positive qualities of our own group (see ingroup bias ). In this way, these comparisons give us
11875-425: The group. To determine whether people will actually join or leave a group, the value of other, alternative groups needs to be taken into account. This is called the comparison level for alternatives. This comparison level for alternatives is the standard by which an individual will evaluate the quality of the group in comparison to other groups the individual has the opportunity to join. Thiabaut and Kelley stated that
12000-531: The harmful effects, stating "people feel that they are under a great deal of pressure. They feel that their main objective in life is to do better than other people. That is certainly what young people are being taught in school every day. And it's not a good basis for a society." However, other studies such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking show that the effect of competition on students depends on each individual's level of agency . Students with
12125-515: The highly aggressive personality type which is characterized as "moving against people". In her view, some people have a need to compete and win at all costs as a means of maintaining their self-worth . These individuals are likely to turn any activity into a competition, and they will feel threatened if they find themselves losing. Researchers have found that men and women who score high on the trait of hypercompetitiveness are more narcissistic and less psychologically healthy than those who score low on
12250-579: The ideal market model. Behind the theory lies the history, reaching back further than the Roman Empire . The business practices of market traders, guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny and sometimes to severe sanctions. Since the twentieth century, competition law has become global. The two largest, most organised and influential systems of competition regulation are United States antitrust law and European Community competition law . The respective national/international authorities,
12375-437: The importance of competition as the primary driver of reverse auctions success. Their findings appear to support that argument, as competition correlated strongly with the reverse auction success, as well as with the number of bidders. Business and economic competition in most countries is often limited or restricted. Competition often is subject to legal restrictions. For example, competition may be legally prohibited, as in
12500-487: The ingroup or outgroup. This phenomenon has been later accounted for by subjective group dynamics theory. According to this theory, people derogate socially undesirable (deviant) ingroup members relative to outgroup members, because they give a bad image of the ingroup and jeopardize people's social identity. In more recent studies, Marques and colleagues have shown that this occurs more strongly with regard to ingroup full members than other members. Whereas new members of
12625-586: The intense competition for the small number of top jobs in music and movie-acting leads many aspiring musicians and actors to make substantial investments in training which are not recouped, because only a fraction become successful. Critics have also argued that competition can be destabilizing, particularly competition between certain financial institutions. Experts have also questioned the constructiveness of competition in profitability. It has been argued that competition-oriented objectives are counterproductive to raising revenues and profitability because they limit
12750-464: The investment universe to include indirect competitors leads to a broader peer universe of comparable, indirectly competing companies. Competition does not necessarily have to be between companies. For example, business writers sometimes refer to internal competition . This is competition within companies. The idea was first introduced by Alfred Sloan at General Motors in the 1920s. Sloan deliberately created areas of overlap between divisions of
12875-404: The members of a group, there is a state of interdependence, through which the behaviours, attitudes, opinions, and experiences of each member are collectively influenced by the other group members. In many fields of research, there is an interest in understanding how group dynamics influence individual behaviour, attitudes, and opinions. The dynamics of a particular group depend on how one defines
13000-409: The members of these groups often interact face-to-face, they know each other very well and are unified. Individuals that are a part of primary groups consider the group to be an important part of their lives. Consequently, members strongly identify with their group, even without regular meetings. Cooley believed that primary groups were essential for integrating individuals into their society since this
13125-422: The most important factors controlling diversity in ecological communities, but at larger scales expansion and contraction of ecological space is a much larger factor than competition. This is illustrated by living plant communities where asymmetric competition and competitive dominance frequently occur. Multiple examples of symmetric and asymmetric competition also exist for animals. In Australia, New Zealand and
13250-450: The need to control. A community is born when its members reach a stage of "emptiness" or peace . Richard Hackman developed a synthetic, research-based model for designing and managing work groups. Hackman suggested that groups are successful when they satisfy internal and external clients, develop capabilities to perform in the future, and when members find meaning and satisfaction in the group. Hackman proposed five conditions that increase
13375-457: The opposite is true: the properties of any of the parts are determined by the intrinsic structural laws of the whole". As a field of study, group dynamics has roots in both psychology and sociology. Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), credited as the founder of experimental psychology, had a particular interest in the psychology of communities, which he believed possessed phenomena (human language, customs, and religion) that could not be described through
13500-416: The options of strategies for firms as well as their ability to offer innovative responses to changes in the market. In addition, the strong desire to defeat rival firms with competitive prices has the strong possibility of causing price wars . Another distinction appearing in economics is that between competition as an end-state – as in the case of both perfect and imperfect competition – and competition as
13625-929: The other parties for laws , funding and power . Finally, competition also exists between governments . Each country or nationality struggles for world dominance, power, or military strength. For example, the United States competed against the Soviet Union in the Cold War for world power, and the two also struggled over the different types of government (in these cases representative democracy and communism ). The result of this type of competition often leads to worldwide tensions, and may sometimes erupt into warfare . While some sports and games (such as fishing or hiking ) have been viewed as primarily recreational, most sports are considered competitive. The majority involve competition between two or more persons (sometimes using horses or cars ). For example, in
13750-415: The personal choice to have fewer tendencies toward egoism and selfishness. Competition is also found in politics . In democracies , a free and fair election is an electoral competition for an elected office. In other words, two or more candidates strive and compete against one another to attain a position of power. The winner gains the seat of the elected office for a predefined period of time, towards
13875-748: The pledges to decide if they approve of the situation and if they will voice their disagreeing opinions about it. Individual behaviour is influenced by the presence of others. For example, studies have found that individuals work harder and faster when others are present (see social facilitation ), and that an individual's performance is reduced when others in the situation create distraction or conflict. Groups also influence individual's decision-making processes. These include decisions related to ingroup bias , persuasion (see Asch conformity experiments ), obedience (see Milgram Experiment ), and groupthink . There are both positive and negative implications of group influence on individual behaviour. This type of influence
14000-465: The pursuit of wealth , power, prestige, and fame when in a static, repetitive, or unchanging environment. Competition is a major tenet of market economies and business, often associated with business competition as companies are in competition with at least one other firm over the same group of customers. Competition inside a company is usually stimulated with the larger purpose of meeting and reaching higher quality of services or improved products that
14125-536: The relative differences in status among group members. When a group is first formed the members may all be on an equal level, but over time certain members may acquire status and authority within the group; this can create what is known as a pecking order within a group. Status can be determined by a variety of factors and characteristics, including specific status characteristics (e.g. task-specific behavioural and personal characteristics, such as experience) or diffuse status characteristics (e.g. age, race, ethnicity). It
14250-461: The same species, resulting in coexistence of competitive and non-competitive strategies or cycles between low and high competitiveness. Third parties within a species often favour highly competitive strategies leading to species extinction when environmental conditions are harsh ( evolutionary suicide ). Competition is also present between species ("interspecific"). When resources are limited, several species may depend on these resources. Thus, each of
14375-413: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Certamen . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Certamen&oldid=1169387477 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
14500-399: The species competes with the others to gain access to the resources. As a result, species less suited to compete for the resources may die out unless they adapt by character dislocation, for instance. According to evolutionary theory , this competition within and between species for resources plays a significant role in natural selection . At shorter time scales, competition is also one of
14625-452: The spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. These applications of the field are studied in psychology , sociology , anthropology , political science , epidemiology , education , social work , leadership studies , business and managerial studies, as well as communication studies . The history of group dynamics (or group processes) has
14750-456: The stages of a community as: Communities may be distinguished from other types of groups, in Peck's view, by the need for members to eliminate barriers to communication in order to be able to form true community. Examples of common barriers are: expectations and preconceptions; prejudices ; ideology , counterproductive norms , theology and solutions; the need to heal, convert, fix or solve and
14875-556: The study of group dynamics. Throughout his career, Lewin was focused on how the study of group dynamics could be applied to real-world, social issues. Increasingly, research has applied evolutionary psychology principles to group dynamics. As human's social environments became more complex, they acquired adaptations by way of group dynamics that enhance survival. Examples include mechanisms for dealing with status, reciprocity, identifying cheaters, ostracism, altruism, group decision, leadership, and intergroup relations . Gustave Le Bon
15000-481: The tasks they are forced to do regardless of their personal feelings about the Greek institution they are joining. This is done in an effort to avoid becoming an outcast of the group. Outcasts who behave in a way that might jeopardize the group tend to be treated more harshly than the likeable ones in a group, creating a black sheep effect. Full members of a fraternity might treat the incoming new members harshly, causing
15125-408: The term refers to a satiric course in the gambits required for the systematic and conscious practice of "creative intimidation", making one's associates feel inferior and thereby gaining the status of being "one-up" on them. Viewed seriously, it is a phenomenon of group dynamics that can have significant effects in the management field: for instance, manifesting in office politics . Competition
15250-406: The trait. Hypercompetitive individuals generally believe that winning is the only thing that matters. Group dynamics Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group ( intra group dynamics), or between social groups ( inter group dynamics ). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking
15375-442: The underlying pattern of roles, norms, and networks of relations among members that define and organize the group. Roles can be defined as a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way. Roles may be assigned formally, but more often are defined through the process of role differentiation. Role differentiation is the degree to which different group members have specialized functions. A group with
15500-869: Was a French social psychologist whose seminal study, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1896) led to the development of group psychology . The British psychologist William McDougall in his work The Group Mind (1920) researched the dynamics of groups of various sizes and degrees of organization. In Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego , (1922), Sigmund Freud based his preliminary description of group psychology on Le Bon's work, but went on to develop his own, original theory, related to what he had begun to elaborate in Totem and Taboo . Theodor Adorno reprised Freud's essay in 1951 with his Freudian Theory and
15625-407: Was highly influential at the time. Kurt Lewin (1943, 1948, 1951) is commonly identified as the founder of the movement to study groups scientifically. He coined the term group dynamics to describe the way groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstances. William Schutz (1958, 1966) looked at interpersonal relations as stage-developmental, inclusion (am I included?), control (who
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