Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Leader Presence And Moderate Stress Upon Small Group Sentiment And Interaction, Ray Lewis Cordon

Masters Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of leader presence and moderate stress upon sentiment and interaction in small groups. Seventy-four students were selected from the required speech course at Eastern Illinois University to serve as subjects. These subjects were assigned to sixteen groups, ranging from four to five members per group.

Silent and absent leadership, imposed stress and no stress were introduced to the groups through a 2 X 2 factorial design. In one condition (N = 18) the group leader provided instructions and then remained silent during group interaction, and moderate stress--an announced time barrier--was …