PhD, asisstant professor, developmental psychology chair RSU Rostov-on-Don
The tradition is reveled and new group cohesion approach is proposed. Distinctive features of this approach are: to examine group cohesion not only through relations of each member with others or with the group as a whole but through relations between informal sub-groups; to take into account not only group cohesion as a whole but cohesion of each sub-group; to interpret group and sub-group cohesion dynamics in terms of their interrelations and on the basis of external and internal integration-disintegration processes analysis. The results of investigation in which group cohesion is compared to subgroups cohesion and to totalities of not included into sub-groups members and relations contradiction between informal sub-groups is compared to group cohesion are stated.
Key words: microgroup conception, small group, informal sub-group, cohesion.