ABSTRACT
Groups and teams As social animals, we spend a considerable amount of our time in groups. A group has been defined by Moorhead and Griffin (1998) as ‘two or more persons who interact with one another such that each person influences and is influenced by each other person’ (p 291). A team is more than just a group. Moorhead & Griffin define a team as ‘a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable’ (p 293). A team in the broader sense is not necessarily a group, because
the members of a team can be working for a common aim without ever coming into contact with one another. For example, the British Olympic Team is clearly devoted to a common purpose, but it is not necessarily a group, because its members could fulfil their team roles without swimmers, boxers and long-distance runners ever meeting and directly influencing one another. Usually, however, when we refer to a team in sport psychology we are also referring to a group of people who play together and have a powerful influence on each other. For this reason, the terms group and team are sometimes used interchangeably.
