ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines an approach to the functioning of small isolated groups in relation to adaptation and coping processes, management of conflict, and facilitation of positive interpersonal exchange. This work contributed to the ecological orientation described by making salient the fact that interpersonal exchange is not restricted to one behavior modality alone. The chapter draws on research in several areas -the acquaintance process, nonverbal behavior, and man-environment relationships. In reviewing earlier data on relationships between dyadic incompatibility on need dominance, affiliation, achievement, and dogmatism, it is noted that incompatible groups also showed very low territorial behavior early in isolation compared with compatible groups. The chapter focuses on a theoretical framework of interpersonal behavior that approaches the ecological orientation. In work on socially isolated groups, it was demonstrated how conditions of the environment such as privacy, length of group isolation, and degree of stimulation affected interpersonal functioning.
