ABSTRACT
People are sustained and divided by the many interdependencies that define their social relations. We belong to many groups and categories including gender, occupation, ethnic, and national identities. It seems reasonable to assume that individuals will feel interdependent with different social groups at different times. How can we best understand the dynamics of these interdependencies and how they relate to cooperation and competition within and among social groups? These questions are important in order to an understand social dilemmas, which pose a conflict not only between individual and group, but between different groups. The focus of this chapter is an examination of the conceptual relationship between interdependence, the group, and cooperation, three important constructs in the analysis of social dilemmas.
