ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses some of the complexities introduced into the relationships of interdependence and power among group members when group size increases. An obvious property of the three-man group is that it may break up into a dyad and the third person, or "isolate." As group size increases from dyadic to triadic and larger relationships, a number of modes of raising a member's rewards in relation to his costs that are not possible in the dyad begin to appear. The conjunctive task requirements made the group members highly interdependent, since only when the total pattern of positions was correct could the group proceed to a new setting. The principle of simplifying analysis of large groups by classifying all individuals who have high correspondence of outcomes has a further application. Each member of a number of three-man groups was working to make as many points as possible toward his individual score on what was supposedly an intelligence test.
