Cohesion

The article that we found dealt with the idea that a sports team, and specifically a football team's effectiveness or success is determined by how cohesive a group the team is. It stated in the article that previous studies had shown a trend that a more cohesive group tends to be more successful in sports and the study narrowed this theory to a football team. The study was testing whether players on a team truly identified themselves as one singular group having one identity.

The study surveyed 94 football players in high school averaging 16 in age from the east coast. 49% of the players surveyed played offense, 37% played defense, and 14% played both offense and defense. They were asked to rate from 1 to 5 if they agreed or disagreed with 30 statements that measured the extent to which the team identity, individual subunits (offense and defense) or individual player performance was important to overall success.

The study provided evidence to support the idea that a common group identity has a positive effect on sport team effectiveness. Players on teams with winning records relative to those with losing records more strongly agreed with items that emphasize a unified team identity and less strongly agreed with items related to competing aspects of a team. When the players identified with their position on the offense or defense group they belonged to the study showed that the team was not as successful. This shows that the team must be completely unified for success.

The article further discusses the possibilities of similar tests looking at different variables, such as different sports teams, like basketball compared to football, or even a more individual sport like wrestling compared to a soccer team which is a team sport.