QCAA Psychology - McMillan & Chavis (1986)

Sense of Community is a feeling that members have ​ (a)   , a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' ​ (b)   will be met through their commitment to be together.

• belonging
• needs
• wants
• money

According to McMillan and Chavis (1986), recall what membership is the feeling of.

• Being able to influence the decision-making process of a group.

• Belonging or sharing a sense of personal relatedness.

• Needs are met by the resources received through membership in a group.

• Sharing history, common places and time.

Identify how influence can lead to group cohesiveness.

• Increases group contact.

• Provides consensual validation of needs.

• Leads to a greater sense of community.

• Improves personal investment.

Answer explanation

Influence comes from the needs of the individual and the community for consensual validation.

Recognise how influence can predict group formation.

• By having a leader who wants one goal while members of the group want another.

• By having the trust to share your real emotions.

• By making group boundaries clear, which increases conformity.

• By individuals feeling like they can be heard and make a difference to the group.

Answer explanation

Influence is a sense of mattering when individuals feel like they can be heard and make a difference to the group.

A strong community can fit people together so that people fulfil and intergrade others’ needs while they meet their own.

Recall what this is known as.

• Individal skills

• Individual attributes

• Shared ideas

• Shared values

Answer explanation

A strong community is able to fit people together so that people meet others’ needs while they meet their own. This is known as "shared values."

The contact hypothesis proposes that greater personal interaction increases the likelihood that people will become close.

Identify whether this is true or false.

• True

• False

Recall a characteristic of shared emotional connection.

Select all correct options.

• Effect of honor and humiliation

• Closure to events

• Spiritual bond

• Investment

Answer explanation

Shared emotional connection includes seven attributes:

• Contact hypothesis

• Quality of interactions

• Closure to events

• Shared valent event hypothesis

• Investment

• Effect of honour and humiliation on community members

• Spiritual bond

Recall a limitation of McMillan & Chavis's (1986) study.

• Lacks cross-cultural validity.

• Provides theoretical explanations of community.

• Applied examples of existing groups.

• Written in a language accessible to students.

Answer explanation

A limitation is that it lacks cross-cultural validity. More cross-cultural research is required to assess the influence of different cultures and genders.

Explain how membership can increase a sense of community. Use at least one attribute within your response.

Answer explanation

Being a member of a group helps with a sense of community because the individual feels like they belong. An attribute of membership includes boundaries. This includes aspects such as language, communication and dress. Boundaries help to foster feelings of safety and security for the individual because they understand and identify with the clear parameters of their chosen community.

Tips:

The key to this question is to first consider what membership is (a feeling of belonging).

Next, select one attribute of membership that you feel comfortable with (e.g. emotional safety, personal investment) and explain what it is.

Lastly, demonstrate how your chosen attribute leads to a sense of community for the individual, remembering that each attribute of membership has a cause-and-effect relationship!

Compare fulfilment of needs and shared emotional connection.

Answer explanation

Both integration and fulfilment of needs are elements of McMillan and Chavis's (1986) framework for a sense of community.

Shared emotional connection is defined as the individual members of a group feeling a sense of connectedness to the community’s history or emotional past. This is different to integration and fulfilment of needs which is the feeling that members’ needs will be met by the resources received through their membership in the group.

Both elements are important in encouraging positive interactions between community members and being able to fit people together who may have diverse needs.

Tips:

For this question, the similarity is that both fulfilment of needs and shared emotional connection are community elements. They are different however in their characteristics. Identify at least one difference between these concepts e.g fulfilment of needs; encourages validation whereas shared emotional connection; encourages quality time and interaction.

Finally, be sure to conclude why both elements are significant when understanding community, e.g they help us to better understand how people spend time together.