Valentine Petrillo Speech Dynamic Group Communication
EN244 35A 10/6/2015
Lost at Sea Activity
1.) In this activity, my personal ratings were within a point or two higher than other
members’, except for one other member. We all got similar scores to one another,
performing better alone rather than all together in the group. I think where the concept of
social comparison really became relevant was in relation to the differences between how
we scored as a group and how we scored individually. My individual scores weren’t the
highest either, so I did not personally feel any smarter or less intelligent than anyone else
in the group.
2.) Not everyone knew what each of the fifteen items were. No one in my group knew what a
sextant was, but made the assumption that since we didn’t know and it sounded foreign, it
must be important. That wasn’t the best call, it turned out. While my group’s solidarity in
confusion over the sextant was a bit reassuring, it was frustrating not knowing what
something which seemed so simple was, and I can definitely say that it made me feel a bit
inferior to other members in other groups who it seemed to be clear right away to.
3.) I think out of the five members of our group, four of us seem to dominate and there is one
member who stays a bit quieter and is generally more reserved. In this activity, this
wasn’t the best case, because while she made better decisions on her own, she didn’t
speak up and attempt to refute our choices which ended up being wrong while she knew
better. I think since the majority of our group seems to be dominant over the one person
who isn’t so much, it is important for us to try to include her and constantly ask her to
speak her mind and share her ideas. As we spoke about in class on October 5th, each
member of the group has a different point of view and way of looking at situations, and
laying out all ideas to communally decide upon the best one seems to be the most logical
and beneficial strategy when making decisions.
4.) I wouldn’t say I exactly thought any decisions were wrong, since I personally have no
experience in boating or survival. Because of my lack of education on both of these
topics, all of the options seemed to be equally important and I was easily persuaded to
change my mind. That being said, there were a few items that I didn’t think were that
important and, after voicing my opinion, was overruled by the rest of the group members.
Most of those items I was wrong about. One was the case of chocolate bars. I figured that
chocolate wasn’t substantial enough to be of high importance on our list, but everyone
else thought otherwise, and I was overruled. It was good that I was, because chocolate
