The Group Egogram: The Method of Numeric Expression for Group’s Character in Discussions

Abstract

This paper describes the following two points. (1) A proposal for the method of derivation for the group egogram, (2) a confirmation that the derived group egogram can be interpreted and used in the same way as the individual egogram. The group egogram is a method of numeric expression for group’s character. In this study, we combined two methods for quantification of group’s character: the “egograms” and the “group decision-making stress method.” The egogram is a method used to analyze an individual’s character, while the stress method is a type of group decision making support method. In the field of team sports research, the egogram has been used for team analysis, and the team’s egogram is derived from the arithmetic mean of the egograms of each individual team member. However, the shape of the graph produced by the five indicators is important for the egogram. Therefore, it is not appropriate to use simple arithmetic averages with other member’s egograms that differ in overall scale. For this reason, it is necessary to find a method to compare the graphs with the same scale without changing their shape. In mathematical views, the stress method can “align the scales of everyone’s egogram while keeping the meaning (shape) of each individual’s egogram, and then take the average.” In other words, we can derive the group’s egogram without contradiction mathematically. We use these methods to establish a method for deriving the “group egogram,” which gives a numeric expression for group’s character. In addition, we conduct evaluation experiments to confirm whether the mathematically derived group egogram really expresses the character of the group. The four evaluation items are “the risk taking tendency,” “the team orientation,” “the punctual tendency,” and “the harmony tendency.” As a result, we were able to confirm effectiveness of the group egogram on all evaluation items.