Experimental inquiry into the psychodynamics of the relationship between the group's dominant basic assumption type and scapegoating phenomenon

The present study constitutes an attempt to investigate experimentally the conditions leading to the phenomenon of scapegoating. Applying Bion's conce pts of "basic assumptions", and "valency", it was hypothesized that I) scap egoating was more likely to occur in groups characterized by the valency co nstitution of fight as defined and measured in the present study. 2) that t he scapegoated members display a negative attitude towards the group that p redispose them, to the scapegoat role. Based on their valencies as measured by the Reaction to Group Situation Test Nara University (RGST-Nu), the sub jects (N=100) were divided into 20 homogeneous (having a same valency) grou ps of 5 members each. There were thus 4 "fight" groups, 4 "pairing" groups, 4 "flight" groups, 4 "dependency" groups, and 4 cooperation tendency group s (groups characterized by work group). The results supported the first hyp othesis that fight groups were more likely to resort to scapegoating than o ther groups. Moreover, the results revealed also that, as hypothesized, the scapegoated member displayed in fact the most negative attitude towards th e group.