community psychology

i have always loved the study of social interaction and this article on the psychology of a "community" is a stellar example, right down to the mathematical simplification of the feelings and hopes of any number of people to the following equations for community cohesiveness:

shared emotional connection is equal to contact AND high quality interaction, which is itself equal to (events with successful closure WITHOUT ambiguity) MULTIPLIED by (event valence MULTIPLIED by sharedness of the event) AND the amount of honor given to members WITHOUT humiliation.

the amount of sense this makes is amazing considering how initially incomprehensible it seems to be. throughout reading, the community to which i can best relate in my life to this setup is, conveniently, the kcai graphic designers.

our shared emotional connection (studio culture!) equals the fact that we all spend time together in studio AND give good, solid critiques and conversations (which run the course of class periods and allow for feedback to ensure understanding) MULTIPLIED by (how much we enjoy what we're doing and talking about it, MULTIPLIED by the fact that we have these classes always together, following along through every step of the processes) AND the amount of rewarding feedback and good critiques and advice WITHOUT being a jerk and tearing into people's work and making people feel bad.

the sense of "all-in-this-together"ness; that we are stronger and cleverer through our support and collaboration than we could be "designing in the dark," all by our lonesomes; and that we know this, (and find joy in the fact,) is what makes our studio a solid community.

that fits absolutely perfectly, does it not? and having established how much sense it makes in one community, it's easy to see how people who cooperate or connect in any capacity run through a similar set of experiences resulting in their consistently increasing closeness and cohesion.