The Importance of Group Productivity and Group Integrity in The Huxtable Family

Group productivity plays a huge part of the Huxtable family and is measured by group integrity. Group integrity is the togetherness of the family. In other words, the family itself tends to develop different strategies to make the group operate better as a coherent and caring family. These strategies fall under different logics and different group productivity concepts, which makes the power of the group work. This African-American family include Paula, who is the mother and Julius who is the father of the family. The married couple shares four daughters; Alisha, who is the oldest, Vanessa, who is the middle child, and twins Ashanti and Ashley, who are the youngest.

One of the main focuses from the family is the logic of attachment which is the connections and relationships that make the group work. The family spends time together with communication to help their relationship. This includes the family talks to see how everyone’s day is going. Family talks happen twice a week. Family dinners are also a time to connect and they occur every night. The family also goes out to eat once a month with each other to celebrate their love and accomplishments. The sisters are very close and they all look up to Alisha, the oldest sister. The sisters make time to hang out with one another whether it is going to the gym, sleepovers, shopping for clothes, family dinners, helping clean, etc. The youngest sisters, who are the twins Ashanti and Ashley, are the closest because they always go to one another, look out for one another, and help one another with their homework. Ashley is better in math, for example. They get advice from both Alisha and Vanessa since they are most experienced. Julius and Paula make time for each other. They go out to dinner and celebrate their anniversary. Communication is the most important part when it comes to the group productivity and the group integrity of the family.

Besides the logic of attachment, the family also has the logic of control that helps them work together. Paula is the power holder of the family which carries respect, rules, and discipline for her four daughters. When she wants the daughters to do something, they must do it without any excuses. Julius is also the logic of control of the family. He has limited rules for the family since he is always working for the city of Bridgeport, mostly on the weekdays. Whenever Paula is either sick or unavailable to perform tasks, Julius has the responsibility to take over her authority for the four daughters. Both Paula and Julius use cooperation and conflict to establish their power, which are both instrumental functions. If Paula did not hold power, the family would become dysfunctional and the girls might end up doing things that they should not be doing like drugs or alcohol, which could hurt the group dynamics. Having a power holder teaches the family to respect one another and their family responsibilities.

An example of how logic of power helps the family’s relationships and togetherness took place in the household is when the girls were on winter vacation from school. The girls expected that vacation was going to be just a well relaxed vacation with nothing to do. Their expectations changed when Paula and Julius gave a list of chores for them to do, which falls under task accomplishment in the intrinsic functions. The girls did not want to do it and were forced to do them. The purpose for these chores was to teach them responsibility, to teach them to expect the unexpected in life, and to teach them that as a family member, the importance of helping the family out. Another purpose for these chores is to help the daughters use rapport talk to help them connect in their relationship as sisters while working together as a team.

There are several concepts about group productivity that relate to the Huxtables and their group integrity that can be seen in the cleaning example. Cleaning involves helping, communication, and working together. With the chores, the parents both felt that the daughters were following the prisoner’s dilemma, which is when members may not cooperate even though deep down inside it was in their best interest. But, working together as a team, which falls under group polarization, the girls were able to decide on what chores that they were going to do in order to make the process easy. This is where the communication process gets involved since they are able to form discussions on collective decisions as to which person should do what. Alisha cleaned both the bathroom and the kitchen, and did the laundry since she felt that she was the oldest and most responsible. She felt that she could handle more of the hardworking tasks. Making this decision falls under social facilitation. Alisha performing these tasks falls under sucker effect since she is doing the most chores of those involved in this situation. The rest of the girls were asked to clean their rooms and vacuum since they are portrayed as being the most laid backed ones in the house. Since the rest of the girls have the least choirs to do, they have a likely chance to be free riding since they are doing the least and the parents may have high chance to consider them as being lazy. Having the daughters doing the chores helps the family develop stronger relationships since everyone in the group experiences the key of responsibility, has to communicate with another, and has to realize that in a group everyone has to work together.

Another example of logic of attachment and control is Alisha, who is the oldest daughter of the family and is in charge of all of the three daughters when the parents are unavailable. Out of the Huxtable daughters, the parents feel that Alisha is the most responsible. Alisha is the logic of attachment when it comes to the parents since she is following their footsteps in order to become an excellent role model to her sisters. But, having this power can cause conflicts to occur between the sisters since they feel that the power holders are the parents and should follow authority under their circumstances. Based on this perspective, this has led to a situation which occurred in the household. The setting took place in the house while the Paula and Julius were getting ready to go out to dinner for their anniversary. They left Alisha in charge for the evening. After the parents left, Vanessa invited some of her friends over without the parent’s permission. She knows the rules about inviting friends over unannounced. The girls felt that they could take advantage of Alisha since she is not the parent and felt that she is still one of them. Alisa was able to handle the situation by reminding the girls of the rules and threatening to call the parents. This showed the girls that Alisha had some power over them and they listened to her.

Lastly, the main intrinsic function which falls under the family is group integrity. In other words, the family has the ability to connect to one another and to work together as a group. An example of how group integrity helps the family’s relationships to strengthen is through family vacations. Family vacations are a way for the family to get rid of distractions that each member of the group might being experiencing at the moment, spend time with one another, and focus on their communication skills through family vacations.

The Huxtables have came a long way into becoming a good, coherent, loving, and caring family that they represent today in our society. In other words, this family is able to both work together, love one another, and to spend time with each other. There are a lot of families that do not share these characteristics, especially when it comes to group integrity. Through both communication and the logics of both power and attachment, the family tends to work together as a team to help strengthen their relationship as a big happy family.