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Essay / Summary and Analysis of the film 12 Angry Men
12 Angry Men (1956) is a film about a court jury determining the verdict in a homicide trial. The film features a small group of the standard jury of 12 people. The film itself may be boiled down to 12 men arguing in a room for an hour and a half but we're here to talk about group dynamics. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe group is a secondary group. It is a team whose goal is to accomplish a task. The interdependence of the group is the basis of the entire film. Because it is a jury, all 12 men must make a unanimous decision on the case. Each person in the group has an effect on the other people in the group. At first, all but one of the men consider the accused guilty, because due to the interdependence of the group, they are unable to achieve the goal without that man's vote being the same. As Communication Matters (Kory Floyd) says, “small groups are cohesive.” In this group, they work toward the common goal of a verdict. They need cohesion to achieve this. The group evolves quite quickly, going from forming and speaking stiffly to attacking and becoming aggressive and rude to each other. On the first vote for a verdict, there seems to be a bit of collective thinking of public compliance that occurs as a man or two raise their hands somewhat hesitantly toward the guilty vote. To avoid this, the one man who voted not guilty suggested doing an anonymous vote to erase the pressure from the rest of the group so that each person could feel like they had the opportunity to vote freely. It works and begins the jury process one by one changing their votes to not guilty. Finally, when the jury returns the final verdict of not guilty, the last man to change his vote seems to suffer a bit from the groupthink of private acceptance. Seeing that everyone is now opposed to him and that he no longer knows how to continue his argument, he concedes and changes his vote. Very early on, a man assumes the informal role of leader. It keeps people organized and counts votes by tracking the group's progress. Because he has no real power over the group and has informally taken the position that he runs democratically. Mostly visible in the way he always asks if people are opposed to voting or the method of voting. However, within the group there are, in a way, two leaders. Because initially only one man votes not guilty, it is up to him to lead the motion to explore the possibility of a not guilty verdict, thus having the leader of the entire group and a sub -leader with a more specific task within the group. band. The group primarily participates in problem-solving communication (Communication Matters pp. 213-214), debating evidence to determine which way to vote. The group also engages in encounter communication, the debate often gets heated and the conversation changes from one case to another. Also during breaks, jury members discuss topics unrelated to the case among themselves, such as the weather or work. in the process as most of the group changed their vote to not guilty. One of the men who always votes guilty becomes very stressed and aggressively shouts his argument, rather than engage the man and fuel the argument, the men turn away from him to disengage from him and leave him to exhaust himself to relieve the stress of the situation. The man who shouts and lacks an audience is forced to calm down and decompress. The conflict resolution technique is avoidance. Keep in mind:.