Twelve Angry Men

A detailed Summary of Twelve Angry Men

In the movie "Twelve Angry Men" the actions and behaviors of the Jurors demonstrate the concept of small group communication. It is evident that the film shows the development of the task-oriented group from the beginning to the end. In this paper we will discuss the power of consensual meaning, the relationship of the communication process to the group process, and the distinction between socio-emotional and task behaviors. We will also discuss the concept of leadership, roles, and our ideas in regard to norms and group culture. Lastly, we will discuss how conflict affects the group process. We will be using the examples from the movie to apply the concepts we have been learning in this course dealing with small group communication.

In the movie "Twelve Angry Men," twelve jury members were given the task to decide a boy's fate. The jury members, when beginning deliberation, were almost unanimous on a guilty verdict. All but one man was in favor of the death penalty for this boy. This was before the group of jury members had any interaction. Before the almost unanimous vote, the men were very polite to one another. They made comments on the heat, what they did for business, going to a ball game, and basic general sel

Another group norm, which the group established for itself, was the issue of conflict leading to disagreement, in turn, leading to consensus. It can be agreed that many of the decisions and agreements made were reached after complete arguments and differences of opinion. The willingness to quickly accept a fact, resulted in the conviction of an innocent person, and almost immediately was followed by much debate and confusion. An example of this would be when Juror eight pulled out an exact duplicate of the knife from the trial. After that bit of evidence was revealed, (the fact that it was possible someone else could possess the same knife) it prompted an immediate reaction of conflict and quarrel.

In this film we can see how all the above topics discussed come together, and inter-relate. In the movie "Twelve Angry Men" we learn that conflict can lead to consensus. We also see that socio-emotional and task behaviors contribute to the group norm building process. The importance of Leadership in defining group roles are two important concepts that intertwine. And how all these topics ultimately contribute to the relationship of the communication process.

The first group vote exemplifies the anchor, or the starting point, of this concept. The initial vote of eleven to one in favor of guilty represents the first level of the spiral. Juror eight, acting as the deviant of the group, builds on the initial level by using his persuasive abilities to influence the other members. After engaging in group discussion against the minority opinion, a secret ballot is conducted. The results of this ballot, tallied at ten to two in favor of guilty, brings us to the next level in the model. Juror number five, who is associated with the knife, changes his vote to arrive at the not guilty decision. This progression towards consensus continues throughout the long, arduous decision-making process representative of the spiral model.

There were also a series of sequential leaders in the film. One by one the Jurors started to change their votes to not guilty, this was a result of the sequential process. Juror eight thought the boy was not guilty and swayed the old man to vote not guilty by the time of the second vote. This process was a chain reaction. From then on the people who voted not guilty acted as the leaders because they were the ones who had to convince all the other people to change their votes, so they directed the conversation. As the rest of the men voted not guilty, they would then all stick together, forming sequential leadership. When there was reasonable doubt it triggered the other jurors to doubt things as well, resulting in the swaying of votes.

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Through this film our group has not only learned about the group process but we have experienced it first hand by writing this paper. We have learned the importance of the virtue of consensus simply because we had to reach an agreement before being able to write about the topics in this film. Being a group, we had to take the time to relate each of our points to one another. Then work to write a paper that would convey our consensus. From start to finish this same process of disagreement and quarrel, as well as agreement that was the lifeline of the film, was how we went about delivering a complete thorough paper.

Another issue of this movie is socio-emotional vs. task behaviors. Many groups have two dimensions; the first dimension is when a group indulges in group fantasies and social activities. The other dimension is the technical part of the group, the main reason they are together in the first place. Although, they both balance each other out, the task dimension weighs slightly more. However, socio-emotional and task come together contributing to the whole process.

He also proposed a time limit of an hour for the group to debate the issue at hand, which would b

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3237
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)

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