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There has been a tremendous outpouring of research in the pt two decades on the behavior of individuals in group settings, not only the kind provided by mall informal groups but also those which are large and complex in their organization. Yet theories of group phenomena have not kept pace with this empirical explosion. This paper and related work in preparation may be viewed as small parts of the effort needed to provide a general theory of groups. Specifically, the neces-sary and sufficient conditions for the occurrence of “grouplike phenomena” will first be identified and then incorporated into a precise but general definition of the term “group.” A group is defined here as (1) the Eargest set of two or mre individuals who are jointly characterized by (2) a network of relevant communications,(3) a shared sense of collective identity, and (4) one or more shred goal dispositions with associated normutive strength. It