Group membership makes influence possible, for individuals must often alter their behaviors in response to the pressures and demands of other group members. Groups also offer individual the means to influence wider numbers of individuals, for groups influence other groups, communities, and larger social aggregates. A person who is powerful must be embedded in a network of groups and interpersonal relations. Groups provide members with opportunities to increase their creativity, refine their ideas, and improve themselves. Although groups stabilize relations with others and provide members with guidelines for action, they also help members adjust to changing circumstances, refine their ideas and skills, and achieve desired changes in themselves.
Groups are also a source of new experiences, information, and insights.
Although a number of useful typologies have been developed, the big six approach argues that if individuals can be classified as the personality type, then groups can be classified as to functionality type. Consideration of where the group falls on each characteristic provides the means of typing each group examined.