What is Team Cohesion in Sports?

Team cohesion is defined in different ways by different thinkers.

According to Gross and Martin (1959), it is the resistance of the group to disruptive forces.

Carron (1982) states that it is dynamic process which reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objectives.

Festinger, Schachter, and Back (1950) defines it as the sum of the forces that cause members to remain a part of the team.

“Although there may be numerous definitions of team cohesion, each of which would be correct, for our purpose, we define it as a group of individuals thinking, feeling and acting as a single unit.” Tutko and Richards, 1971.

“Group cohesion refers to the relative attraction, both intrinsic and instrumental of a small group for its individual members. Cohesion should be reviewed as a bidimensional property of small group considering of intrinsic attraction or ‘sociometric cohesion’ (a-t-g) and instrumental attraction or ‘social satisfaction’ (IA) (Enoch and McLemore, 1965)