Positive Attitudes in GD (Group Discussion)

The participants should adopt two important attitudes which alone will facilitate a productive and satisfying outcome in any Group Discussion:

1.All participants in the group must accept responsibility for the smooth conduct of the group activities. This orientation means that each member takes on leadership responsibilities even though he is not entrusted any such a role. Instead of passively waiting for someone else to do what has to be done, everyone must actively seek and accept responsibility. In an effective group discussion, there are no absolute followers but different levels and kinds of leaderships and these leaderships keep fluctuating.

2.Another important attitude is open-mindedness -the willingness of the candidate to consider a broad range of ideas and suggestions from others. He must be flexible and must be open to change. Instead of taking rigid stands on issues, the flexible member tries to adapt to the best interests of the group. This requires objectivity- in order to make unbiased, impartial judgments. This does not mean that you completely suppress your subjective and emotional reactions. You try to balance them with objective observations. This requires maintaining a proper perspective, that is, either becoming too involved in problems to maintain objectivity nor remaining too distant and uninvolved to be fully unaware of their nature. Finally the participant with the orientation of equality should not nourish notions of superiority and must realize that the fellow participants are equal to him/her in all aspects. You also get an opportunity of noticing and comparing the verbal ability, depth of knowledge, extent of ideas, logical reasoning and the convincing capacity of others and this should enable you to prepare yourself to match with them.

7 Suggestions for Building Positive Attitudes

1. In every class, look for positive people to associate with.
2. In every lecture, look for one more interesting idea.
3. In every chapter, find one more concept important to you.
4. With every friend, explain a new idea you’ve just learned.
5. With every teacher, ask a question.
6. With yourself, keep a list of your goals, positive thoughts and actions.
7. Remember, you are what you think, you feel what you want.