The document analyzes group dynamics in the movie 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone', focusing on individual behaviors and their impacts on the group, with key characters like Harry, Hermione, and Ron undertaking a quest to find a missing magical stone. It highlights their decision-making capabilities, leadership roles, and relationships both within their group and with others, showcasing the challenges they face together, including personal conflicts and external threats. Ultimately, the group works effectively despite obstacles, exhibiting teamwork and problem-solving skills in a magical educational environment.

1. By : Samanga Amarasinghe
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2.  Analyze group dynamics on a movie by portraying the
individual’s behaviors, the reasons behind their behaviors the
effects of their behaviors on others and the impact of their
individual behaviors on the group, which they belong.
 Observer collective behaviors of a group in the movie, by
analyzing the reason behind the collective behaviors, the
effects of their collective behaviors on the group as a whole and
effects of their collective behavior on individuals inside and
outside the group.
 The movie observed is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
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5. • Uncle Vernon : Harry’s Uncle, a very insensitive, bully who
criticize Harry at all times
• Professor Dumbledore: is the Headmaster of Hogwarts, a
man of great wisdom who shows great transformational
leadership skills where he focuses in empowerment of his
faculty as well the students.
• Professor McGonagall: is the Housemistress to the
Gryffindor House, she is a motherly figure who shows great
love to her students equally.
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6.  Hagrid: Is the Gamekeeper who has love and collect various magical
creatures, which includes a giant spider, and a three headed dog. Hagrid
being a giant by stature has a heart to match him he is loyal to Professor
Dumbledore, and his new three friend Harry, Hermione, and Ron.
 Professor Severus Snape: Is the housemasters to Slytherin house and teach
potions class, shows great favoritism towards pupils of his house, and openly
show his dislike to Harry. By appearance Prof. Snape is a dark character who
does not smile, and keep his words short with the students and staff.
 Professor Quirrell: Is the Faculty member who teaches Defense against Dark
arts, professor Quirrell is a geeky lecturer who despite being the dark arts
teacher shows great fear towards dark arts as well as is portrayed as a weak
person. However, he has a secret, which is revealed at the end of the movie.
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7.  Lord Voldemort: Is a Character who balances the evil
opposition of the movie, at first he is referred at the
beginning as the “He whose name must not be
mentioned”. Has penetrated great fear among the
characters of the movie, the fear of Lord Voldemort
derives from him being a great evil wizard who
declared war against the good of the magical world in
which the movie take place. Furthermore, Lord
Voldemort was a former student of Hogwarts and
share similarities with Harry’s personality and traits.
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8. • Harry Potter: Is the main character which the movie rotates around, he
is the only person to have survived Lord Voldemort’s wrath with just a
scar, Harry is also was known as the reason to Voldemort losing his
power and was reduced to just a name. Hence in accordance with the
prophecy Harry is observed as the chosen one.
• Hermione Granger: Is a Young studious witch who makes it her joy to
remember everything in the textbooks and ace all the classes.
Hermione Joins with Harry and his friend Ron in their quests, but
conflicts with Ron a lot due to Ron’s mannerisms and low approval
rate of her. In addition, Hermione at first is portrayed as a Ms. Perfect
who knows it all or a goody too shoes, as she tends to boss the boys
around a lot and show off her knowledge in magic.
• Ron Weasley: Is Harry’s best friend who gets excited fast, but like
Hagrid has a big heart to share, shows great loyalty to Harry and
balances Harry’s boldness by pointing out caution points.
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9.  The Story Begins with the scene where Harry Potter is left at his
Uncle and Aunt the Dyrsley family’s house by Professors
Dumbledore, McGonagall and Gamekeeper Hagrid who take
him in.
 During the early stages of the movie, it is observed that the
Dursley’s do their best in keeping Harry’s past and his ability to
do as Vernon Dyrsley calls “Funny Business” or his ability in
Magic as talking with snakes concealed.
 However, on his eleventh birthday Harry receives a mail
addressed to him, but his uncle keep Harry form reading the
letter, but eventually through Hagrid’s intervention Harry
receive the letter to join Hogwarts.
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10.  Harry follows Hagrid to his journey to study at Hogwarts,
first by getting his schoolbooks at Digone Alley the good
wizard-shopping district, where he finds that his parents
left him with a large sum of money at the Gringotts Bank.
 During this trip Hagrid addressing it as a Hogwarts
business, go to a rather secure vault in the Gringotts Bank
and obtain a small object which he hesitate to share about
and takes it with him creating a puzzle in Harry.
 Then on the train to Hogwarts Harry befriends Hermione
and Ron forming the primary social group of focus.
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11.  Upon entering Hogwarts Harry and his new friends are placed
in an another group referred as the “House” in which they are
part of within the organization of Hogwarts, these houses or
dorms which are named with the founding wizards of
Hogwarts by its motto give the members what qualities they
need to possess.
 Gryffindor House having the lion as the mascot stands for
Courage, Daring, Chivalry, and Nerve the Slytherin House by
its motto being the serpent resembles Ambition, Charm,
Cunning, and Resourcefulness.
 The choosing a house for the students is done by a Magic hat
which is known to give the house that match the person’s traits
hence Harry, Ron and Hermione get placed in Gryffindor
House while their counterparts being Malfoy and his friends
get placed in Slytherin House.
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12.  During the course of their stay, the three friends Ron, Harry and
Hermione while facing conflicts with each other begin to bond and
at the same time begin to make new friends as Neville Longbottom
who joins the trio.
 Then the story change from happy to a more thrilling tone when the
trio finds out that day after Harry was in Gringotts Bank it was
robed and the secret vault which was accessed by Hagrid was
broken into.
 As any kid of eleven, the trio embarks on a quest to find out what
was in the Vault and who stole it. During which they find the stolen
objects was the Sorcerer's Stone. The Stone is a powerful magic that
produces the Elixir of Life, which has the capacity to make the
drinker immortal. Then in seeking answers to who stole it come
across Snape who becomes the prime suspect, as the plot thickens
they further encounter other magical creatures as the three headed
Dog, the evil shadow that drinks blood of unicorns, a Magic mirror
which shows what one want to see so bad.
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13.  With more time seeking more answers and breaking common rules of
their organization Harry, Hermione, and Ron in seeking for the Sorcerer's
Stone passing through many challenges on the way come to the last
chamber where Harry enters alone.
 There he encounters professor Quirrell in front of the magical mirror and
professor Quirrell who reviles the whole plot to Harry attempts to attack
Harry as the stone ends up in Harry’s pocket. During this scene, we see a
glimpse of Lord Voldemort who resides in professor Quirrell’s body and
his power. But the body which is professor Quirrell‘s get burned upon
touching Harry making Lord Voldemort leave the scene abandoning his
dead follower professor Quirrell saving Hogwarts to continue another
year the Trio becomes victors .
 The movie ends with Professor Dumbledore finding Harry staring at the
magic mirror the explanation to the questions uncovered by Prof Quirrell
as why Lord Voldemort was burned when he touched Harry. According to
Professor Dumbledore the reason why Harry was saved despite all mighty
power of the Dark Lord, was due to his mother’s love when she gave her
life to protect baby Harry being engulfed with in him.
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15.  Hogwarts is a great school where the students learn about
Magic first hand, and getting a well rounded education of
theory as well as practicality in applying the skills needed.
 The Faculty and Staff mainly the key people, being the
head master and the housemasters and mistresses are
highly experienced and well rounded in their specialties.
Hence, qualified staffs that are highly experience have
been chosen by the head master.
 Leadership skills specially in making all students reach
level 5 leadership is exercised by the full time faculty and
staff with the exception of Professor Quirrell whose
position is always available throughout.
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16.  Despite the school being a great
educational organization there are
certain dangers surrounding the
school at all times.
 The dark woods, which the
students are not, allowed to go but
during detention Hagrid takes
Harry, Draco, Hermione and Ron
to the forest.
 The moody wimping willow that
attacks anyone who get near it,
create a danger to any student
accidently going near the tree.
 The moving stairs and different
mythical creates as Fluffy (The
three headed dog) being inside the
building where young curious
students are roaming daily. 16

17.  The whole segregation of the blood at Hogwarts
 The favored class of this segregation is considered the full-blooded
wizards where both parents are born to wizards. The second class is
the half blood where one parent is non-wizard born, and the last or
the lowest is the “Mug blood” where both parents are none wizard
born and none wizards as in the case of Hermione.
 The keepers of this philosophy is the Malfoyd family specially Draco
and his father who believe that none wizard kids or children as the
Wesley’s should not enter a school as Hogwarts because of their
economical and social standing being none aristocratic.
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19.  The group is a part of a larger organization named Hogwarts
where students go to obtain knowledge in witchcraft and
wizardry. The group under observation consists of 3
students who being a part of Hogwarts Gryffindor house
embark on an quest to find a missing magical stone which
gives eternal life to anyone who drink it. The length of time
together can be observed as a academic year in which they
take breaks for vacations.
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20.  Of the three Harry Potter is accepted by the others to be the leader of
the group due to him being the chosen one as well as his open
personality, ability to understand others with compassion.
 Also in considering the Organization, the key leader is head Master
Dumbledore, and he shows great leadership skills as well as wisdom, he
also shows great character is empowering others to reach their best as
in the case of the group in question and his staff. Harry, Ron and
Hermione breaks foundation rules of the organization in accomplishing
the goal at hand but Dumbledore and their housemistress McGonagall
despite punishments for the actions awarding them points for
accomplishments of teamwork, bravery and so forth.
 The other two members Hermione and Ron can be seen as far as their
house is concerned to be formal leaders as they unit the house and
coordinate other house members to go along with the groups goals.
Despite them both conflicting with each other due to love hate, they
unit despite differences in opinions in times of danger to the group.
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21.  The groups influence is in advance stage, the reason observed is each member fills for
the other’s weakness, Hermione a brilliant student in class comes to rescue when in
need of a magic spell to unlock a puzzle but due to her obedience to the laws and
regulations, she alone would not break one to achieve a goal.
 Harry despite in the beginning not being good with magic spell casting is a determined
personality who asks questions and seeks answers as all that happens the puzzles they
comes across gives Harry answers about his past, his parents and questions he had for
eleven years. Hence he encourage the group to move forward, Harry is also seen as a
very soft humble person in the beginning, also he is very compassionate and loyal.
Harry’s hunger to reach the next goal or fill the puzzle get Hermione to utilize her
knowledge which she loves a lot making her reach the next stage.
 Ron has loyalty above all qualities, despite him openly making comments on Hermione’s
behaviors; he is seen secretly admiring Hermione’s abilities from the first time they met
on the train. In addition, Ron is a person of caution, which balances both the other
members in not going too far ahead fast without thinking and being doomed.
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22.  The group members are always
communicating their finding plans with each
other whenever they get a chance, also when
in doubt they go find external resources as the
library or the gamekeeper Hagrid who slips on
secrets if one persuade enough.
 Their performance is great as being kids and
novice wizards they managed victory against
extremely dark and powerful wizards and
beasts, which include the troll, fluffy the three
headed dog, and Lord Voldemort, and saving
the stone from being in the wrong hands.
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23.  In finding the chambers they had to face several challenges first
being fluffy, the second was finding the key among many flying
keys, then the game of wizard’s chess in which they all
communicated and coordinated with each other in coming to
common decisions in obtaining victory over the puzzles.
 The Trio also showed their power by finding the answers to the
questions of what is the magical stone, the implications of it
being missing, and then took action when the school failed to
take action as a collective. They first went to their house
mistress about the plot to steal the stone, and wanted Head
masters to be informed but she comfort the trio by stating that
the stone is save but the head masters is out on ministry
matters. Nevertheless, failed to check the story of the trio with
other faculty or staff members hence the trio took it upon
themselves to solve and find the riddle.
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24.  The Groups decision making capabilities is observed
mainly in finding the clues leading to finding the stone
and the last chamber.
 In addition, the group united was willing to face mortal
danger in accomplishing their goal, the chess game to win
the game Ron had to make a decision on behalf of every
one, but the decision had to be a decision agreed by all.
Such was the theme for the trio since the beginning every
decision they made they communicated and came to a
common conclusion which label as a group with good
decision-making capabilities.
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25.  Healthy conflicts which occur in the movie with In
the group of the trio is Ron’s fear which creates check
points in dealing with the dangers ahead, also Ron’s
decision to sacrifice himself in wizard chess in letting
Harry and Hermione go forward with the mission. In
doing this enables Harry to face what was ahead
much easier than Ron and Hermione being there
which would have complicated the outcome as the
dark lord would have had Harry’s Friends at bay to
bargain.
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26.  The unhealthy conflict is Ron slandering Hermione’s
love for learning, which made her withdraw to the
girl’s bathroom where they faced the troll, in which
they put themselves in danger. Also hurting
Hermione’s feeling over something, which was an
asset to the group, could have had negative
implications as losing a group member had the troll’s
incident occur giving a chance of redemption in
winning Hermione back.
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27.  Intergroup relations with the group in question and other
members can be seen as good when it came to their house
Gryffindor, even when Nevil was put to sleep to avoid him
telling on the group it was done with respect.
 However, intergroup relations with the opposition as the
slithering is highly competitive mainly with it’s youth
leader Draco Malfoyd who was keeping his eye out to
obtain good points by creating trouble for the trio as in
the case of spying on them visiting Hagrid at night. Also
abandoning Harry during time of crisis when the Dark
Lord come across Harry in the woods.
 The intergroup relations with the faculty members can be
observed as being in good standing with the exception of
Snape who, showed favoritism towards his house and had
a biasness toward Harry.
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28.  The excepted changes can be seen as the new
environment they uncounted, it was Harry, Ron and
Hermione’s first time in Hogwarts, despite Hermione
and Ron having heard about Hogwarts they were
never prepared for what it was really like and they
made the best out of the changes relying on each
other for support. This can be seen when they saw the
enchanted roof, the food and when they saw Draco
and knew they were going to be in trouble for visiting
Hagrid at night they all united and faced the
punishment together which was detention.
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29.  From the moment they embarked on the search for the
contents of the vault which was stolen they were faced
with unexpected change, first being the troll, second
being the fluffy and third being the new of the head
master being absent during a crisis time. All three events
they coordinated fast with each other giving their best
communicating with each other and accomplishing their
immediate goals.
Example is the troll soon as they saw the troll they worked
out a method of distracting the troll from Hermione
giving her a chance to escape, being incapacitated
without Hermione to support in magic Harry resorted
to sticking the Wand in the troll’s nose which made him
hit himself with his weapon and pass out.
Source : Essential Films Under Heading The Second Example is the puzzles they never anticipated
“So Evil” the puzzles they had to face as finding the key, or the
wizard chess game and in both they relied on each
other’s skills and accomplished the immediate goal to
accomplish the final goal.
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30.  Overall effectiveness of the group can be observed
to be of good standing as despite all obstacles,
mortal dangers face with the lack of proper training
the trio managed to accomplish their goal without
any casualties to any team members or innocent
bystanders.
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31.  Forming : Is when the group Harry, Ron and Hermione first met and was
exposed to Hogwarts they were quiet and despite noticing differences they
handled it with grace.
 Storming : Begins as they become more accounted with the environment and
begin to deal with each other the storming is clear with Ron and Hermione
where they were vocal on the each other’s differences in attitude towards
education as well as behaviors.
 Norming : As they embark on their quest they begin Norming where they find
their place in the group and begin to work with each other and coordinate.
 Performing : In reaching the stages where they accomplish the information
gathering segment of their quest and execute the task of accomplishing their
goal they begin to perform, the challenge of facing fluffy, the key challenge
and Wizards Chess they begin to perform.
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32.  Three students coming from different back grounds as Harry being an
orphan who doesn’t know anything about his parents struggling to
find himself and where he belong. Then Ron who is excited about the
new journey in his life coming from a loving family who struggle with
social standings as finances. Hermione who is a brilliant student who
struggles internally with her birth of being a human or a Muggle, and
being accepted despite her blood line.
 Joins as a group at Hogwarts and embark on a quest to save the school
and the magical environment from being taken to the dark side and
due to their different abilities and gifts in using them as a collective
they manage to outsmart the Hogwarts faculty who have managed by
their standing to hide the stone well. Moreover, the group due to their
group skills also manages to subdue the Dark Lord saving the school
and accomplishing points for their house giving a great case study for
observing group dynamics.
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33.  Acosta, A. J. (2010, May 9th). The 100 Greatest Movie Villains
Part 5. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from The Essential Films:
http://theessentialfilms.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html
 Carly, & malik09. (2011, February 26). Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone Poster. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from Internet
Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241527/synopsis
 Columbus, C. (Director). (2001). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone [Motion Picture].
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