7- Groups and Performance Flashcards
How is performance decreased in presence of others according to Allport?
People could get nervous/worried
How is performance increased in the presence of others according to Allport?
People could rise to the occasion
What did Triplett find?
People cycle faster when pacing with others than when alone
What does social facilitation suggest?
Improvement in performance of well-learned or easy tasks could be due to mere presence of members of same species
How do co-actors influences social facilitation?
They are doing the same thing but not interacting
How does a passive audience influence social facilitation?
They are passively watching
Who came up with drive theory?
Zajonc, 1965
What does drive theory explain?
What determines whether social presence facilitates or inhibits performance
How does drive theory suggest arousal is increased?
As we become alert when others are around
What can arousal increase according to drive theory?
Our likelihood to perform our dominant response
Who came up with evaluation apprehension theory?
Cottrell, 1972
What is the key idea of evaluation apprehension theory?
Mere presence isn’t sufficient to produce drive
What are social rewards and punishments based on according to evaluation apprehension theory?
Based on others’ evaluations of us
What does social presence produce according to evaluation apprehension theory?
Produces a drive based on evaluation apprehension
Who supports evaluation apprehension theory?
Cottrell et al, 1968
What was Cottrell et al’s research?
Participants performed 3 well-learned tasks in front of 3 types of audiences
What were the 3 audiences in Cottrell et al’s research?
Inattentive audience (blindfolded)
Merely present audience
Attentive audience
Did each of Cottrell et al’s audiences produce social facilitation?
Only the attentive audience
Who contrasted Cottrell et al’s research?
Schmitt et al, 1986
What was Schmitt et al’s research?
Participants performed an easy task, then a difficult one in front of 3 different types of audiences
What were the 3 audiences in Schmitt et al’s research?
No audience (alone condition)
Inattentive audience (mere presence condition)
Attentive audience (evaluation apprehension condition)
What were the results of Schmitt et al’s research?
- Less time taken on easy task for all conditions- least time taken on evaluation apprehension condition
- More time taken on difficult task for all conditions- most on mere presence condition, least on alone condition
Who came up with the distraction-conflict theory?
Sanders, 1981
What are people in distraction-conflict theory?
A source of distraction
What does mere presence produce according to distraction-conflict theory?
Conflict between attending to the task and attending to the audience/co-actors
What does attentional conflict produce (distraction-conflict theory)?
Drive that facilitates dominant responses
What is the impact of attentional conflict theory on difficult task?
Impair performance
What is the impact of attentional conflict on easy tasks?
Improve performance
What does the Ringelmann effect suggest?
Individual effort on a task diminishes as group size increases
What are the two reasons suggested for the Ringelmann effect?
Coordination loss and motivation loss
Why could people not attain full potential according to coordination loss?
Due to jostling, distraction, and the tendency to pull slightly against one another
What can be the impact of coordination loss?
Can decrease individual effort
Why might people not try as hard according to motivation loss?
They were less motivated
What is the problem with the motivation loss explanation?
Cannot identify a specific person at fault
Who investigated the Ringelmann effect?
Ingham et al, 1974
How did Ingham et al investigate the Ringelmann effect?
Participants pulled on a rope- either real groups or pseudo-groups (only 1 true participant)
What happened in Ingham et al’s pseudo-groups?
Confederates weren’t actually pulling on the rope, led to an effort reduction due to motivation loss
What is social loafing?
Reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task compared with working either alone or coactively
What are the 3 reasons why we loaf?
Output equity: we believe others loaf so want to maintain equity
Evaluation apprehension: we are anonymous and cannot be identified so no longer worry about being evaluated by others
Matching to standard: we don’t have a clear sense of the group’s standards or norms
What 5 factors influence the tendency to loaf?
- Task attractiveness and competition- higher may cause us to work harder
- Task importance and anticipation of others poor performance- may want to work harder (social compensation effect)
- Salient group identity
- Presence of an outgroup
- Collectivistic cultures- place greater value on groups than on individuals
What is the social compensation effect?
People may work harder on an important task to compensate for other group members’ actual, perceived or anticipated lack of effort or ability
