Basic Group Processes Flashcards
What did Ringelmann 1913, find out in his experiment?
Tug of War
He compared the performance of individuals with the performance of groups. He measured the force created when pulling on the rope
He found that when people pulled the rope in groups they only used 75% of their capacity
therefore the group pulls at a lower capacity/less effort than the individual
What did Latane, 1979 find out in his experiment?
Clapping and Cheering
people who clapped/cheered in groups of six produced 60% less noise then when alone
this result is a demonstration of the social loafing effect, the tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts towards the group
reasons why groups are less productive than individuals ..
1) process losses - as the group get larger coordination become harder making the group less efficient
2) Social loafing - people put in less effort when efforts are combined (as not individually responsible for the outcome)
Experiment to distinguish between social loafing (motivation loss) and coordination loss
(Ingham et al)
Condition 1: participants pull the rope individually or in a real group of 6
Condition 2: Participants were blindfolded and told they were pulling the rope either individually or in a group of 1-5 others (pseudo groups)
those in groups whether pseudo or real had a performance loss. the loss was greater for real group, allowing people to distinguish between what is motivation and what is coordination
addition loss seen in real groups is attributed to coordination
In what cases are groups more productive than individuals?
1) Social loafing is reduced with collectivistic cultures and for women
2) social labouring (working harder in groups), especially with strong group membership/commitment to the group
what is the social identity approach?
The approach states that there are two levels of the self, a personal identity and a social identity (group memebrship)
social identity is part of someones self-concept and it derives from his knowledge of a social group and his emotional attachment to it
what happens when we have social Identity
when there is a sense of ‘us’
group goals become important and become personal goals and cooperation and helping occur more
what is deindividuation and how is it caused
immersion in groups (crowds) result in a state of deindividuation, where people lose their sense of individuality
it results in irrational behaviour that violates the norms of appropriateness
What did Zimbardo find when he studied anonymity and collective aggression?
groups of thee women were told to give shocks to another participant
Deindividuation condition (white cloaks) = more shocks
Individuation condition (name tags) = less shocks
opposite findings for soldiers
Do anonymity affects depend on costume?
participants were either dressed in KKK costumes or nurse costumes. The participants where either identifiable or not.
nurses administered less shocks even when they were anonymous, however anonymity had no effect on the KKK.. all administered the same
aggression comes from the norms of the clothing/ people associated with wearing it
what is emergent norm theory?
behaviour in crowds conforms to situational group norms rather than being anti-normative
what is the social identity model of deindividuation effects
rather than resulting in loss of self there is a change from personal to social identity in crowds
