Chapter 10: Group behaviour

Question 1

What is group behaviour?

Answer 1

Behaviour displayed by people who are acting within, and as, part of a group.

Question 2

What is group action?

Answer 2

Behaviour by group members that is coordinated in order to achieve a common goal.

Question 3

What is co-presence?

Answer 3

Performing a task in the presence of other people.

Question 4

What is social facilitation?

Answer 4

The process by which the presence of others can facilitate behaviour.

Question 5

What is mere presence?

Answer 5

Social facilitation effects need not necessarily be competitive. The simple presence of others is enough to facilitate behaviour.

Question 6

What are co-actors?

Answer 6

People performing the same task at the same time but not performing the task collectively.

Question 7

What is social inhibition?

Answer 7

The process by which the presence of others can hinder behaviour.

Question 8

Explain Zajonc’s “dominant response” model.

Answer 8

The presence of others creates arousal, which strengthens the dominant response. For an easy task, the performance in enhanced; for a difficult task, performance is impaired.

Question 9

What is a drive?

Answer 9

A negative state of tension associated with an unsatisfied need and motivates efforts to satisfy the need.

Question 10

What is the effect of mere presence on judgements that have no right or wrong answers?

Answer 10

People make stronger judgements in the presence of others than when they are alone.

Question 11

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 11

Concern about being evaluated by observers when performing a task.

Question 12

How does distraction operate with regards to evaluation apprehension?

Answer 12

While we think about being evaluated, we can’t attend to the task at hand, which impairs our performance.

Question 13

What is process loss?

Answer 13

The deterioration of group performance because of various factors, such as the time taken to coordinate the group, distractors, and the presence of dominant group members.

Question 14

What is the Ringelmann effect?

Answer 14

The observation that as group size increases, individual effort on the task decreases.

Question 15

What is social loafing?

Answer 15

The tendency for people’s performance to decrease in a group when they are not individually responsible for their actions.

Question 16

What is the free rider effect?

Answer 16

The tendency for people to take advantage of a shared resource without having made an appropriate contribution.

Question 17

What is the opposite of social loafing?

Answer 17

Social security.

Question 18

What is the effect of evaluation apprehension on task performance in groups?

Answer 18

When individual efforts are evaluated, people get evaluation apprehension, are aroused, and we get the social facilitation effect.

When individual efforts are not evaluated, people do not get evaluation apprehension, they relax, and social loafing occurs.

Question 19

What is output equity?

Answer 19

People like everyone to pull their weight on tasks but generally perceive that others loaf.

Question 20

What is the effect of valuing the group we work with on social loafing?

Answer 20

Loafing is reduced when group members are friendly with or identify with one another.

Question 21

What is the cultural effect on social loafing?

Answer 21

Collectivist cultures display LESS social loafing.

Question 22

What is the gender effect on social loafing?

Answer 22

Women tend to exhibit less loafing than men.

Question 23

What is LeBon’s theory of contagion?

Answer 23

LeBon argued that this process leads to ideas being “spread” unpredictably and rapidly through crowds.

Question 24

What is individuation?

Answer 24

The process of differentiating between people. The opposite of deindividuation.

Question 25

What factors, aside from being in a group, influence the state of deindividuation?

Answer 25

Attentional cues, accountability cues.

Question 26

What are attentional cues?

Answer 26

Features of the environment that draw attention away from the self.

Question 27

How do attentional cues work?

Answer 27

People become absorbed in the environment and attend less to themselves and their behaviour. Research showed this through the use of highly environments, where people were more extreme, disinhibited and aggressive.

Question 28

What are accountability cues?

Answer 28

Factors that determine what behaviours people can “get away with” in a social context.

Question 29

What is the most studied accountability cue, and how does it work?

Answer 29

Anonymity. It works by encouraging people to engage in behaviours that are gratifying but normally inhibited. (Robbing a bank!)

Question 30

What is one way you can predict anonymous behaviour?

Answer 30

By studying the norms of the group that directly surround the individual.

Question 31

What are emergent group norms?

Answer 31

Theory of crowd behaviour which argues that rather than being a product of randomness and process loss, behaviour in crowds is a result of social norms.

Question 32

What is the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE)?

Answer 32

Theory of deindividuation phenomena arguing that such phenomena are largely a result of increased group focus rather than a loss of individual focus.

Question 33

What is risky shift?

Answer 33

The finding that groups seem to make riskier decisions than individuals.

Question 34

What is group polarization?

Answer 34

Group interaction strengthens the initial leanings of group members so that attitudes and decisions become polarized.

Question 35

Why does group polarization happen?

Answer 35

Through social comparison and through normative influence.

Question 36

What is pluralistic ignorance?

Answer 36

A situation where a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but assume (incorrectly) that most others accept it.

Question 37

What factors influence pluralistic ignorance?

Answer 37

Bandwagon effect, informational influence, self-categorization.

Question 38

What is groupthink? (Janis)

Answer 38

The mode of thinking that groups engage in when cohesion seems more important than making the right decision and considering alternatives.

Question 39

What is the main problem with Janis’ groupthink theory?

Answer 39

Much of the evidence is retrospective.

Question 40

What element of Janis’ groupthink theory has been most convincingly debunked?

Answer 40

The influence of cohesiveness. In particular, cohesiveness around values and norms that encourage critical thinking and questioning authority can lead to good decisions despite groupthink.

Question 41

What is brainstorming?

Answer 41

Process of groups getting together and discussing a problem openly, allowing (many) ideas to flow freely.

Question 42

What are the three principles for effective brainstorming?

Answer 42

Combining group with individual brainstorming, interacting in writing, using electronic communication.

Question 43

What is the great person theory?

Answer 43

Theory of leadership asserting that leaders have an ideal combination of personality traits that enables them to be effective.

Question 44

What are some common characteristics of leaders?

Answer 44

More intelligent, more extraverted, socially skilled, confident, driven by a desire for power, more charismatic and less neurotic.

Question 45

What is the contingency theory of leadership?

Answer 45

Theory arguing that leadership success is dependent on how task related or relationship oriented the leader is, and the amount of influence they have over the group.

Question 46

When are task-oriented leaders most effective?

Answer 46

In high and low control contexts.

Question 47

When are relationship-oriented leaders most effective?

Answer 47

In moderate control contexts.

Question 48

Explain how leadership is like minority influence.

Answer 48

Leaders, like minorities, can inspire and influence people because they are consistent in their views and goals and exhibit self-confidence.

Question 49

What are the five attributes of effective global leaders?

Answer 49

Understanding of business, political and cultural environments in relevant domains; understanding of the perspectives, trends and technologies of other cultures; ability to work with people of different cultures, ability to adapt to other cultures; ability to relate to other cultures as equals.

Question 50

Explain the catch-22 of gender and leadership.

Answer 50

If women behave stereotypically feminine, they are perceived as having low leadership potential. If they behave against stereotypes, they are evaluated negatively.