Chapter 11 - Working Groups: Performance and Decision Making

Question 1

Social group

Answer 1

A set of individuals with a shared purpose and who normally share a positive social identity

Question 2

Entitatvity

Answer 2

“groupiness”– the perception, either by the group members themselves or by others, that the people together are a group

Question 3

Social facilitation

Answer 3

The tendency to perform tasks better or faster in the presence of others

Question 4

Social inhibition

Answer 4

The tendency to perform tasks more poorly or slower in the presence of others

Question 5

Dominant response

Answer 5

The action that we are most likely to emit in any given situation

Question 6

Process gain

Answer 6

When groups work better than we would expect, given the individuals who form them

Question 7

Process loss

Answer 7

Groups perform more poorly than we would expect, given the characteristics of the members of the group

Question 8

Group process

Answer 8

The events that occur while the group is working together on the task

Question 9

Member characteristics

Answer 9

The relevant traits, skills, or abilities of the individual group members

Question 10

Divisibile task

Answer 10

Each of the group members working on the job can do a separate part of the job at the same time

Question 11

Unitary task

Answer 11

A task that has to be done all at once and cannot be divided up

Question 12

Additive task

Answer 12

The inputs of each group member are added together to create the group performance

Question 13

Compensatory (averaging) task

Answer 13

The group input is combined such that the performance of the individuals is averaged rather than added

Question 14

Disjunctive task

Answer 14

When the group’s performance is determined by the best group member

Question 15

Conjunctive task

Answer 15

group performance determined by the ability of the group member who performs most poorly

Question 16

Intellective task

Answer 16

The ability of the group to make a decision or a judgement

Question 17

Maximizing task

Answer 17

A task that involves performance that is measured by how rapidly the group works or how much of a product they are able to make

Question 18

Criterion task

Answer 18

The group can see that there is a clearly correct answer to the problem that is being posed

Question 19

Judgemental task

Answer 19

No clearly correct answer to the problem

Question 20

Social loafing

Answer 20

A group process loss that occurs when people do not work as hard in a group as they do when they are alone

Question 21

Groupthink

Answer 21

when a group that is made up of members who may actually be very competent
and thus quite capable of making excellent decisions nevertheless ends up making a poor one as a result of a
flawed group process and strong conformity pressures