Chapter 12 Flashcards
Group
A collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree
Benefits of groups
- Protection from predators
- Specialized jobs
- Defense against other groups
- Assistance in need
- Psychological support
- Efficiency
- Idea generation
Social facilitation
The presence of others improves performance
What does the Fishing study (Triplett 1898) illustrate?
- Social Facilitation
- The children turned the reels faster when they were around other kids doing the same thing
What does the Undergraduate philosophy study (Allport 1920) illustrate
- Participants asked to refute philosophical arguments in five minutes
- Participants provided better refutations if they were alone
*Other instances where presence inhibits learning: Math, Memory, Maze learning
Mere Presence Theory
Presence of others facilitates performance on well-learned tasks but hinders performance on novel or difficult tasks
Dominant response
Response that the person is most likely or used to make
What does the Cockroach Study illustrate?
Cockroaches were placed in simple/complex maze and were shone light to facilitate an escape response. When cockroaches was with others, they did better on the simple maze but worse on complex maze.
*Same results when other cockroaches were just observing in the plexiglass container.
Evaluation Apprehension
People’s concern about how they might appear in the eyes of others
What does the True Alone Changing Study (Markus 1978) Illustrate?
Participants were divided into 3 groups to wait for other participants to arrive: Alone, with experimenter watching, and with a repairman not watching but present.
- The MERE PRESENCE of others is enough for social facilitation — Evaluation apprehension enhances this even further
Why do we do better as a group?
- Leaders and expertise
- Pooled experience
- Idea generation
Social loafing
The tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task in which individual contributions cannot be monitored
- Masked distribution of effort
- Cost vs. Benefit
Groupthink
Faulty thinking that arises when members of cohesive groups are pressured to come to a consensus
Reasons for group think
- Conformity
- Leadership
- Self-censorship
- Pluralistic ignorance
How can we avoid group think?
- Leader impartiality
- Encouraging dissension
- Creating subgroups
- Anonymity
- Devil’s advocate
- Review
- Outside opinions
People tend to make better decisions as a group when:
- The question has a precise, factual answer
- Social loafing can be avoided
- Groupthink is avoided (applies to all types of group decision making, factual or subjective)
Group polarization
Tendency for group decisions to be more extreme than those made by individuals
Why group polarization?
- Persuasive Arguments Account
- Social Comparison Interpretation
What is the Persuasive Arguments Account for group polarization?
- People exposed to new arguments in favor of their position
- Face-to-face conversation unnecessary for polarization
What is the social comparison interpretation of group polarization?
- Comparison with others — wanting to be the most correct
- Desire to stand out; to one-up everyone else
- “If everyone in a group agrees that men are jerks, then someone in the group is bound to argue that they’re asshols” — Kolbert
Characteristics of leaders
- Skills and expertise
- Socially skilled
- Emotionally intelligent
- Provide rewards
Power
The ability to control one’s own and other’s outcomes
- Hierarchies make group interactions run smoothly
- Determines how resources will be divided
Status
Respect and prominence from others (e.g. celebrity)
Authority
Control over others that comes from institutionalized roles/arrangements (e.g. a boss)
Dominance
Behavior enacted with the goal of acquiring or demonstrating control over others
Approach-Inhibition Theory of Power
High power individuals are likely to go after goals and make quick judgements
- High power: Action, approach, touching, doing stuff
- Low power: Inaction, inhibition, retreating
Core elements of high power individuals
- Less careful and systematic in how they assess others (perceptions)
- More focused on their own goals (behavior)
What are some typical behaviors of powerful people?
- More likely to touch others and approach them closely
- To think of others in a sexualized way
- To forwardly flirt with others
- Are more likely to violate politeness-related norms of communication and act rudely towards others
What are some typical behaviors of low-power people?
- Less likely to speak up and more likely to inhibit their speech
- Restrict their body posture
When asked to come up with nicknames and stories of their peers, high powered individuals…
Were more likely to tease others & tell degrading stories
What does the Armchair study illustrate?
After sitting in a leather professional chair (high-power) or plain chair (low power), participants were asked to complete part of questionnaire and leave rest for next participant who was late
- Low-power individuals completed roughly equal amounts of self-interest levels
- High-power individuals completed more if they were low on self-interest and less if they were high on self-interest
Deindividuation
Reduced sense of individual identity when people are in a large group
- Lower chance of any one person being singled out
- People feel less accountable for actions
- More compliance to group norms
How does deindividuation happen? (Zimbardo 1970)
Antecedent conditions -> Internal state -> Behavioral effects
Suicide baiting
When observers urge suicidal individuals to commit suicide
- Increases dramatically in crowds over 300 and after 6pm
80% of cultures that deindividuated before battle were labeled as ____ ____, meaning……
High ferocity: Engaged in head-hunting, torture, or killing civillians
What does the Halloween Study (Diener et al., 1976) illustrate?
- Deindividuation
- Anonymous kids in group took more candy — deindividuation encourages transgressive behavior
Self-Awareness Theory
When people focus attention on themselves, they become concerned with self0evaluation and how their current behavior conforms to internal standards and values
Individuation
Enhanced sense of individual identity produced by focusing attention on the self
*Generally causes people to act carefully, deliberately, and in accordance with their values
Spotlight effect
The assumption that our own appearance and behaviors are being carefully scrutinized by others at all times, when in fact, they typically are not
What does the Mirror study illustrate?
- Self-awareness
- 75% of those at the typical desk kept working past the bell, but only 10% of those by the mirror kept working past the bell.
What were the results of the spotlight effect study?
Participants were given a T-shirt with a large image of Barry Manilow and then put into another room with a group of students filling out questionnaires; left the room shortly after.
- The participants thought 50% of students would remember Barry Manilow on the shirt, while in reality only 25% remembered that.
