Chapter 12: Groups

Question 1

Facts about groups

Answer 1

Today it’s recognized that our capacity to form groups has helped us meet many of the challenges of survival and the reproduction of our genes: in groups we provide care for our extremely vulnerable offspring, find protection from predators, enjoy increased efficiency in acquiring and sharing food, and bolster our defense against aggressors.

Question 2

dominant response

Answer 2

… The third component of Zajonc’s theory specifies that the increase in dominant response tendencies leads to the facilitation of performance on simple tasks and the inhibition of performance on complex tasks.

Question 3

evaluation apprehension

Answer 3

…—a concern about looking bad in the eyes of others, about being evaluated—that seems to be important. Several studies have to show that it is only when subjects feel they are being evaluated that they show arousal and consequent facilitation on easy tasks and impairment on difficult tasks.

Question 4

Groupthink

Answer 4

… is a kind of faulty thinking by highly cohesive groups in which the critical scrutiny that should be devoted to the issues at hand is subverted by social pressures to reach consensus.

Question 5

group polarization

Answer 5

…, whereby group decisions tend to be more extreme than those made by individuals. Whatever way the majority of the individuals are leaning; group discussion tends to make them lean even further in that direction.

Question 6

Power

Answer 6

… is usually defined as the ability to control one’s own outcomes and those of others; it is also described as the freedom to act and to be free of constraints

Question 7

The approach/inhibition theory of power

Answer 7

… offers one account of how simply power having can lead to its abuse. If as noted earlier, power involves a lack of constraint and the freedom to act as one wishes, when people experience elevated power, they should be less concerned about the evaluations of others and more inclined to engage in behavior that satisfies their goals and desires. The approach/inhibition theory of power makes two core predictions. The first concerns the influence of power on how people perceive others. High-power individuals, inclined to go after their own goals, are predicted to be less careful and systematic in how they assess others. The second core element of approach/inhibition theory is that power should make people behave in less constrained and sometimes more inappropriate ways.

Question 8

deindividuation

Answer 8

Most of the time, we feel individuated—that is, we feel individually identifiable by others, we consider ourselves individually responsible for our actions, and we are concerned with the propriety and future consequences of our behavior. But as several social psychologists have noted, we often experience a loss of individual identity—a sense of …—when we are in a large group.

Question 9

the spotlight effect

Answer 9

people are indeed prone to a high level of self-consciousness comes from research on …—peoples conviction that other people are paying attention to their appearance and behavior more than is actually the case.