Chapter 12: Groups

Question 1

What is social facilitation?

Answer 1

initially a term for enhanced performance in the prsence of others, now a broader term for the effect, positive or negative, or the presence of others on performance

Question 2

What is dominant response?

Answer 2

In a persons’ hierarchy of possible responses in any context, the response that person is most likely to make

Question 3

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 3

People’se concern about how they might appear in the eyes of others, or be evaluated by them

Question 4

What is social loafing?

Answer 4

The tendency to exert less effort when working on a groupt task in which individual contributions cannot be monitored

Question 5

What is groupthink?

Answer 5

Faulty thinkning by members of 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 6

What is self-censorship?

Answer 6

Withholding information or opinions in group discussions/

Question 7

What is group polarization?

Answer 7

The tendency for group decisions to be more extreme than those made by individuals, whatever way the group as a whole is leaning, group discussion tends to make is lean further in that direction

Question 8

What is power?

Answer 8

the ability to control one’s own outcomes and those of others; the freedom to act

Question 9

What is status?

Answer 9

The outcome of an evaluation of attributes that produces differences in respect and prominence.

Question 10

What is authority?

Answer 10

Power that derives from institutionalized role or arrangments

Question 11

What is dominance?

Answer 11

Behavior enacted with the goal or aquiring or demonstrating power

Question 12

What is approach/inhibition theory?

Answer 12

A theory maintaining that high-power individuals are inclined to go after their goals and make quick (and sometimes rash) judgements, whereas low-power individuals are more liekly to constrain their behavior and pay careful attention to others

• power gives people the ability to act
• people without power are vulnerable need to be more careful

Question 13

What is deindividualism?

Answer 13

A reduced sense of individual identity accompanied by dimished self-regulation that can come over people when they are in a large group

Question 14

What is individuation?

Answer 14

An enhanced sense of indiviudal identity produced by focusing attention on the self, which generally leads people to act carefully and deliberately and in accordance with their sense of propriety and values

Question 15

What is self-awareness theory?

Answer 15

A theory maintaining that when people focus their attention inward on themselves, they become concerned with self-ealuation and how their current behavior conforms to their internal standards and values

Question 16

What is spotlight effect?

Answer 16

People’s conviction that other people are paying attention to them (to their appearance and behavior) more than they actually are

Question 17

What is a group?

Answer 17

a collection fo individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree

Question 18

What initial research was done into social facilitation?

Answer 18

observed that people raced faster when paired in competition with another person

• result repeated with animals
• results repeated with people performing different tasks as well
• results were oppostie when task was more mentally taxing (ex. math)

Question 19

What is Zajonc’s theory of mere perspective?

Answer 19

the mere presence of others tend to facilitate performance on simple or well learned tasks, but hinders performance on difficult or novel tasks.

Question 20

How does Zajonc’s theory of mere perspective work?

Answer 20

• presence of other people makes us aroused
• arousal makes us more narrowly focus and resort to dominant response
• simple tasks->dominant is correct-> faciliation!
• difficult takss->dominant is incorrect-> inhibited

Question 21

How does Mere Presence differ from Evaluation Apprehension?

Answer 21

• thought that maybe people only feel arousal when they feel they are being evaluated

Question 22

Evaluation Apprehension Experiment (gibberish words)

Answer 22

• pronounce unknown words a set number of times, the more they pronouce the word it becomes a dominant response
• recognize words as ones they just learned
• alone, in front of audience (evaluation apprehension), or infront of blindfolded audience (mere presence)
• relied on dominant response much more often with audience

Question 23

Problem with the Evaluation Apprehension Gibberish Word Experiment

Answer 23

thought that the alone condition wasn’t true because people are still performing for the experiment, aware they are being watched

Question 24

Evaluation Apprehension Experiment (Socks and Shoes)

Answer 24

• simple response = put on shoes (dominant response)
• novel response = put on lab shoes
• same three conditions
• faster to put on shoes in front of mere presence audience
• even faster in front of evaluative audience
• slower to put on lab shoes in fron of mere presence audience
• even slow in front of evaluative audeince.

Question 25

What behaviors impede group think?

Answer 25

• shallow examination of information
• narrow consideration of alternatives
• sense of moral superiority

Question 26

How to make group think productive?

Answer 26

• groups leaders should withold their opinions until later
• group should be open to outside input
• designate someone to play devil’s advocate

Question 27

What are two explanations for group polarization?

Answer 27

• people being exposed to more supporting evidence for their position reaffirms it
• people assume they are riskier than average and so when they see their opinion matching others, they double down into the extreme in order to solidify their self concept

Question 28

How do group leaders arise?

Answer 28

• groups naturally develop hierarchy because it is easier to share resources and survive
• leaders motivate individuals to sacrifice personal benefit for the greater good of the group

Question 29

What are characteristics of leaders?

Answer 29

• skillful expertise relevant to the goal of the grouo
• social dynamic skills that create cooperative bonds
  provide rewards and generously share resources

Question 30

How does power influence behavior?

Answer 30

• high power people are less careful in how they assess people
• people with less power are more narrowly focused and cognitively inflexible
• power makes people elss constrained even inappropriate
• power makes people more likely to engage in antisocial behaviors

Question 31

What does power reveal?

Answer 31

Because power gives an individual more freedom to act and less social contraints, it reveals their true dispositions (cooperative vs selfish, etc.)

Question 32

How do people feel about deindividuation?

Answer 32

• the impuslivity feels liberating, so we try to create environments (parties, concerts) that replicate the feeling to prevent it from unfolding at unwanted times (mobs)

Question 33

What are the antecedent conditions to deindividuation?

Answer 33

• anonymity
• diffution of responsibility
• energy from othres
• stimulus overload

Question 34

What is the internal state of deindividuation?

Answer 34

• lessened self obersation and evaluation
• lessened concern with the evaluation of others
• weakening of internal controls (guilt, fear, etc.)

Question 35

What are the behavioral effects of deindividuation?

Answer 35

• impulsivity
• irrationality
• emotionality
• antisocial activity

Question 36

How do people regularely experience self awareness vs deinidivudation?

Answer 36

• people typically experience a high level of self consiousness
• deviniduation is a welcome break