Chapter 12: groups Flashcards
What is a group?
A group is a collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree.
Explain social facilitation and explain when it helps or hinders performance.
Social facilitation is enhanced or negative effect one has from the presence of others. It can help performance as it increases arousal, and motivation. However it can also lead to negative outcomes as it can be a distraction, fear of judgement causing anxiety and reduced performance, and increased arousal.
Summarize Zajonc’s theory of mere presence and its implications for dominant responses.
Zajonc’s theory of mere presence explains the presence of others heightens arousal which enhances dominant (well learned) responses but hinders non dominant (new or complex) responses. Therefore if one doesn’t feel confident in their skills, the presence of others may lead to negative results.
What is evaluation apprehension, and how does it relate to group performance?
Evaluation apprehension refer to the anxiety or concern individuals feel about being judged or evaluated by others, especially when preforming a task. It relates to group settings as individuals might feel like their contributions or actions are being watched with different effects on group performance and their personal ability.
What is groupthink? How does group cohesion influence groupthink? What is the role of self-censorship?
Group think is the poor or irrational decisions made by a group in order to get along and avoid conflict. When groups are cohensive it can cause lack of procedures for info search and appreiasal, directive leadership and high stress with low hope for better situations. Self censorship is withholding information or opinons to a group discussion
Discuss the elements of Janis’s groupthink hypothesis, specifically the antecedents and motivation of groupthink. How can we prevent groupthink?
Janis groupthink hypothesis: groupthink occurs when the desire for consensus and cohesion in a group override the need for critical thinking and the consideration of alternative ideas, often leading to flawed decision making. Several factors or anteceddents increase groupthink occurrence: high group cohension, isolation of the group, directive leadership, high stress from external threats, lack of clear norms for decision making. TO prevent groupthink we need to encourage open debate and dissent, use subgroups, bring in outside experts, have anonymous feedback, create a culture of dissent and slow down decision making.
What is group polarization
Group polarization is the group decision that tends to be more extereme than those made by individuals whatever way the individuals are leaning, group discussion tends to make them learn even further that way that is encouraged making deicsions more extreme.
Define deindividuation and discuss its role in promoting risky group behaviour. In doing so, describe Zimbardo’s Model of Deindividuation.
Deindividuation is the reduced sense of individual identity accompanied by diminished self-regulation that can come over people when in a large group. The model by Zimbardo specifies how certain conditions create the kind of psychological state that promotes the impulsive and often destructive beahviours observed in crowds.
Explain the concept of social loafing and identify strategies to reduce it.
Social loading is when some people may feel less motivated to contribute to a group setting because they sense they won’t be individually evaluated (such as in a group project). The lack of evaluation or fear of judgement can lead to less effort which can harm group performance.
What do the studies on Halloween Mayhem suggest?
The Halloween Mayhem is the study on deinvidiualization vs anonymity and group incluence. Children were tested if they engage in stealing candy, in groups vs alone. When in groups children were more likely to steal than when alone. The anonymity provided by the costumes reduced self awareness and accountability, leading to more stealing. The group infleiunce enhanced misbehaviour as individuals felt less personally responsible.
What is individuation? What does Self-Awareness Theory suggest?
Individuation is the process by which an individual becomes distinct or more self aware, often through a heightened sense of personal identity and self reflection. It contrsts with deindiviaution where people lose their sense of self identity when in a group. The self awareness theory suggests tht when people focus on themselves they are more aware of their actions and values. They act in accorafance to this because of self focus, increased self regulation and reduced deciance.
What is the spotlight effect? Why does it occur and what are some of the negative consequences?
Spotlight effect is the convicntion that other people are paying attention to you more than they are. This is due to too much weight perspective on ourselves as we only have our perspective. This can cause decreased authenitity making use more aware of what others expect causing us to be untrue to true self. It can also cause relationship problems as people may feel like they don’t know the real you if you excessively care about what other people think of you. It can also lead to less empathy as one is very self focused.
