Chapter 8 Part 1 Flashcards
Group
a collection of three or more people who interact with one another and are INTERDEPENDENT in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to rely on one another.
Function of groups
1) fills a number of basic needs (security, food, friends)
2) help us define who we are. (“I belong at the university”)
3) motivates people to become involved in social change.
2 components of the composition of groups
1) not tooooo big or else not all members could interact with one another
2) alike in age, sex, beliefs, opinions.
2 reasons for the homogeneity of gropus
1) many groups attract people who are already similar before they join
2) groups operate in ways that encourage similarity in the members.
Social roles
shared expectations by group members about how particular people in the group are supposed to behave.
difference between social norms and social roles
norms specify how ALL group members should behave, whereas roles specify how people who occupy certain positions in the group should behave.
costs to social roles
people can get so into a role that their personal identity and personality are lost.
ex/ stanford prison experiment.
group cohesiveness
qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking among them.
What is social facilitation
the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks, but worse on complex tasks, when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluate.d
Explain the cockroach light tasks.
cockroaches were put in a maze- box with a flood light on one end. In order for them to avoid the light, they had to scurry into the dark box on the end of the “maze.”
They were allowed to do it either by themselves, or with other cockroaches in the box, in these little “audience boxes” while the main roach had to make his way to the dark box.
As long as the path to the dark box was easy (simple tasks), roaches in the audience boxes ENHANCED the speed at which the light escape behaviour was seen in the arch.
If the path to the dark box was difficult, then the roaches took longer to solve it when other roaches were present than when they were alone.
Two steps of Zajonc’s reasoning for why the presence of others facilitates a well learned or dominant response, but inhibits a less practised or new response.
1) the presence of others increases physiological arousal
2) when such arousal exists, its easier to fo something that is simple, but more difficult to do something complex.
- If you’re doing something complex, the arousal will make you feel flustered.
3 theories to explain the role of AROUSAL in social facilitation
1) other people cause us to become alert and vigilant
2) they make us apprehensive about how we’re being evaluated
- EVALUATION APPREHENSION
3) they distract us from the task at hand.
DIFFERENCE IN EVALUATION between social facilitation and social loafing
if individual efforts can be evaluated, it is likely social facilitation will occur. There will be alertness, evaluation apprehension, and distraction-conflict.
is individual efforts cannot be evaluated, social loading will occur because there will be no evaluation apprehension.
According to social facilitation, where should you study?
When you study for an exam and LEARN NEW MATERIAL you are not familiar with, should do ti ALONE because the arousal will cause poor performance (poor retaining)
When you’ve studied for the exam and feel ready, you should write it in a GROUP. The alertness and arousal will improve your performance
Social loafing
the tendency for people to do worse on simple tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated.
Reasoning: Recall, for social facilitation, arousal enhances performance on simple tasks, but impairs performance on complex tasks when being evaluated. Therefore, when not being evaluated, there is less arousal, and become relaxed impairs performance on simple task, but IMPROVES performance on complex tasks.
