E3: Groups and behavior

Question 1

What are the different ways in which the presence of others impacts our behavior

Answer 1

-social facilitation: presence effects performance
-social loafing: presence effects effort
-deindividuation: presence effects self awareness

Question 2

What is social facilitation and what are its two components

Answer 2

The presence of others impacts task performance

1. the presence of others increases our physiological arousal
2. the increased arousal increases our dominant response (task that is easy)

Question 3

implications of social facilitation on task performance

Answer 3

-the presence of others will facilitate better performance in a task that is easy or well learned

-the presence of others will facilitate worse performance on a task that is complex or new

Question 4

Why does the presence of others increase our arousal

Answer 4

1. its distracting and leads to divided attention which is arousing
2. evaluation apprehension: if being evaluated by the people present than more nervous
3. it makes us more alert which is arousing

Question 5

what is social loafing

Answer 5

people relax in the presence of others where individual performance cannot be evaluated

Question 6

implications of social loafing on task performance

Answer 6

presence of others =worse performance on easy tasks

-since individual effort isn’t as visible people get lazy and do not try hard or easy or unimportant tasks

presence of others= better performance on complex tasks

-instead of being aroused by presence of others, it is relaxing which helps with clear headedness on important tasks

Question 7

deindividuation

Answer 7

loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people cannot be identified (such as within a group or crowd)

Question 8

Why do people act recklessly when in a crowd

Answer 8

-the fact that they likely won’t get singled out makes them feel less accountable

-people get too focused on the environment and forget about themselves as an individual

Question 9

how does deindividuation affect following of norms

Answer 9

increases the extent to which people obey the group’s norms and people pay less attention to societal norms

Question 10

what can we do to help with deindividuation

Answer 10

-make people self aware
-change group norms