Exam 2: Group

Question 1

Group

Answer 1

• 2 or more people who influence each other

- Influence can be direct (interaction, social group) or indirect (mere presence, non-social group)

Question 2

Benefits (Group)

Answer 2

• Access to interaction
• Emotional support
• Identity
• Social norms (informational influence)

Question 3

Direct Influence (Group)

Answer 3

• Compliance
• Obedience
• Group polarization
• Groupthink

Question 4

Indirect Influence (Group)

Answer 4

• Conformity (perceived presence to change behavior)
• Social facilitation
• Social loafing
• Deindividuation

Question 5

Social Facilitation (Groups Good or Bad?)

Answer 5

• Influence other people have on performance by mere presence
• People perform better in the presence of others (facilitation)
• People perform worse in the presence of others (inhibition)

Question 6

What determines improvement or deterioration? (Social Facilitation, Groups Good or Bad?)

Answer 6

• Competition
• Nature of task
  a. Simple (facilitation)
  b. Complex (inhibition)
• Presence of others increases arousal which increases dominant response (already aroused/nervous or not?)

Question 7

Yerkes-Dodson Law (Social Facilitation, Groups Good or Bad?)

Answer 7

• Presence of others increases arousal
• Arousal has curvilinear relationship with performance
• Upside down U from “low” to “high” with 2 tangent lines on each side

Why?

• Makes us alert and observant
• Evaluation apprehension: predicts that when we work in groups, our concern of what they’ll think influences our decisions
• Distracting

Question 8

Social Loafing (Groups Good or Bad?)

Answer 8

• Tendency to exert less effort as members of a group than when alone
• Works only when contribution is unknown/unnoticeable

Why Social Loaf?

a. Relaxation: because you’re not observed
- Simple tasks = more loafing
- Complex tasks = less loafing
b. Diffusion of responsibility: not held accountable
- Disappears when contributions are identifiable
- Less likely to occur if goal is highly valued

Question 9

Deindividuation (Groups Good or Bad?)

Answer 9

• When personal identity is replaced by group identity
• Concerned with goals/actions of group
• Feeling of anonymity
• Loss of social constraints of behavior
• Loss of self-awareness (we forget what we would do as individuals)

Result?

• Feel less accountable for behavior
• Won’t be blamed
• Groups norm replaces personal norms
• Implications for online behavior (say or do things we wouldn’t do in person)
• Anti-social behaviors (actions that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others)
• Prosocial only if the group is prosocial (actions that help the well-being of others)

Question 10

Group Polarization (Groups Good or Bad?)

Answer 10

• When group decisions/agreements are more extreme than that of an individual’s
• “Risky” vs. “conservative”

Why?

a. Informational influence (people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior in a given situation)
- Want to appear right
- Majority of arguments will support initial position
- Lead to additional initial position arguments
b. Normative influence (effect of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted)
- Social comparison
- Desire to appear confident & “one-up” the other
c. Verbal statements increase commitment to argument