Formation Flashcards
Joining groups - overview
- Different from each other
- Predispose to join or not
- Personality Traits
- Joiners or loners
Affected most by extraversion - Personality Group Fit
Who join where? - Anxiety and Attachment
In what they way they interact with each other - Social motivations
- Men, women and groups
- Attitudes, experiences and expectations
Personality
The configuration of distinctive but enduring characteristics, such as traits, values or temperament
- Predispose how people react or act in situations
The Big Five Theory
Predispose if a person will join groups, how they will act with each other.
- 5 fundamental traits - structure up differences in personality
- Consistent differences across time and situations
Why certain people always tend to take leader positions, or stay in the background
- Extraversion: engagement and interest in social interactions, such as talkativeness, friendliness or cheerfulness
- Agreeableness: cooperative orientation to others, such as compassion, acceptance or modesty
- Conscientiousness: persistence in the pursuit of tasks, self-confidence, achievement striving or measured responding
- Neuroticism: tendencies to strong emotional response to a situations, lack of impulse control, anxiety or shyness
- Open to experience: active pursuit of intellectually and aesthetically stimulation activities, imagination, curiosity or openness to emotions
OCEAN
Extraverts
- Tendency to move towards people, belong and like to with groups
- Prefer social interactions
- Tend to be leaders, very engaged in the group
- Happier than introverts
1. More sensitive to rewards, more social interactions more happiness
2. Because they are in a lot of groups - Groups tend to look for extraverts more often, easy to spot them
Introverts
- Tendency to move away from groups
- Quiet, withdrawn and reclusive
- Prefer detail- and task-oriented groups, they like perception and judgments of concepts
- Silent followers
Does personality determine how well one fit in a group?
- Yes to a degree
- Five factor model influences the types of groups
- Different groups seeks different type of members
- Close fit between individual personality traits and purpose, more likely to join
Are there traits that push people away from groups?
- Yes there are
Shyness
The tendency to feel uneasy, uncomfortable and awkward in social situations or anticipation of them
- Tend to not join groups as much
- Groups are not fun
- Coping strategies, such as social surrogate or seek other shy people
- Activity focused groups are best
Social anxiety
A feeling of apprehension and embarrassment during interactions or anticipation of social situations
- Wanting to make a good impression
- Passive group members
- Disaffiliation, reducing social contact
- Wish they were alone when they are with others
- Feeling very self-conscious and negative emotions when in groups
Social anxiety disorder / Social phobia
An excessive and unreasonable fear of social interactions, a pattern and hard to relieve
- Avoid social interactions, running away
Attachment style
Ones basic cognitive, emotional and behavioural orientation when in relationship with others
- The base of attachment theory
- From childhood to adult
- Group-level attachments are the same as normal but indicates how the individuals attachment to the others in a group is
Secure - self confident and willing to rely on others
Preoccupied - seek out membership but worry a lot about rejection
Fearful - insecure about themselves that they fear rejection
Dismissing - uninterested to join groups
- The levels of anxiety of relations and avoidance of closeness and dependency, predicts how well one adapt to new living situations
Social motives
Psychological processes that guide peoples choices and goals they seek, to join or not to join groups
Social motives - Need for affiliation
- Desire to be with others
- Pleasant interactions make them happy
- Prefer groups even if focus is more on task than interpersonal relations
- Could fear rejection, seeking approval from others
Social motives - Need for intimacy
- Desire to be with others
- Interpersonrelationship
Social Motives - Need for power
- To maintain and enhance influence over others, to gain control
- Leaderships
- Organize, initiate activities and take on responsibilities in order to persuade other group members
- Groups bigger than 4
Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation
A theory of group formation and development that emphasizes compatibility among the three motives
- Assumes that people join or stay in groups cuz the group meet one or more of these needs
Are there difference between men and women in groups? If so, in what ways?
- Gender predispositions generates differences
- Women intimate relations
- Men more task-oriented and need for power and influence
- Stereotypes and cultural roles can influence
- Sexism can exclude people from joining
How does belief about groups influence one to join?
- Not everyone wanna join
- Negative beliefs of groups can lead to not joining groups or participate less when in one
- Cultural beliefs can influence you
BAG-scale
Measure peoples preferences to participate in groups, expectations on peoples work in groups and predictions of the positive and negative effect groups will have on its performance
Does experiences in groups affect you?
- Yes, good or bad
- Interest to join groups in the future
- Bad grades or viewing your parents
Collaborative circle
Small group of peers who work together for an extended time period, exchanging ides, critique and developing a shared conception of what their methods or goals should be
Social movement
A deliberate, sustained and organized group who seeks change or resists one in a social system
- Common interest or out look on social matters
- Strong emotions and sense of injustice to join
- Contempt and anger to act
Affiliation
The gathering together of individuals, often the same species, in one location
Formalized relationships
Affiliated with a group or organization
- More likely to happen in some situations than others
Whats social comparison?
The process of contrasting ones personal qualities and outcomes, including beliefs, attitudes, values, abilities, accomplishments and experiences, to those of others
- Can give comfort and companionship during difficult times
- Starts with confusing situations, need information - that impact on ones self-satisfactions and motivations
- People compare for alot of reasons; to help others or to boost ones confidence
Misery loves company
- People choose to be with others to gain information and to allay their anxiety
Misery loves miserable company
- People seek out others who is or has faced the same threat as themselves
- Need for clarifying information than sharing the experience
Embarrassed misery avoids company
- Fear of getting embarrassed stronger than to gain information
- Social inhabitation than affiliation
- Some situations can block affiliation without being dangerous, such as certain topics
Downward social comparison
Selecting people who are less well off as target for social comparison, often when self-esteem is on the line
Upward social comparison
Selection people who are superior to oneself or those whose outcomes succeeded oneself
- Negative emotions mostly
Social comparison orientation
The dispositional tendency to compare oneself to others
How does stress affect affiliation?
- Safety in numbers; fight, flight, tending or befriending
- People seek others to get support or to feel better
How does affiliation effect social support?
Mostly positive, but some groups can give negative social support
- Belonging: include and acceptance
- Emotional: care, concern and affection for one another
- Informational: offering advice, guidance or suggestions
- Instrumental: tangible support
- Meaning: existential support, sharing faith or allaying anxiety
Social support group
- A sense of belonging
- Help each other out in different ways
- Provide different perspectives to members in distress
Does affiliation have a correlation with health?
Yes it does
- Safe haven from stress
- Less stress and issues with health
- Protective buffers against negative effects
Why is attraction needed for groups?
- Affiliation set the stage
- Attraction transform people into friends
- 6 different principles of attraction
Proximity principle
The tendency for individuals to form interpersonal relationships with those who are close by
- Mere exposure
- Proximity increases interactions which gives attraction, especially repeated attractions
The elaboration principle
The tendency for groups to expand in size and thus getting more complex
- Starts from two people and expand over time
- Self-organizing process
The similarity principle
The tendency for individuals to seek out or be attracted to someone similar to oneself
- Homogenous groups
- The first one to leave tends to be someone who isnt similar enough to the rest
- Homophily can be created in order to be accepted
The complementarity principle
People are attracted to those who posses characteristics that complement their own
- Difference set of skills
Interchange compatability
- Compatibility between group members based on their similar needs for social motives or expectations
Originator compatability
- People who have needs to express inclusion, control and affection with those who wanna receive it
The reciprocity principle
The tendency for liking to be met with liking in return
- You like me so I like you
- Negative reciprocity exists
The minmax principle / Social exchange theory
- Important factor in predicting group formation
- Receive the maximum amount of rewards at the lowest costs
- Who stays and who leaves
- Cost and rewards come from the group and/or the members
How does economics of membership play out in social exchange theory?
- Determining whether someone join or not, choosing one group over the other
Comparison level - The standard by which individuals evaluate the desirability of group membership
- Previous experiences
- Predicts satisfaction in groups
Comparison level for alternatives - Evaluate the quality of other groups they may join
- Determine whether one join or leaves a group, largely
