Group Behaviour Flashcards
Group behaviour
Behaviour displayed by people who are acting within, and as, a group.
Group action
Behaviour by group members that is coordinated in order to achieve a common goal.
Co-presence
Performing a task in the presence of other people.
Social facilitation
The process by which the presence of others can facilitate behaviour.
Mere presence
Social facilitation effects need not necessarily be competitive. The simple presence of others is enough to facilitate behaviour.
Co-actors
People performing the same task at the same time but not performing the task collectively.
Social inhibition
The process by which the presence of others can hinder behaviour.
Drive
A negative state of tension associated with an unsatisfied need and motivates efforts to satisfy the need.
Evaluation apprehension
Concern about being evaluated by observers when performing a task.
Ringelmann effect
The observation that as group size increases, individual effort in the task decreases.
Social loafing
The tendency for people’s performance to decrease in a group when they are not individually responsible for their actions.
Free rider effect
The tendency for people to take advantage of a shared resource without having made an appropriate contribution.
Output equity
People like everyone to pull their weight on tasks but generally perceive that others loaf.
Contagion
Le Bon argued that this process leads to ideas being ‘spread’ unpredictably and rapidly through crowds.
Individuation
The process of differentiating between people. This is essentially the opposite of deindividuation.
