Group Decisions Flashcards
Conformity refers to when people change their behavior in response to _________ from others.
Influence
Sometimes people conform
based on the influence of someone they believe to be better at interpreting a given situation and thus capable of behaving in the correct way. This is known as _______________
influence.
informational social
When people believe that the behavior they are conforming to is genuinely the right behavior they come to _______ acceptance.
Private
Explanation:
The conformed behavior a person performs as a consequence of informational social influence is accepted by the person as the correct behavior for the situation.
When people do not necessarily _______ that the behavior they are conforming to is correct, they come to public compliance.
Believe
Explanation:
They privately believe something else, but publicly conform to avoid embarrassment or scrutiny.
When a person experiences a sudden shift in the meaning of their lives after finding out new information through a new source, they experience a __________.
Conversion
Explanation:
Conversions normally occur when a person feels dissatisfied or confused with some aspect in their life. Upon meeting a new person or group of people, they experience a conversion in which new information from this new source suddenly shifts their beliefs on that aspect of their life.
When emotions or behaviors travel Rapidly
through a crowd, it is referred to as ________.
contagion
Explanation:
This spread sometimes appears to be out of control. Problems can occur when no one in the crowd is very sure how to react to a certain situation, which can lead to the rapid spread of behaviors not suitable to a given situation.
Mass psychogenic illness refers to the occasion when a large group of people experience similar ________ symptoms, with no known physical cause.
physical
Mass __________ illness is one form of contagion in which a behavior or attitude spreads quickly amongst a group of people. In this case, a few people present similar, real physical symptoms and a reasonable explanation is given for their occurrence. However, other people then believe they too have the symptoms and the number of people affected increases.
psychogenic
When a situation is ambiguous, people are more likely to _______ as they are unsure how to behave.
Conform
During a ______, people tend to be uncertain how to behave as they may feel frightened, panicky, or simply may not have enough time to think through a course of action. Therefore, they tend to conform to another person’s behavior.
Crisis
Explanation:
However, this can be harmful if the person whose behavior is influencing others is not rational due to their own feelings of panic and confusion during the crisis.
Social _____ refer to group rules which determine acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members. Negative consequences can arise for members that do not conform to a group’s norms.
Norms
Asch’s line studies found that even when faced with an ___________ situation, people tended to conform with other people in a group.
Unambiguous
Explanation:
This study involved one real participant and a number of pretend participants. Each participant was asked to answer a simple question in which the correct answer was unambiguous. The study showed that even when the answer was obvious, if all the other members of a group– the pretend participants– said the wrong answer, the real participant tended to conform and also say the wrong answer.
Sometimes people conform in order to be accepted by others and to avoid too much attention, rejection, or trouble. This is known as _________ social influence.
Normative
Explanation:
People are expected to publicly comply with a group’s norms, but may not privately accept the group’s norms.
The social ______ theory states that the strength, immediacy, and the number of people in a group determines whether conformation to social influence occurs.
Impact
The impact a group has on a person depends on strength, which refers to how _________ the group of people is to the person.
Important
The effect that the number of people in a group has on conformity _________ as the group becomes larger.
Decreases
Asch’s study on group effects on conformity tested whether the ________ of another person who agreed with a participant affected the extent to which the participant conformed to the group. When a person has an ally in a group, they are less likely to conform with the group.
presence
_______ affects the extent to which groups of people conform. People in some countries conform to a greater extent than people in other countries and this is said to be due to differences in their social
upbringing
Culture
A person who conforms to a group many times over time earns _________ credits. These credits allow them to deviate from the group without suffering negative consequences.
idiosyncrasy
Explanation:
When a person shows enough loyalty to a group over time, a situation develops in which, if the person decides to go against the group, they do not receive retribution from the group for deviating from the norms.
Occasionally within a group, a small number of people will influence the actions of the group at large. This is known as _______ influence.
minority
When a person behaves a certain way at the request
of another person, they are undertaking ________.
compliance
Sometimes people automatically conform to a social norm without considering why they do it. This is referred to as ________ conformity.
Mindless
Explanation:
People tend to react to many norms in society automatically, such as greeting people by shaking hands, or wearing matching socks.
The ___________ technique is used when trying to get people to comply with a request. This technique involves asking someone to comply with a big request which they are unlikely to agree to, and, after they refuse, offering a smaller
request in the hope that they comply.
door-in-the-face
Explanation:
This technique is often used when people are asking for donations. By asking someone to make a large donation, the smaller offer seems more reasonable, and thus the person is more likely to comply.
The social norm that people who receive something positive from another person feel obliged to return the behavior is known as a ___________ norm.
Reciprocity
Explanation:
This social norm states that people feel that they need to be nice to people who have been nice to them. This may involve behaving in a similar way towards a person, such as giving someone a gift if that person gave them a gift.
_________ refers to when a person conforms to the requests of an authority figure even if they are opposed to the request.
Obedience
When people are __________ to one norm, it is difficult to switch to another norm.
Conforming
Explanation:
People generally find it hard to switch from one norm to the other, even if the other norm is more acceptable or suited to the occasion.
When people are in the same place at the same time, but are not ___________, they have formed a non-social group. An example is spectators at a sporting event.
Interacting
When people interact with each other and ____ on each other to reach common needs and goals, they have formed a social group.
Rely
Social facilitation refers to the effect that other people have on a person’s ___________. During simple tasks, the effect usually enhances performance, while during complex tasks, the effect usually impairs performance.
Performance
In the presence of other people, a person may feel motivated to complete a task faster, or better, or they may feel nervous and complete the task slowly, or with errors. These are both examples of social ____________.
facilitation
The presence of another person, can affect one’s performance at the task at hand. _______ plays a role in social facilitation through altering a person’s vigilance, apprehensiveness, and concentration.
Arousal
When people are in a group, they tend to relax as they do not feel that their individual performance is being evaluated. This is known as social _______.
Loafing
When people are in a group, they tend to feel less like they are being evaluated. This often relaxes the person and increases their performance on _______ tasks.
Complex
Explanation:
A group situation tends to improve performance on complex tasks, but impairs performance on simple tasks.
Men tend to relax more and underperform while in a group situation, while women tend to put more ______ into group tasks.
Effort
Explanation:
Women generally care more about the welfare of their group, and thus tend to put in more effort. Men generally focus on their own performance rather than the group’s performance, and thus tend to relax more in group situations.
Sometimes being in a group can lead to deindividuation, in which people perform impulsive and deviant acts due to a decrease in behavior ___________.
Constraints
_____________ can make people feel anonymous, giving them a sense of freedom from behavior constraints.
Deindividuation
Groups tend to have members with similar _______________. This is known as group homogeneity.
Characteristics
__________ can occur either because groups tend to encourage people within the group to act in the same way, or because a group tends to attract a person who has similar characteristics to those already in the group.
Homogeneity
The way in which people act in a group is sometimes defined by specific _____. These are acted out using an expected set of behaviors.
Roles
Explanation:
Roles specify the way in which people should interact with other people in the group. For example, the roles of an employee and a boss require each person to act in a different way—- in the way that is expected of their respective roles.
In Zimbardo’s prison experiment, the students playing the role of guards became more __________, and the students playing the role of prisoners became more passive.
Aggressive
Explanation:
___________ experiment showed how effective roles were in influencing a person’s behavior towards others in a group. Students took on assigned roles with such conviction that they began to change their behaviors, acting in ways that they never would have believed themselves capable of.
Zimbardo’s
The theory that a good leader is determined by specific key personality traits is known as the ___________ theory.
great person
Fred Fiedler’s ___________ theory of leadership states that there are two types of leaders, and the effectiveness of a leader depends on what type of leader they are, and how much control and influence they have over the group.
Contingency
When a leader is focused on completing a specific job, they are a ____-oriented leader.
task
Explanation:
Rather than focus on the feelings of their groups and the relationships between members of the group, a task- oriented leader is more concerned with completing the task.
When a leader is focused on the feelings of the group and Interactions between group members, they are a ______________ leader.
relationship-oriented
When a task can be broken down into several smaller tasks that can be completed by ___________, it is called a divisible task.
Individuals
When a task is unable to be broken down into smaller tasks to be completed individually, and thus a group is required to work together to complete it, it is called a _______ task.
Unitary
An ________ task is one in which all individuals are working on the one task and the end result is a combination of their efforts. These tasks can be affected by social loafing.
Additive
When the outcome of a group task depends on the talents of the least capable member of the group, the task is ___________. In these tasks, a group can only do as well as the least proficient member in the group.
Conjunctive
When the outcome of a group depends on the performance of the most talented member of the group, the task is ___________.
Disjunctive
Explanation:
For example, if a group is trying to solve a hard math problem and one member is good at math, the performance of the group is lifted due to the one individual.
Process loss can occur when some aspect of a group interaction prevents good _______________.
Problem solving
Explanation:
This may be caused by the group failing to determine which member is the most competent at the task, or because a member finds it difficult to express their opinion if it goes against the group’s norms.
Sometimes groups do not perform better at a task than individuals because they fail to share ______ information.
Unique
When a group’s thinking revolves around trying to maintain group solidarity and cohesiveness rather than focusing on the facts in a realistic manner, it is referred to as __________.
Groupthink
The Choice Dilemma Questionnaire is a test used to determine whether people in a group or individuals make _______ decisions.
Riskier
Explanation:
This questionnaire involves a series of stories based on a dilemma for a main character in which they have a choice to undertake a risky action. Individuals and groups are asked how much probability of success they would require before recommending the risky action for the character. Groups were found to be more inclined to recommend risk when success was low whereas individuals required a higher success rate.
Groups sometimes end up making decisions which are more extreme than the decisions which its individual members would have made. This is known as group __________.
polarization
Explanation:
For example, an individual may decide that a person should be fined $500 for a certain crime. The group would be likely to make a similar decision and fine the person, but the amount would be likely to be greater. This is known as group polarization.
The _____________ theory suggests that while some cultures lean toward risk, others lean toward caution when making decisions.
Culture-value
Explanation:
Americans are generally shown to lean towards risk rather than caution.
When a person experiences tension because of a desire to achieve two incompatible goals, they experience _____________ conflict.
Intrapersonal
When two or more individuals or groups differ in their goals and experience tension as a result, they experience _____________ conflict.
Interpersonal
Interpersonal conflict involves conflict between people, while ___________ conflict involves conflict within a person.
intrapersonal
When people experience conflict in which one person or group gains what the other loses, this is known as ________ conflict.
Zero-sum
Zero- sum conflict is a type of _____________ conflict. It occurs when one person’s or group’s gain is the other person’s or group’s loss. An example is when two people are playing poker. Every loss by one person is a gain by the other person.
interpersonal
____________ conflict is a type of interpersonal conflict. It occurs when both people or groups can gain by cooperating. However, one person or group gains more by competing. The person or group that can gain more has two options. They can cooperate for the good of both people or they can compete to maximize personal gain.
Mixed-motive
The ___________ strategy can be used to inform an opponent that a person is willing to cooperate, but not willing to be exploited.
Tit-for-tat
Explanation:
It involves first acting cooperatively. The next response then matches the opponent’s actions. That is, if the opponent acted cooperatively, the next response is also cooperative. However, if the opponent acted competitively, the next response is also competitive.
________ sides in a conflict make a negotiation after making offers and counteroffers until they both agree on the same outcome.
Opposing
When two parties have differing interests, they undertake a form of communication in which each side concedes on an issue that is relatively unimportant to them but important to the opposing party. These trade-offs lead to an ___________ solution.
Integrative
An integrative solution is one type of solution to a conflict. It involves each party _________ on issues that are unimportant to them, but important to the other party.
conceding
Individuals tend to act more cooperatively than groups do. This was evident in the ________’s Dilemma study in which cooperativeness of individuals was compared with that of groups.
Prisoner
Explanation:
This is thought to be because a person will generally trust another individual to be trustworthy and expect him to be cooperative, but will expect that a group will be competitive rather than cooperative.
