Group formation

Question 1

How does personality affect the type of people who join groups?

Answer 1

The five factor model (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness).

Extraverts are more likely to join groups and usually will join a larger number.
Groups are also more likely to seek out extraverts.

Question 2

What kinds of groups are people with different personality types attracted to?

Answer 2

Agreeable people tend to avoid groups with a lot of competition and conflict.

Extraverts like teams.

Openness predicts joining more unorthodox groups.

Question 3

What is shyness? What is it not?

Answer 3

Shyness is anxiety when meeting new people. It is not introversion.

Question 4

In extreme cases of shyness, what can happen?

Answer 4

In extreme cases, this can escalate to become social anxiety.

Question 5

How do socially anxious people approach group membership?

Answer 5

Not only do socially anxious people avoid groups, but they also behave very passively if they do join groups.

Question 6

Do socially anxious people spend more time alone? How do we know?

Answer 6

Experience sampling studies have shown that socially anxious people do not spend more time alone than others, but they do spend more time wishing they were alone.

Question 7

For about __% of individuals, social anxiety reaches the level of a psychological disorder, and can be considered a phobia. When do they suffer particularly badly?

Answer 7

5%

Socially anxious people suffer particularly badly when speaking in front of others.

Question 8

Smith et al postulate that there are also adult group-level attachment styles, based on levels of anxiety and avoidance.
These are the four types:

Answer 8

Secure: low avoidance, low anxiety

Preoccupied: low avoidance, high anxiety (worried about being rejected) – join groups but with anxiety (so they suck up which sometimes causes rejection)

Fearful: high avoidance, high anxiety (often avoid groups because of intense fear of rejection)

Dismissing: high avoidance, low anxiety (not worried about rejection, but not motivated to join groups)

Question 9

What are the three elements of social motivation that affect group membership?

Answer 9

affiliation – People with high need for affiliation are drawn to groups but may also fear rejection.

intimacy - People with high need for intimacy are also drawn to groups, but mostly for the sake of close relationships.

power – People with high need for power are interested in joining groups for the sake of leadership.

Question 10

What is a scheme that is related to social motivation?

Answer 10

A related scheme is called FIRO (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation)

Question 11

What are the three dimensions of FIRO?

Answer 11

inclusion, control, and affection

Question 12

What sex differences are there in group membership?

Answer 12

Differences in tendency to join groups are small.

Women tend to be higher in relationality, men higher in agency.
Therefore, women are more likely to join groups that are small and emotionally supportive whereas men are more likely to join large, task-oriented groups.

Question 13

What attitudes, experiences and expectations can affect group membership?

Answer 13

Some people have less positive beliefs about groups than others.
This (obviously) correlates with desire to join groups.

People have different experiences in groups (including different marks in group work at university) and this can influence subsequent attitudes.
Sports team experience predicts willingness to work in groups later in life.

Some people join groups for the sake of collective action, often achieving some sort of social change.

Question 14

What was the Schacter study about affiliation? What did he attribute the results to?

Answer 14

Social comparison as a factor in affiliation

Misery loves company: Schacter (1959) found that people (women actually) are more likely to want to wait with others if they are expecting an experiment with powerful shocks than an experiment with mild shocks.
In a subsequent experiment, he found that misery loves miserable company; only if the others in the waiting room were also waiting for the same experiment did they find this a desirable option. (He interpreted this as being motivated by social comparison, but later cross-cultural work suggests common fate with others is a stress buffer).

Is not actually misery but fear that they wanted to share and compare

Question 15

What can reverse the effect of social comparison providing a stress buffer?

Answer 15

Fear of embarrassment can reverse this effect.

Fear of embarrassment (e.g., you are going to be in a study in which you have to talk about your sexual experiences - suddenly you don’t want to wait with anyone)

Question 16

What can increase motives for affiliation?

Therefore, belonging to groups can be what?

Answer 16

stress

a stress buffer - negative effects of stress (e.g., illnesses) will be smaller if you are part of a well-functioning group

Question 17

Why can stress increase motives for affiliation?

Answer 17

Imminent threat can trigger a fight or flight response, both of which groups can facilitate.

Long-term threat is more likely to trigger a tend and befriend response, in which relationships within the group are extended and cultivated in anticipation of more acute problems.

Question 18

Groups are a source of social support. What are 5 types of support they provide?

Answer 18

Belonging - itself reduces depression

Emotional support

Informational support - e.g., a group member connects you with a job opening

Instrumental support - e.g., providing meals, rides, shopping, everyday tasks

Meaning - a group gives you a reason for being and doing

Question 19

What are the two types of social comparison? Explain each.

Answer 19

Downward social comparison
This means comparing oneself with people who are not as well off as they are.
This is often used to bolster self-esteem.

Upward social comparison
This can provoke envy or resentment but can also be used as reassurance that accomplishment and success are possible.
Upward can include looking at someone who has survived or coped with something difficult and is inspiring to you. “It could be worse (downward) but if she can do it, so can I (upward)”

Question 20

What is Tesser’s self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM)?

Answer 20

argues that people are more likely to celebrate the accomplishments of others when those are in domains that are not central to their own self-esteem

Question 21

In general, social comparison can often have what effects on groups?

Answer 21

social comparison can often be a destabilizing force for groups

Question 22

What are the 7 factors of attraction?

Answer 22

proximity
elaboration
similarity
complementarity
reciprocity
the minimax principle
comparison level

Question 23

How does proximity affect attraction? What is another word for it?

Answer 23

Proximity (sometimes called propinquity) is a powerful determinant of who becomes friends.
This is presumably because it provides more opportunities for interaction.
Unless these interactions are negative, some sort of interpersonal attraction is likely to arise because of familiarity effects.
Ever heard of the mere exposure effect?

Question 24

How does elaboration affect attraction?

Answer 24

Groups often grow over time as friends of the original members begin to join.

Question 25

How does similarity affect attraction?

Answer 25

People tend to be attracted to others who are similar to them.
This can be based on attitudes and beliefs, but also basic demographic variables.

Question 26

How does compementarity affect attraction?

Answer 26

Some people enjoy being with others who complement them in some ways rather than being similar to them.
For example, dominant people often wind up hanging out with submissive people.

• personalities or skills that fit well together regardless of whether they are similar

Question 27

How does reciprocity affect attraction?

Answer 27

Liking tends to be mutual.

Question 28

What is the minimax principle? How does it affect attraction?

Answer 28

People tend to seek out groups that maximize rewards and minimize costs.
These rewards are often social.
Groups filled with pleasant, reliable, honest people are more attractive than those filled with the other sort.

Question 29

How does comparison level affect attraction?

Answer 29

People’s judgment of whether the balance of costs and benefits is favourable is normally judged next to a comparison level, which is based on past experiences.
People will tend to be satisfied with a group membership if the balance of costs and benefits falls above the comparison level.
However, this does not guarantee that the person will join such a group. One must also pay attention to the comparison level for alternatives. Only if no other group is as good is joining highly likely.

Question 30

What is the analysis of comparison level (re attraction) in the spirit of?

What is a counter to this argument?

Answer 30

spirit of economics

Initiations are counter to this argument - there is sometimes a great cost that people are willing to endure in order to belong to the group
-the greater the cost of the initiation, the greater the loyalty to the group (if you had to suffer to get in, you have a sunken cost, it’ll have been for nothing)