Group & Individual Behaviour

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

A collection of persons that are perceived to be bonded together in a coherent unit and share a common identity.

Question 2

Characteristics of groups

Answer 2

• Status
• Roles
• Norms
• Entitativity
• Cohesiveness

Question 3

Why do we join groups?

Answer 3

• Need for affiliation
• Ability to cope with stress and threats
• To achieve goals (individual or collective)
• groups are essential to culture

Question 4

Costs of joining groups

Answer 4

• Trial/probationary periods
• Material or psychological price paid
• Restricted personal freedom and loss of individuality
• Demands on time, energy, resources

Question 5

why do we leave groups

Answer 5

• Organization charges
  ○ People no longer recognize it
  • High cost of membership
    ○ Loss of personal freedom
    ○ Demands on members time, energy and resources
  • Personal growth
  • Perception of group harm

Question 6

Social Facilitation

Answer 6

This refers to how the presence of others as co-actors or audience affects performance. We tend to improve our behavior because we are being observed.

Question 7

Studies of social facilitation

Answer 7

1. Triplett and Allport- better performance
2. Pessin and Mayo- worse performance/changed performance
3. Zajonc’s Drive Theory of Social Facilitation
4. Baron’s Distraction-conflict theory
   5.

Question 8

Social Loafing

Answer 8

Reduced motivation and effort when individuals work in groups.

Occurance:
- Perceived fairness
- Diffusion of individu responsibility as group size increases (Latane, 1981)
- Occurs more in individualistic cultures, men slightly more than women

How to reduce it?
- Enhancing commitment
- Increasing importance of the value of a task
- Recognizing uniqueness of contributions

Question 9

Group Dynamics

Answer 9

• Deinidivuation
• Cooperation
• Conflict
• Fairness

Question 10

Decision Making

Answer 10

Processes involved in combining and integrating available information, in order to choose one out of several possible
courses of action.

Question 11

Problems in group decision making

Groupthink (Janis 1982)

Answer 11

Tendency of the members of a highly cohesive group to assume that their decisions can’t be wrong, that all members must support the groups decisions strongly, and that information contrary to these decisions should be ignored.

Outcomes:
- Poor decision making without critical thinking
- Group members feel censored and stay silent

Question 12

Causes of groupthink

Answer 12

• high levels of cohesiveness
• emergent group norms which suggest the group is infallible, morally superior
• Strong, popular leader, with vision

Question 13

improving decision making

Answer 13

• Devils advocate (one member assigned task of disagreeing with and criticizing the plan)
  
  • Encourage authentic dissent
  • Promote diversity of group members (not just race and gender but also educational background
  • Leader should not state initial view

Question 14

Group Polarization

Answer 14

Tendency of group members to shift towards a more extreme position that they initially held by individuals as a result of group discussion (risky shift). Different from group think.

Eg. There’s someone in your class that you slightly dislike and it turns out everyone else shares this feeling. Upon her absence someone expresses their feelings toward her and because of social comparison someone pitches in and shares their opinion on her. The groups initial view that they slightly disliked her is now further perpetuated by the gossip and so your individual initial view of the girl is strengthened.

Causes
- Social comparison
- Group discussion favors initial preference

Outcome
- Group members speak up more
- Individuals initial views strengthened
- More risky or more cautious choice