Group performance Flashcards
What studies showed social facilitation in the presence of others
Meumann (1904) : showed performance on task improved in presence in another person.
what did Zajonc (1965) find
when others present, dominant response are facilitated (social facilitation)
dominate responses are familiar behaviours
non-dominant (social inhibition) Reponses are less familiar behaviours.
what did green (1989) find
presence of others had a debilitating effect on performance as often as an enhancing effect.
In Zajonc (1965) drive theory, how does he explain why we perform better in dominant responses?
presence of others increase arousal, increases action readiness to response to unexpected events, most likely responses are those which are well-learned.
Evaluate Zajonc (1965) drive theory.
cottrell (1972) : mere presence not enough to automatically cause arousal. its the potential for negative evaluation that causes anxiety arousal.
Markus (1978)
male Ps undress, dress in unfamiliar clothes, put own clothes back on.
3 conditions: alone, incidental person (low evaluation), attentive audience (high evaluation). results support drive theory but not evaluation apprehension.
schmitt et al (1986)
simple or complex computer task. Mere presence facilitated performance on easy task, facilitated inhibition of difficult task.
explain how distraction/ conflict from others can influence performance
Baron (1986) : distractions leads to attentional conflict, in turn induces drive effects.
what are the advantages of using distraction-induced attentional conflict to explain effects on behaviour
- distraction from any source can facilitate performance
- improved performance in animal data where evaluation apprehension is not relevant
- applies to any distraction - not just social
rignlemann effect
1913 : group size increases, productivity of each individual drops
process loss
group processes that prevent a group from reaching its potential producing. Co-ordination losses and motivation loss.
Task taxonomy
Steiner : group task classified according to whether a division of labour is possible, predetermined standard to be met and how an individual inputs can contribute.
additive task
group task that can be completed by adding together all individual members inputs.
Latane williams and harkins (1979)
- Ps shout as loud, blindfolded and white noise
- alone, two people, group of 6
- bigger group volume of noise reduced
- pseudo group loss of motivation
social loafing
motivation loss in large groups mainly due to one own contribution are not identifiable and cannot be evaluated.
