group processes Flashcards
what is a group?
2 or more individuals in face to face interaction, each aware of their membership in the group, who else belongs to the group, and their positive interdependence as they strive to achieve mutual groups
what are the different types of groups?
strong interpersonal relationships
weak social relationships
formed to fulfil tasks
groups based on large social categories
transitory groups
who proposed the different types of groups?
Lickel et al
what happened in Tajfel et al’s research into minimal groups?
randomly split people into two groups
people allocated more money to their ‘own group’
effect couldn’t be explained by self interest (as they didn’t get a share) or existing friendships (as allocation was random)
demonstrates how easily in group favouritism can develop
who researched social facilitation in early days?
Triplett
what did Triplett find out about social faciliation?
observed track cyclists and found performances were faster when timed alone, and when timed/racing alongside other cyclists
hypothesised that audience presence, particularly in competition, ‘energised’ performance on motor tasks
how did Triplett test his hypothesis?
used fishing line apparatus
found that children performed better when racing against each other than when alone
what is social facilitation?
improvement in an individual’s performance that occurs when others are present
what is mere presence?
entirely passive and unresponsive audience that is only physically present
what is social inhibition?
presence of others can impair performance for both humans and animals
what are examples of social inhibition?
complex task, such as typing name backwards, is done more slowly in the presence of other people than alone
men take longer to urinate when someone is standing immediately beside them at a urinal than alone
what is Zajonc’s Drive Theory?
mere presence of others creates an increase in arousal and energises ‘dominant’ response
what is the dominant response?
what is typically done in that situation- well learnt/habitual response
how does the dominant response lead to faciliation/inhibition?
when people are anxious, they tend to do better on easy tasks which they are already good at, and worse on difficult tasks which they usually struggle with
if the dominant response is correct (easy)- performance is facilitated
if the dominant response is incorrect (difficult)- performance is inhibited
who proposed Evaluation Apprehension Theory?
Cottrell
what is Evaluation Apprehension Theory?
learn about social reward/punishment based on others’ evaluation
perception of an evaluating audience creates arousal, not mere presence
social faciliation is an acquired effect based on perceived evaluations of others
how did Cottrell et al support the Evaluation Apprehension Theory?
experiment with 3 audience conditions
-blindfolded
-merely present
-attentive audience
-tasks were well learned
-social facilitation was found when the audience was attentive
how did Markus’ research contradict social facilitation?
time taken to dress in familiar vs unfamiliar clothes, as a function of social presence
3 conditions= alone, presence of an inattentive audience, presence of an attentive audience
attentive audience sped up performance in easy task
little difference between attentive and inattentive in the difficult task
what is distraction conflict theory?
people become distracted focusing on other’s evaluating them and perform worse
what did Sander’s find out about distraction conflict theory?
participants had to complete an easy or difficult task either
-alone
-someone doing the same task
-someone doing a different task
people performed worse when someone did the same thing as them
what is the Ringelmann Effect?
the tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases
what is social loafing?
someone puts in less effort when they’re judged as a group
what is an example of social loafing?
Ringelmann found that men pulling on a rope attached to a dynamometer exerted less force than the number of people in the group
reasons for the effect= coordination loss and motivation loss
what did Latane find out about social loafing?
clapping, shouting and cheering tasks
recorded amount of cheering/clapping noise made per person reduced by
-29% in 2 person groups
-49% in 4 person groups
-60% in 6 person groups
why did Geen suggest people loaf?
output equity- when people learn others aren’t pulling their weight, they can lose motivation as well and put less effort in
evaluation apprehension-individuals are judged when they perform alone- in groups people aren’t accountable
how can we reduce social loafing?
identifiability- when people’s individual contributions to a task can be identified
individual responsibility- when people know they can make a unique contribution to a task
who proposed the Collective Effort Model?
Karau and Williams
what is the collective effort model?
people will put effort into a group task when:
-they believe their input will have an impact
-completing the task is likely to bring them something they value
what is group polarisation?
people often discuss topics with those who are similarly minded
Moscovici and Zavalloni found group discussions enhanced French students already positive attitudes towards their president, and enhanced their already negative attitudes towards Americans
as people come together to share opinions, may lead to actions that wouldn’t have occured on their own
when is group problem solving useful?
when groups get together and critique each other’s ideas
when groups are smaller rather than larger
when the experimenter is not present to monitor the process
when is group problem solving not useful?
if only simple group decisions occur, with no break out from individuals
what is group think?
where objections to poor group decisions are suppressed to maintain group harmony
what does Janis suggest the conditions for groupthink are?
stressful situation, without a clear correct solution
cohesive group of like minded people, cut off from external influences
strong, vocal leader
what are the consequences of group think?
more likely that
-the group doesn’t carry out adequate research
-risks are not accurately assessed
-alternative options are not considered
