group processes

Question 1

what is a group?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

what are the different types of groups?

Answer 2

strong interpersonal relationships
weak social relationships
formed to fulfil tasks
groups based on large social categories
transitory groups

Question 3

who proposed the different types of groups?

Answer 3

Lickel et al

Question 4

what happened in Tajfel et al’s research into minimal groups?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

who researched social facilitation in early days?

Answer 5

Triplett

Question 6

what did Triplett find out about social faciliation?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

how did Triplett test his hypothesis?

Answer 7

used fishing line apparatus

found that children performed better when racing against each other than when alone

Question 8

what is social facilitation?

Answer 8

improvement in an individual’s performance that occurs when others are present

Question 9

what is mere presence?

Answer 9

entirely passive and unresponsive audience that is only physically present

Question 10

what is social inhibition?

Answer 10

presence of others can impair performance for both humans and animals

Question 11

what are examples of social inhibition?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

what is Zajonc’s Drive Theory?

Answer 12

mere presence of others creates an increase in arousal and energises ‘dominant’ response

Question 13

what is the dominant response?

Answer 13

what is typically done in that situation- well learnt/habitual response

Question 14

how does the dominant response lead to faciliation/inhibition?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

who proposed Evaluation Apprehension Theory?

Answer 15

Cottrell

Question 16

what is Evaluation Apprehension Theory?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

how did Cottrell et al support the Evaluation Apprehension Theory?

Answer 17

experiment with 3 audience conditions
-blindfolded
-merely present
-attentive audience

-tasks were well learned

-social facilitation was found when the audience was attentive

Question 18

how did Markus’ research contradict social facilitation?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

what is distraction conflict theory?

Answer 19

people become distracted focusing on other’s evaluating them and perform worse

Question 20

what did Sander’s find out about distraction conflict theory?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

what is the Ringelmann Effect?

Answer 21

the tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases

Question 22

what is social loafing?

Answer 22

someone puts in less effort when they’re judged as a group

Question 23

what is an example of social loafing?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

what did Latane find out about social loafing?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

why did Geen suggest people loaf?

Answer 25

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

Question 26

how can we reduce social loafing?

Answer 26

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

Question 27

who proposed the Collective Effort Model?

Answer 27

Karau and Williams

Question 28

what is the collective effort model?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

what is group polarisation?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

when is group problem solving useful?

Answer 30

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

Question 31

when is group problem solving not useful?

Answer 31

if only simple group decisions occur, with no break out from individuals

Question 32

what is group think?

Answer 32

where objections to poor group decisions are suppressed to maintain group harmony

Question 33

what does Janis suggest the conditions for groupthink are?

Answer 33

stressful situation, without a clear correct solution

cohesive group of like minded people, cut off from external influences

strong, vocal leader

Question 34

what are the consequences of group think?

Answer 34

more likely that
-the group doesn’t carry out adequate research
-risks are not accurately assessed
-alternative options are not considered