Group Processes Flashcards
what is a group?
two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other
why do people join groups?
- accomplish objectives that would be more difficult to meet individually
- innate need to belong
- need to feel distinctive from those who do not belong to the same groups
- define one’s identity
- establish social norms
what are social norms?
explicit or implicit rules defining what is acceptable behavior
what are social roles?
shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave
what are the results of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?
what was the criticism of the study?
- participants’ personal identities and sense of decency got lost
- participants figured out what the study was about and role-played in manner that they thought was expected of them
what is group cohesiveness?
qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between them
how does reason for group formation affect group cohesiveness?
- group formed for social reasons → increased cohesiveness → members likely to stay in group, take part in group activities, and try to recruit new like-minded members
- group formed to solve problems
- if task requires close cooperation → increased cohesiveness → perform well
- if relations of group members more important than finding solution to problem → cohesiveness can affect optimal performance
how does diversity affect a group?
diversity might decrease group’s cohesiveness and morale but predicts improved performance in terms of group creativity, information sharing, and flexible problem solving
what is social facilitation?
when people are in presence of others and individual performance can be evaluated, tendency to perform better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks
why does social facilitation occur?
presence of others increases physiological arousal
why does presence of others cause arousal?
- other people cause us to become particularly alert and vigilant
- other people make us apprehensive about how we’re being evaluated
- other people distract us from the task at hand
what is social loafing?
when people are in presence of others and individual performance cannot be evaluated, tendency to perform worse on simple or unimportant tasks but better on complex or important tasks
how does social loafing work?
being with other people means we can merge into a group, becoming less noticeable than when we are alone, we should become relaxed -> decreased arousal
what is relational interdependence?
tendency to focus on and care about personal relationships with other individuals (women > men in this)
what is deindividuation?
loosening of normal constraints on behaviour when people can’t be identified
what are the effects of deindividuation?
- makes people less accountable
- increases obedience to group norms