Group processes - (week 6) Flashcards
What are some reasons people join groups?
- Lack of choice (e.g. becoming a student at QUT or born into a culture)
- Reach goals (we can achieve big goals in groups)
- Uncertainty reduction (guidelines of how to behave)
- To avoid social ostracism (effects of not being in a group). Social connectedness is extremely important for us.
Define group cohesiveness.
The extent to which groups are close together by forces of: INTIMACY, UNITY, & COMMITMENT to GROUP GOALS. Group goals are better achieved with more specific, challenging goals.
Describe ‘roles’, the theory that underlies this concept, and a related experiment.
Definition: Roles are an expected set of behaviours, which can by formal or informal.
Status - some roles, occupants and groups have more prestige or STATUS than others.
Theory: Social Comparison Theory (Festinger). We compete some roles (like presidency), however hold people in higher regard, if they are successful in that role, or, if they successfully compete with us in a higher regard.
Experiment: Samford Prison Experiment; students adopted extreme roles when simulating prisoners or guards.
What are group norms?
- Group norms are rules of conduct, which can be formal or informal.
- They are descriptive: this is what we should or ought to do.
- They are both explicit and implicit: when we violate hidden norms, we then discover what they are and can learn for next time.
- Norms take time to establish and are resistant to change
- Norms can also influence the individual when separated from their group; it can carry over into their attitudes and behaviours in other settings.
Describe Social Facilitation Theory and the experiments involved?
Social Facilitation Theory posits that we improve performance on easy tasks in the presence of others, however our performance impairs on more difficult tasks. (like performing piano on music nights).
Experiments:
1) Triplets Cycling experiment: cyclists go faster when competing with others
2) Zajonics Drive Theory explanation: our physiological arousal from the presence of others drives our energy, which produces a dominant response, which is a critical component to social facilitation.
However, this means we do BETTER on tasks we’re good at, and WORSE on tasks we’re bad at
Cottrell’s (1972) evaluation apprehension theory states that mere presence is not sufficient to produce arousal, but rather that it is the ability of other people to create apprehension about being evaluated that leads to social facilitation.
Describe the 3 step process of Social Facilitation Theory (Zajonic)
- Presence of others
- Physiological arousal
- Strengthened dominant response
- -> Better on tasks we are good at
- -> Worse on tasks we are bad at (performance impaired, mistakes).
What are two other theories, that oppose the Social Facilitation Theory?
- Cottrell’s Evaluation Apprehension Theory = ATTENTIVE others produces fear evaluation.
- Baron’s Distraction Conflict Theory = DISTRACTION from the task is the key (attentional conflict, doesn’t need to be a person). Baron hypothesised that a person would be more distracted when working with others, than when working alone.
What is Social Loafing? Describe the experiments involved.
- Social loafing = is when in the presence of others, or working in a group, people’s efforts reduce.
Ringelmann Experiment (also known as the Ringelmann Effect): Ringelmann conducted a simple set of rope pulling experiments, and found that people’s efforts reduced the larger the group. He found that eight people didn’t pull as hard as four people.
The Ingham study ruled out the coordination loss explanation, and found there is still motivation loss.
Latane found that motivation loss —> leads to social loafing.
What are the explanation of findings for Social Loafing?
- Output equity = we expect others to loaf too
- No obvious performance standard
- Evaluation apprehension; our performance or behaviours may quickly become based on others evaluations’ of us; for example, women taking a maths test might do worse, because they know others expectations/ stereotypes of women
What are some factors that influence social loafing?
- Greater anonymity will increase social loafing
- Valuedness of task will decrease loafing
- Believing we can achieve our desired outcome (e.g. in a group assignment) will decrease social loafing
- Intergroup comparison wil lasso decrease social loafing
- Our anticipated loafing of others, might actually decrease our individual loafing (wanting to compensate for others to do well)
FREE RIDER: someone who benefits without contributing at all or with afair share
What is the definition of de-indiviuation? Describe the theories involved.
De-individuation is when the presence of others or GROUP PROCESSES, cause individuals to act in ways they normally wouldn’t. This is when in a group (due to group processes and influence) a person might lose their sense of personal identity and individuality, and the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behaviour. Thus, we might be more rebellious and less inclined to stop ourselves - we adopt a different mindset due to GROUP NORMS.
Studies:
1) Lebon’s theory of Crowd Behaviour
2) Child Halloween Study - children were asked about where they lived, their name etc.; they were then offered to take a lolly. Children who spoke about themselves, only took one lolly, whereas the other children took a handful.
3) Social identity theory perspective = we don’t lose our individual indemnity in a crowd. However, we shift from our PRESONAL to SHARED identity as a crowd member.
What is a component of group decision making?
Brainstorming = can increase production of creative ideas.
However, can be negatively effected by social loafing, evaluation apprehension, production blocking (when we are taking it in turns in groups to speak our ideas).
These can be overcome by using technology; i.e. having a shared document that all can contribute to.
What is Groupthink? And describe the strategies that can be used to prevent group think?
Group thinks when group members make decisions based on getting along, and seeking concurrence, rather than actually making a good decision. It’s kind of like having blurry goggles on in a group.
The strategies we can use to prevent group think are:
- encouragement of criticism
- using sub groups
- follow up meetings to review major decisions
What is Group Polarisation?
Group polarisation is when we exaggerate initial ideas in the presence of group think.
This results in decisions becoming more extreme, and can often be a risky decision (i.e. court hearings).
Explanations: social comparisons, persuasive arguments.
Define Social Dilemas..
Social Dilemas is when self-interested choices by everyone, end up resulting in the worst outcome, for everyone.
