Groups Flashcards
What is group think?
excessive tendency to seek agreement among group members
What illusions are part of groupthink?
illusion of unanimity- think everyone has same opinion
illusion of invulnerability- think group must come to correct decision
How can groupthink be prevented?
- Keep leader’s opinion secret
- encourage objections
- break large group into smaller groups then come back into large group
What is group polarization?
Majority opinion in group gets magnified
What is risky shift?
Originally thought groups make riskier decisions than individuals (replaced with group polarization)
What are the mechanisms behind group polarization?
- Persuasive arguments theory: more arguments for majority opinion
- increases group confidence in position
When will group polarization lead to good or bad decisions?
- how qualified group members are
- are members thinking critically about arguments
What is social facilitation?
Presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but impairs it on difficult ones
What was the reeling experiment? What were the results?
- got kids to reel in line alone or with other kids present
- winner gets prize
- faster if with other participants
What is Zajonc’s generalized drive hypothesis?
social facilitation because:
- yerkes-dodson law (simple/well-learned tasks need high arousal; difficult/new tasks need low arousal)
- mere presence of others increases dominant response
What was the cockroach experiment? What were the results?
- cockroaches ran easy or hard maze
- other cockroaches watching or not
- social facilitation shown in cockroaches
What was the billiards experiment?
- field experiment where they watched people play pool
- crowded around player to see if performance changed
- social facilitation
What is the evaluation apprehension hypothesis in social facilitation?
People evaluating you increases arousal and causes dominant response
What is social loafing?
reduction in individual task output when contributions are pooled
What were the 2 hypothesized mechanisms for loafing?
- coordination loss
- loss of motivation
What was the rope tugging experiment? What were the findings?
- either pulling alone, in real group or group with confederates pretend pulling
- confederate group: adding more confederates increases loafing (motivation loss)
- real group: less pulling than confederate group (coordination loss)
Why do we loaf?
Diffusion of responsibility
What is the role of gender in loafing?
Men loaf more, unless only man in the group
When won’t we loaf?
- friends with group members
- task is important to us
What is social compensation?
Collectivists work harder in groups than alone
What was the butter knife experiment? What were the results?
- in individualist culture
- confederate said they would try (or not)
- confederate not trying: participant comes up with more than if alone
- confederate trying: participant comes up with less than if alone
What are groups vs collectives?
group - direct interactions, shared fate/identity/goals
collective - people engaging in same activity but not interacting
What are roles? What are the two types?
- set of expected behaviours
- instrumental: help group achieve task
- expressive: emotional support/boosting morale
What are norms? What is loyal deviance?
- rules of conduct
- loyal deviance: defy norm because you think norm is bad for group
What is cohesiveness? What is it’s relationship to performance?
- extent that forces push group members together
- more cohesive groups perform better (and visa versa)
What is a tight culture? Is it normally individualist or collectivist?
- do NOT tolerate norm violation
- collectivist
How is cohesiveness achieved in collectivist vs individualist cultures?
individualist - recognize everyones uniqueness
collectivist - social harmony and cooperation
What is distractor conflict theory in social faciliation?
others distract us causing conflict for attention which increases arousal and dominant response
What is collective effort model?
try hard on collective task if you think effort will help to achieve outcomes
What is deindividuation? What are it’s 2 cues?
- los of individuality and reduction in inhibition of deviant behaviour
- accountability cue: cost-reward calculations (more people = less likely to be punished)
- attentional cue: attention taken away from self (don’t think about own values)
What are Zimbardo’s deindividuation elements?
- arousal
- anonymity
- less individual responsibility
What is the social identity model of deindividuation?
shift from personal identity to social identity when in group
What is process gain vs loss?
- gain: group outperforms individual members
- loss: reduction in group performance because of group process obstacles
What is an additive task?
- group product is sum of members contributions
- more people, greater output
- loss: loafing
What is a conjunctive task?
- group product determined by member with poorest performance
- individuals better than group
What is a disjunctive task?
- group product determined by member with best performance
- group better than individual
Are groups or individuals better at brainstorming? Why?
- individuals better
- in groups: forget ideas while waiting to speak, loafing, evaluation apprehension, match performance level to other group members
What is the compare and categorize theory for group polarization?
place self in same category as group and adopt their attitudes
What factors increase groupthink?
- highly cohesive groups (reject dissenters)
- isolated group
- decision making doesn’t have structure
- stressful/urgent situations
What is biased sampling?
group spends more time discussing commonly known info than info only a few people know
What is transactive memory?
multiple people remembering different pieces of information
What is the role of diversity in a group?
- increases creativity
- decreases positive group dynamics
What is collective intelligence?
general ability of a group to perform well across tasks
What is the social dilemma?
if everyone acts according to self-interest, everyone will have terrible outcome
What is a resource dilemma? What are the 2 types?
- how 2+ people will share limited resource
- common dilemma: people take what they want and not enough for everyone
- public good dilemma: everyone contributes resources to common pool
What are the 3 types of social value orientations?
- cooperative - achieve equal outcomes
- individualist - maximize own gain
- competitive - maximize own gain relative to others
What is fixed pie syndrome?
view that if one side wins, other loses (ends in 50/50 negotiation)
What is integrative agreement?
negotiation where all parties have superior outcomes to 50/50 split
