Groups Flashcards
Social Facilitation
Initially a term for enhanced performances in the presence of others; now a broader term for the effect-positive or negative-of the presence of others on performance.
Dominant Response
In a hierarchy of responses, the response you are most likely to make.
Evaluation Apprehension
A concern about how we appear in the eyes of others-that is, about being evaluated.
Distraction-Conflict Theory
A theory based on the idea that being aware of another person’s presence creates a conflict between attending to that person and attending to the task at hand and that is this attentional conflict that is arousing and that produces social facilitation effects.
Social Loafing
The tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task in which individual contributions cannot be monitored.
Emergent Properties of Groups
Those behaviors that only surface (“emerge”) when people are in groups.
Deindividuation
The reduced sense of individual identity accompanied by diminished self-regulation that comes over people when they are in a large group.
Individuation
An enhanced sense of individual identity produced by focusing attention on the self, which generally leads people to act carefully and deliberately and in accordance with their sense of propriety and values.
Self-Awareness Theory
A theory that maintains that when people focus their attention inward on themselves, they become concerned with self-evaluation and how their current behavior conforms to their internal standards and values.
Spotlight Effect
People’s conviction that other people are attending to them-to their appearance and behavior-more than is actually the case.
Groupthink
A kind of faulty thinking on the part of highly cohesive groups in which the critical scrutiny that should be devoted to the issue at hand is subverted by social pressures to reach consensus.
Self-Censorship
The tendency to withhold information or opinions in group discussions.
Risky Shift
The tendency for groups to make riskier decisions than individuals would.
Group Polarization
The tendency for group decisions to be more extreme that those made by individuals. Whatever way the individuals are leaning, group discussion tends to make them lean further in that direction.
Social Comparison Theory
A theory that maintains that when there isn’t an objective standard of evaluation or comprehension, people evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing themselves to others.
