Groups Flashcards
Four core concerns
1 The impact of one individual on another’s behaviour & beliefs
2 The impact of a group on a member’s behaviour and beliefs
3 The impact of a member on a group’s activities and structure
4 The impact of one group on another’s group’s activities and structure
Primary Groups:
Smaller wither strong emotional Ties—family
Secondary Groups:
Formal and Impersonal
What is Group Cohesion
A groups cohesion is the extent to which its members desire to remain in it, and resist leaving.
True of false Highly cohesive groups maintain a firm hold over its members, time, energy loyalty and commitment- Marked by positive ties of “We Feeling”
True
True or False Cohesion increases productivity and preforms and always equal success
False
Cohesion increases productivity and preforms but does not always equal success
What is Social Cohesion:
- Enjoy having our beliefs validated
- They stay because they like the members, they like the interaction
Task Cohesion
- Stay in group because they are interested and involved in the task that the group does
whether the members find the tasks valuable, interesting, and challenging
Homophily refers to
The tendency for individuals to associate with similar others
Goal Isomorphism refers to
A state in which group goals and individual goals are compatible in the sense that actions leading to group goals also lead to the attainment of individual
What happened in The Ringelmann Rope-Pulling Task (1913) ask the members increased?
As numbers of member’s increase, the average contribution of each member decreases (pulled less)
- Motivation loss that occurs when an individual’s contribution becomes less clear to the group
- More people results in social loafing
Attributes of Groups
Membership
Social interaction among members
Goals shared by members
Shared norms
Explanations for Social Loafing
Diffusion of responsibility
Dispensability
“Sucker effect”
Explain Diffusion of responsibility
As groups become larger, deindividuation (Loss of self-awareness in a groups)
- We are less likely to monitor what we are doing in the group
Explain Dispensability
Contribution perceived as smaller, and more redundant
“If I stop pulling it, it’ll be fine”
Explain the “Sucker effect”
If people perceive that they are doing more than their fair share of the group’s work, they may reduce effort, to wait and see the effort of other members
Social Loafing refers to
the concept that people are prone to do less if they are in a group versus when they work alone.
Social Facilitation
the tendency for improved performance in the presence of others
The presence of others produces a state of arousal that improves focus on simple behaviours or behaviours that we know well (dominant responses)
For complex or unfamiliar behaviours, performance may decrease in the presence of others
Conformity
Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group
Define a normative influence
when Individuals conform to the group in an attempt for social approval
Define informational influence
when Individuals conform to the group due to an ambiguous situation
Sherif (1936) Autokinetic Effect study
- Autokinetic effect: visual perception phenomenon
- a stationary, small point of light in a dark environment appears to move due to involuntary eye movement.
Conclusion: tendency to conform is higher when task is uncertain—they were not lying in order to fit in… because they estimate is fixed when they go back into isolation, they are using each other as a frame of reference
Informational influence of conformity
Asch (1955) Line Study
-The task is to judge which of the three comparison lines is closest in length to the standard line
- 25% of participants showed no conformity, while 75% conformed at some point
- Public compliance without private acceptance,
-Showed majority opinion even when obviously incorrect strongly influences the judgements of the naïve participants
Normative influences of conformity
Factors Shaping Conformity
- Group size—the bigger the group the more likely to conform.
- Strength of group norms—in more cohesive groups conformity is higher
- Group unanimity
- Individual motivation,
- Attractiveness to group— how much we like the group/ we want the group to like us
Task uncertainty + individual skill
Floyd Allport 1924- Odor study
Original Lab study of conformity
Ratings where more extreme when alone, and less extreme in front of others
Conclusion: people adjust their response in the presence of others
Obedience to Authority VS Conformity
Obedience to authority is behaving by instruction- the source is the authority
Conformity is more broad, and shaped by society norms and roles. The source is the group
The presence of others produces
a state of arousal that improves focus on simple behaviours – dominant responses
Explain Social Loafing
Group is decreasing your performance
- Motivation loss that occurs when an individual’s contribution becomes
less clear to the group
- Harder to identify your contribution as compared to others
How to avoid Social Loafing
Visibility of task: hard for sucker effect to occur
Create a shared goal and connecting it to individual goal
Make the group less visible and make the person think they are in a
smaller group
Embarrassment or visible penalties for not engaging
Track and report tasks -> make them measurable
Have a level of transparency but can also create conflict
Have a balance between transparency and motivation
Have an understanding of your individual role
Evidence to support Social facilitation
Triplett’s (1898) - increased speed in bringing reel with other’s around them
Allport experiment (1920) - Word association tasks improved in presence of others performing same task
Michaels study of pool players ( 1882) - Observer stand close to the pool player
Good players improve by about 10%
Less skilled players decreased about 10%
Resenbloom( 2007) observation of learner drivers
People sitting with people giving their driving test
Decreased the likelihood of them passing the test
Gardner and Knowles study of college students and handwriting tests
Got students to write easy tasks
Then got them to write with their non-dominant hand
Projected picture of favourite TV star
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Greater task completion for easy task in the presence of TV star image
Performance with non-dominant hand decreased
Real Life Conformity examples
Jury Deliberations
- Tanford and Panrod
- Watched 3 trials
- By the 3rd video, they came to a conclusion much faster than the 1st
- People were going with the majority much faster
9/11 Twin Tower Office Victims
- Some people didn’t leaǀe
- due to looking around and seeing other people stay
Groupthink
- Overwhelmed by pressures for unanimity within the group, members fail to
realistically evaluate alternative course of action, and make poor decisions
Groups represent a fundamental concept of social behaviour and They shape individual behaviour in what ways?
- Social loafing
- Social facilitation
- Conformity to group pressures
The extent that groups shape behaviour depends on a number of group-level and individual-level
factors which are:
Group size Strength of group norms Group unanimity Individual motivation Attractiveness to group Task certainty + individual skill
Sherif and Asch studies demonstrated that with the mere presence and behaviour of
others leads to…
Conformity being even more common for individuals in established groups
with strong in-group identification and norms
The bigger the group, to a certain point, the more likely the group will conform
