Groups - Class Oct28,2015 Flashcards
Define a group.
2 or more individuals who share common goals, have a stable relationship, are somehow interdependent, and perceive that they are in fact a part of a group.
what are the six criteria for being a group?
1) Interact with each other
2) shared goals
3 relatively stable relationship
4) interdependent in some way
5) members must perceive themselves as part of a group (Most Important Factor)
6) structured interactions
What are some reasons that people join groups?
- Help us satisfy important psychological or social needs.
- Help us attain goals that we could not attain by ourselves
- Provide us with information and knowledge that would otherwise not be available
- Help us establish a positive “social identity” that becomes part of our self concept
Define roles within groups
- Assigned versus acquired by talent
- Task oriented (focus on the job), or relations oriented (focus on the people)
- Help clarify responsibilities and obligations of individuals belonging to a group.
* The way we play a certain role is consequence of the culture in which we live
What is role conflict?
when multiple roles conflict with each other, causes stress.
Explain Zimbardo’s Prison experiment.
you got this bitch
What is status within a group?
one’s social standing or rank; the evaluation of a role or person by the group.
How is status attained?
1) Size of individual’s contributions to success of group in achieving goals.
2) Degree of power individual holds over others
3) individual’s personality characteristics
Explain all the different aspects of norms (rules of the game)
- explicit/formal rules: stated clearly
- Implicit/informal rules: implied/inferred rather than said
- established to regulate behaviour of group members
- prescriptive rules (ought to do)
- Proscriptive rules (ought not do)
- Vary in importance, from frown, warning, to exile
- Established in many ways: leader makes it, it worked in the past, something bad happened, decided as a collective.
- Norms of production: 100% work, 100% play, or a mix
What is cohesiveness?
All pressures or forces causing members to remain part of the group
there is interpersonal cohesiveness (people based)
and task based cohesiveness (work based)
What are the factors that affect cohesiveness?
1) Amount of effort needed to gain entry into the group
2) external threats or severe competition
3) Size - Smaller the group, more cohesion (usually)
What is the difference between social facilitation and social interference?
Social Facilitation: Any increments in performance stemming from the presence of others
Social Interference: Any decrements in performance stemming from the presence of others.
Who is Norman Triplett
Watched cyclists, and noticed that in groups, on average, people were faster.
What is the drive theory of social interference?
when other people are there, you become aroused, heart pacing, increased blood flow, perspire, it increases the dominant responses. If you can’t think, then you do what you normally do (if you can do it well)
if you don’t know how to do that task well, others will interfere.
What is the Yerkes Dodson law?
The highest point - best performance - is when you have to be excited and nervous with anticipation and motivation BUT if its not enough/too much, you become apathetic/too aroused.
