groups team work lecture 3 Flashcards
Social influence
when a person’s attitudes and behaviours are influence by the group (whether physically present or not)
- can impact performance
social compensation
the effect of the presence of others increasing individual performance
- may be due to peer pressure/want to help others to impress
social loafing
the effect of the presence of others decreasing individual performance
- free rider (gets the results of group work but does little of it)
the ringelmann effect
Max Ringelmann conducted an experiment in the 1920s using a ‘tug of war’ contest.
He measured how hard people pulled the rope when pulling alone or in groups of 3 and 8.
Results: People in groups of 3 achieved 2.5 times the individual rate. People in groups of 8 pulled at less than a quarter of the average individual rate.
The ‘Ringelmann effect’ – where people exert less effort when they are working with others – was renamed ‘social loafing’ in the 1970s by Latane et al. (1979).
Asch experiment (line)
Participants conformed to the group 37% of the time
76% conformed at least once
6 people giving wrong answers
3 types of distortion from group conformity
Perception distortion: These participants were convinced that the incorrect answer was correct. They actually modified their perception of the lines. Typically those who had low levels of trust in their own judgements.
Judgement distortion: Conformed because they were unsure they understood the task- they just assumed they were wrong
action distortion: Feared being excluded, knew their answer was correct
Deindividuation
Deindividuation is the loss of personal self-awareness and self-determination when a person is a influenced by a group
The psychology of crowd behaviour shows us that people are influenced when they feel part of a large group (so-called ‘mob mentality’):
We feel more anonymous and therefore less inhibited when in groups, feeling less concerned with how we will be judged by others
We readily adopt the ideas, behaviours and emotions that others display through ‘group contagion’
We are more suggestible when in groups and more likely to do impulsive and unethical things when being ‘egged on’ by others
Bystander effect (Latane and Darley)
the tendency for the presence of others to discourage an individual from intervening in an emergency situation
Experiments have since shown that the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely people will act.
People are more likely to intervene in a crisis when there are few or no other people present.
explaining the reasons for the bystander effect
Diffusion of responsibility(people are less likely to act if they think others could or should act)
Social influence (people watch and copy the behaviour of others and think “If they do not act, neither will I”)
