Lecture 10

Question 1

What is a social group?

Answer 1

Collection of interdependent, interacting people

-They don’t have to be members of the same category, just interacting

Question 2

What is a non-social group?

Answer 2

Collection of independent people who are not interacting just in presence of others

Question 3

What is a reference group?

Answer 3

A real or imagines group with whom beliefs and attitudes are compared
-They are considered the ‘in-group’ and their opinion is valued

Question 4

What is Social facilitation?

Answer 4

The presence of others facilitates performance of an individual
->improves performance on a simple task

Question 5

Can Social Facilitation cross species?

Answer 5

Yes, the roaches ran faster in the presence of others. The presence of others impaired their performance of a complex task

Question 6

Describe Social Loafing

Answer 6

The overall performance of the group gets worse when lots of people are around to complete the task
i.e group performance is worse than the combination of individuals would have been

Question 7

What is the effect of adding more people to a group?

Answer 7

The average individual contribution decreases

Question 8

What is Price’s Law?

Answer 8

• Half the effort of the group will be done by the square root of the people in the group
• As group increases, ‘waste’ get’s larger

Question 9

What are the two options that the presence of others can give you?

Answer 9

1. To be anonymous (no evaluation by others)

2. To be anxious (evaluation by others is possible)

Question 10

When you are anonymous and therefore in a relaxed state, what is the effect on tasks?

Answer 10

• Simple tasks are impaired

- Hard tasks are facilitated

Question 11

When you are being evaluated and therefore in an aroused state, what is the effect on tasks?

Answer 11

• Simple tasks are facilitated

- Hard tasks are impaired

Question 12

What is a social dilemma?

Answer 12

When we have to choose between our own well being and the group wellbeing

Question 13

How is social loafing an example of a social dilemma?

Answer 13

• Group wellbeing = better for everyone to contribute

- Individual wellbeing = better to slack off, others do the work

Question 14

What does the Prisoners Dilemma model?

Answer 14

Models rational choices and decision making

-mutual non-confession is best for both but due to mutual suspicion and lack of trust both parties confess

Question 15

What is the Common’s Problem?

Answer 15

How do you share a common resource so it isn’t depleted?

Question 16

What is the Free Rider Problem?

Answer 16

A minimum number of people need to contribute but not all e.g. blood donation

Gaining benefits from group membership by avoiding costly obligations and allowing others to take the cost

Question 17

Describe Explicit Communication influenced the Social Dilemmas

Answer 17

• In the prisoners dilemma the same cost/benefit was present when the moment for decision came about
• In the trucking game, non structured communication degraded performance

Question 18

What is Tacit Communication?

Answer 18

• Symbolic communication that matches the other person’s behaviour.
• Opens with cooperatively, gives best pay off for both individuals

Question 19

What could influence the matrix?

Answer 19

• Changing the pay off
• > reward for cooperation
• > penalties for noncooperation

-Changing group membership to make people feel a part of the same group could change the matrix