People in Groups

Question 1

Name the three usual group characteristics.

Answer 1

Common bond vs common identity.
Aggregates (emotional, common opinion) vs groups.
Individual (additive nature, individual by individual) vs collectivist stance.

Question 2

Explain the difference between a common bond and a common identity.

Answer 2

Common bond - focused on individual relationships. Egocentric.
Common identity - focussed on the whole group. Altruistic.
Example: women are usually more focussed on common bond and men common identity (not generalisable to all groups!).

Question 3

Define entitativity.

Answer 3

This is a property of a group that makes it seem like a coherent, distinct and unitary structure.

Question 4

Name a group with high entitativity and one with low entitativity.

Answer 4

High: family.
Low: gender, race.

Question 5

Define cohesiveness.

Answer 5

This is a property of a group that binds people and gives them meaning.

Question 6

Name 3 things that can improve cohesiveness.

Answer 6

Attraction, similarity and cooperation.

Question 7

What is social facilitation (Triplett, 1898)?

Answer 7

The tendency for people to be aroused into better performance on simple tasks when others are present.

Question 8

What is social inhibition?

Answer 8

Where people perform worst on tasks when others are present.

Question 9

What did Zajonc believe drive theory was due to?

Answer 9

Biological tendency.

Question 10

Briefly explain Zajonc’s drive theory.

Answer 10

The present of others leads to arousal which increase in performing dominant responses.
If the dominant responses are correct, social facilitation occurs.
If the dominant responses are incorrect, social inhibition occurs.

Question 11

What was the evaluation apprehension theory (Cottrell, 1968)?

Answer 11

Cottrell manipulated the audience (blindfolded, merely present, attentive audience).
Results showed that an attentive audience led to the most facilitation.

Question 12

What is a critique of the evaluation apprehension theory?

Answer 12

Later studies found no difference between audience conditions.
A person merely being there changed performance.

Question 13

Briefly explain the distraction-conflict theory.

Answer 13

The presence of others creates attentional conflict between attention to others versus attention to task.
If the task is well learnt then performance increases.

Question 14

What did Ringelmann (1913) observe about the efficiency of people (Ringelmann effect)?

Answer 14

As group size increases, individual effort on a task decreases.

Question 15

What were the two explanations for the Ringelmann effect?

Answer 15

Coordination loss.

Motivation loss.

Question 16

How did Ingham, Levinger, Graves and Peckham (1974) build on the original Ringelmann study?

Answer 16

Discovered that the Ringelmann effect was due to loss of motivation (pulling ropes study).

Question 17

Define social loafing.

Answer 17

A reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task compared with working either alone or co-actively.

Question 18

What did Latane, Williams and Harkins (1979)’s study show and why did this occur?

Answer 18

That as group size increased, noise produced by each participant decreased accordingly.
This is because as new member numbers increase, the group decreases in terms of significance of impact on effort.
The impact stops at 8 people.

Question 19

What is the free-rider effect?

Answer 19

A free-rider is someone who exploits a shared public resource without contributing to its maintenance.

Question 20

What is the key difference between the free-rider effect and social loafing effect?

Answer 20

Free-riders take advantage of the group product without contributing. Loafers reduce effort but still contribute.

Question 21

What are the three main reasons why people loaf?

Answer 21

Output equity: they think others loaf too.
Evaluative apprehension: presence of others leads to a sense of anonymity for those not motivated to do the task.
Matching to standard: They have no clear performance to match.

Question 22

Name five things that can reduce social loafing.

Answer 22

Task attractiveness + importance.
Collectivistic cultures.
Presence of an outgroup (competition).
Salient group identity (e.g. uniform).

Question 23

What is the self-categorisation theory?

Answer 23

Salient social identity leads to self-stereotyping by which the self is perceived as interchangeable with other ingroup members (depersonalisation). Group behaviour is associated with change in the structure of the self.

Question 24

Briefly explain the relationship between personal and social attraction (Hogg & Hardie, 1991).

Answer 24

Social attraction means prototypically + norms is important for identifiers.
As social identification increases, social attraction becomes more important.

Question 25

What were Tuckman (1965)’s 5 stages in group socialisation?

Answer 25

Forming (entry), storming (trial period), norming, performing, adjourning (goals achieved).

Question 26

What were Moreland & Levine’s 4 key stages in group socialisation?

Answer 26

Entry, acceptance, divergence, exit.

Question 27

How do initiations into groups affect the attraction of groups (Gerald & Mathewson, 1966)?

Answer 27

Attraction increases.

This can be explained by cognitive dissonance.

Question 28

Define ethnomethodology.

Answer 28

The violation of hidden norms to reveal their presence.

Question 29

What theory did Ajzen come up with?

Answer 29

Theory of planned behaviour.

Question 30

What are the two types of norms?

Answer 30

Descriptive norms: perception of which behaviours are typically performed.
Injunctive norms: perception of whether a behaviour will be approved or disapproved of by a given group.

Question 31

What are the two functions that norms can have?

Answer 31

Individual function: specify the range of behaviour that is acceptable in a certain context.
Group function: coordinate the action of members towards the fulfilment of group goals.

Question 32

What does individual and group function lead to?

Answer 32

Stability and predictability.

Question 33

What did Newcomb (1965) discover about norms?

Answer 33

We adopt group norms over time.

Question 34

Name 5 reasons why we might join groups.

Answer 34

Similar interests. 
Share goals that require behavioural interdependence. 
Social support. 
Need to belong. 
Social identity.

Question 35

What happens without groups?

Answer 35

Social isolation.
The risk of social isolation is comparable to smoking.
People with stronger social relationships had a 50% increased likelihood of survival than those with weaker social relationships (Holt-Lunstad, 2010).