People in Groups and Leadership

Question 1

What is a “group”?

Answer 1

2 or more people who share a common definition and evaluation of themselves and behave in accordance with the definition

Question 2

What is “entitativity” in a group context?

Answer 2

It is a property of a group that makes it seem like a unified, distinct, and coherent entity rather than a random or loosely connected group.

Question 3

Define what makes a group have “high-entativity”?

Answer 3

Clear boundaries, good internal structure, relative homogeneity; more interdepedency, tightly shared fate.

Question 4

What makes a group have “low-entitativity”?

Answer 4

Fuzzy boundaries, fuzzy structure, relative heterogeneity.

Question 5

According to Ferdinand Tönnies, what kind of group types do we have?

Answer 5

Gemeinschaft (community - based on close interpersonal bounds) and Gesellschaft (association - based on more formalized, impersonal bounds)

Question 6

According to Debbie et al (1994) what kind of groups do we distinguish?

Answer 6

Common-bond groups (more egocentric individuals) and common-identity groups (more altruistic individuals, group membership important part of identity).

Question 7

What types of groups do we distinguish?

Answer 7

1. intimacy groups: family, friends
2. task groups: work, study, sports team
3. social categories: race, gender, nationality, social class
4. loose associations: bus stop, neighbors

Question 8

What are “social aggregates”?

Answer 8

Collections of unrelated individuals.

Question 9

Define “individualists” vs “collectivists”.

Answer 9

Believe that people behave the same in a group as when they are alone vs. believe that groups evoke special type of behavior that only emerges i a group setting.

Question 10

What are the 7 major emphases of what a group is?

Answer 10

Individuals who: interact with one another, are interdependent, join together to achieve a goal, perceive themselves to belong to a group, try to satisfy a need through their joint association, influence each other, whose interactions are structures by sets of roles and norms.

Question 11

Define “social facilitation”?

Answer 11

Improvement in the performance when doing a task that is well-learnt/easy and deterioration of poorly learnt/difficult tasks in the presence of others.

Question 12

What is “social inhibition”?

Answer 12

Impairment of a task performance.

Question 13

What is “mere presence”?

Answer 13

Entirely passive and unresponsive audience, that is present only physically.

Question 14

What are “audience effects”?

Answer 14

Impact of presence of others on individual task performance: social facilitation, social inhibition.

Question 15

Describe “drive theory.”

Answer 15

It suggests that the physical presence of others causes arousal that motivates performance of habitual behavior patterns (if done correctly -social facilitation, if done incorrectly - social inhibition).

Question 16

What is “evaluation apprehension model”?

Answer 16

Theory that people’s performance in group situation is influenced by their concern for being evaluated.

Question 17

What is “distraction-conflict theory”?

Answer 17

It suggests that whether we pay more attention to the audience or to the task results in whether our performance increases/decreases.

Question 18

What are the non-drive theories to explain social facilitation?

Answer 18

Self-awareness theory (compare their ideal/actual self - enhances focus), self-discrepancy theory (discrepancy between ideal/actual self increases motivation to bring in 1 line), self-presentation (concern with self-presentation - if errors with difficult tasks - increased embarrassment, hindered performance)

Question 19

What are the group task taxonomy?

Answer 19

1. whether separation of tasks is possible (divisible, unitary), 2. predetermined standard to be met (maximizing - open-ended, optimizing-task with a standard to meet), 3. how an individual’s inputs can contribute: discretionary (not required/essential but voluntary)

Question 20

What types of group tasks do we know?

Answer 20

1. additive (sum of individual’s inputs) 2. compensatory (average of individual inputs)
2. conjunctive (least performing member)
3. disjunctive (best individual input)

Question 21

What are some processes that cause reduction of group performance?

Answer 21

Loss of motivation, loss of coordination, and loss of process.

Question 22

Describe what a “free-rider” is.

Answer 22

A person benefiting from group’s achievements even though they are not contributing.

Question 23

What is “Ringelmann effect”?

Answer 23

The tendency of an individual to put less effort into a task as the number of members of a group increases.

Question 24

What is “social loafing”?

Answer 24

The tendency of an individual to perform less when in a group setting than alone. (scream on top of your lungs for example)

Question 25

What are some reasons why social loafing occurs? (3)

Answer 25

1. output equity (to match output of others) 2. evaluation apprehension (feel they don’t need to perform as much because groups offer them “anonymity”) 3. matching to standard (basing effort on the norm of the group)

Question 26

What is “social impact”?

Answer 26

The influence of others on one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Question 27

What is “social compensation”?

Answer 27

The tendency to increase their effort on a group task to compensate for the lower performance of others in a group.

Question 28

Define group “cohesiveness”.

Answer 28

The property of a group that affectively bind people as group members to: 1. one another, 2. the group itself 3. giving the group a sense of solidarity.

Question 29

How do “personal attraction” and “social attraction” differ?

Answer 29

Personal attraction is based on individual preferences an d interpersonal relationships; social attraction is based on common group membership and determined by person’s prototypicality of the group.

Question 30

What are Tuckman’s (1965) 5-stages of developmental sequence of groups?

Answer 30

1. forming, 2. storming, 3. norming, 4. performing, 5. adjourning

Question 31

Define “group socialization”.

Answer 31

It is the dynamic relationship between the individuals and the group. It describes how individuals change to fit the group and how new individuals can be a source of innovation and change within the group.

Question 32

What are the 3 processes involved in group socialization?

Answer 32

1. evaluation (learning about group’s norms, values, expectations before joining)
2. commitment (adjusting to group’s norms, etc. after joining)
3. role transition (moving from 1 role to another within group)

Question 33

What are the 3 types of roles in a group setting?

Answer 33

Non-members (prospective members, ex-members), quasi-members(new members without full status yet and members who lost status), full-members (full privelege, full responsibility)

Question 34

What are the 3 functions of initiation rites?

Answer 34

1. symbolic, 2. apprenticeship, 3. loyalty elicitation

Question 35

What is “ethnomethodology”?

Answer 35

It is a method involving the violation of hidden norms to reveal their presence.

Question 36

What are “moral principles” in a group?

Answer 36

They are fundamental organizing principles which regulate activation and inhibition of behavior.

Question 37

Define “status”.

Answer 37

Status is a consensual evaluation of a role, member, or group in general.

Question 38

What is status derived from?

Answer 38

2 sets of features: specific status characteristics (directly relevant to group tasks), diffuse status characteristics (not directly relevant to group’s task, but positively/negatively viewed by the society)

Question 39

What are “schisms”?

Answer 39

It is the devision of a group into subgroups that differ by ideology, values, or attitudes.

Question 40

What are “subjective group dynamics”?

Answer 40

That ingroup marginalised members are disliked more than outgroup members because they do not go with accordance with group’s norms/values which puts a bad name onto the identity of the group.

Question 41

What is the “relational model of authority in groups”?

Answer 41

Effective authority is determined by relationships between leaders and members that are based on fairness and justice.

Question 42

Define “distributive justice”.

Answer 42

It is the fairness of the outcome of a decision.

Question 43

Define “procedural justice”.

Answer 43

It is the fairness of procedures used to make a decision.

Question 44

Define what is “glass ceiling”

Answer 44

It is the invisible barrier that prevents women, and other minorities from attaining top leadership roles.

Question 45

What is “role congruity theory.”

Answer 45

It is the theory which suggests that gender roles and stereotypes influence the choice of a leader, resulting in a bias favoring the choice of a male leader.

Question 46

What is the “stereotype threat”?

Answer 46

It is the fear that one’s actions are going to confirm negative stereotypes about one’s group.

Question 47

What is “glass cliff”?

Answer 47

The increased likelihood for women and other minorities to be chosen for leadership positions in the times of crises.

Question 48

What 2 types of social decision schemes and how do they function?

Answer 48

Intellective tasks and judgemental tasks. Respectively truth-wins, majority-wins.

Question 49

Define “groupthink”.

Answer 49

It is a phenomenon where a group of people prioritises group harmony and conformity over critical thinking and rational decision making.

Question 50

Define “group polarization.”

Answer 50

It is a phenomenon where the group’s attitudes and opinions become more extreme after a discussion.

Question 51

When does a “risky shift” occur?

Answer 51

It is a phenomenon when individuals take riskier decisions as a group than they would individually.

Question 52

What are the 2 possible aspects of cultural values theory?

Answer 52

(people in groups use other members’ position to adjust their views about cultural factors, for social approval) 1. bandwagon effect (adopt group’s beliefs because of social pressure rather than individual judgement) 2.pluralistic ignorance (privately reject a norm, but assume other members accept it so they adhere to it)