Social Influence - Group Influences

Question 1

_____ is an improvement in performance and affects easy and well-learned tasks, while _____ is a decrease in performance and affects difficult and unfamiliar tasks.
Both occur in the mere presence of others.

Answer 1

Social facilitation; social inhibition

Question 2

_____ is also known as the free rider effect and occurs when members of a group contribute less to the group’s output than they would have done if working alone. Explanations for this include diffusion of responsibility and decreased evaluation apprehension.

Answer 2

Social loafing

Social loafing is less likely to occur when:

• a group is small and cohesive
• when group members believe that the task is personally meaningful, they’ll be punished for poor performance, their individual contributions are necessary for a successful outcome
• individual contributions can be identified and evaluated

Question 3

_____ refers to the loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behavior and occurs when people can act anonymously because they’re in a large crowd or their identities are disguised.

Answer 3

Deindividuation

Question 4

What are Steiner’s (1972) five group task types?

Answer 4

1. Additive - output is the sum of efforts
2. Compensatory - independent working, and efforts are averaged.
3. Disjunctive - choosing the one best individual solution or answer
4. Conjunctive - all participate, but limited by least capable member (e.g., relays or meeting deadlines)
5. Discretionary - individual efforts combined, but group performance depends on how efforts are combined.

Question 5

What are Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) five stages of group development?

Answer 5

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning