Sport Psychology: Group Cohesion

Question 1

What is cohesion?

Answer 1

. A desire of the group members to achieve their goals
. They are forces acting to keep members within the group integrated and focussed
. This can lead to success or can come from success
. It can either be task or social

Question 2

What does task cohesion focus on?

Answer 2

It is results based and outcome based

Question 3

What does social cohesion focus on?

Answer 3

It is when members are working together and interact

Question 4

What are the two types of cohesion?

Answer 4

Task and Social cohesion

Question 5

What is coaction?

Answer 5

Coaction is when everyone in a group completes the task at the same time but separately

Question 6

What is interaction?

Answer 6

Interaction happens when everyone completes different roles and integrates them all together

Question 7

What is Carrons Antecendants?

Answer 7

The factors that may affect cohesion

Question 8

What are the 4 main influences on a team that may influence cohesion according to Carron?

Answer 8

. Environmental factors
. Personal factors
. Team factors
. Leadership factors

Question 9

What do environmental factors consist of?

Answer 9

. Age
. Geography
. Contractual obligations
. Time available
. Size of group - social loafing
. Ringleman effect

Question 10

What do personal factors consist of?

Answer 10

. Acceptance or roles
. Does the group align in terms of aspirations
. Work ethic
. Opinions
. Values
. Happiness

Question 11

What do leadership factors consist of?

Answer 11

. Leadership style shown by captain or coach
. Leader and team relations

Question 12

What do team factors consist of?

Answer 12

. Desire for success - more success = more cohesion
. Team ability
. Team productivity
. Shared experiences/goals

Question 13

What is task cohesion?

Answer 13

Individuals working together to achieve an end result/common goal

Question 14

What does task cohesion allow for?

Answer 14

It allows members to make their own contribution

Question 15

What is social cohesion?

Answer 15

Individuals relating to each other to interact in the group?

Question 16

What does social cohesion allow for?

Answer 16

It allows support for each other and trust to develop

Question 17

What is a lack of cohesion caused by?

Answer 17

. Poor tactics
. Lack of communication
. Misunderstanding of roles
. Bad timing
. Poor strategies
. Social loafing

Question 18

What is cohesion affected by?

Answer 18

. Communication
. Past success
. Sharing common goals
. Unequal pay/rewards
. Personality
. Threats to the team
. Type of sport
. Size of group
. Similarity of group members
. Likelihood of future success

Question 19

What is Steiners Model?

Answer 19

Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity - Losses due to faulty processes (AP=PP-FP)

Question 20

What is actual productivity?

Answer 20

The performance of the team during the game, the result

Question 21

What is potential productivity?

Answer 21

The groups best performance/maximum capability when at optimal cohesiveness

Question 22

What is potential productivity affected by?

Answer 22

Affected by skills and ability

Question 23

What are faulty processes?

Answer 23

Factors that go wrong and reduce cohesiveness

Question 24

What can cause faulty processes?

Answer 24

. Poor coordination or cooperation
. Not listening to the coach, misunderstood patterns/roles, motivation, poor cooperation and bad communication

Question 25

What are some motivational problems that are faulty processes?

Answer 25

. Ringleman effect
. Social loafing

Question 26

What are some coordination problems that are faulty processes?

Answer 26

. Tactics/strategies
. Communication/Interaction

Question 27

What is the ringleman effect?

Answer 27

When group performance decreases with group size

Question 28

What is social loafing?

Answer 28

Individual loss of motivation in a team player due to lack of performance identification when individual efforts are not recognised

Question 29

What do social loafers do?

Answer 29

They take the easy option and make limited contribution to the cause because they are lazy

Question 30

What are some of the causes of social loafing?

Answer 30

. Low confidence
. Lack of fitness
. Low ability
. Injury
. Negative attitude
. Failure to understand a role
. A belief your effort won’t change the result
. Social inhibition
. Poor leadership
. No recognition of previous performances
. Lack of reinforcement
. High state/trait anxiety

Question 31

How can you avoid social loafing?

Answer 31

. Highlight individual performance
. Statistics
. Give specific roles/responsibilities
. Praising rewarding behaviour
. Raising individuals confidence
. Punish social loafing
. Training with an audience present

Question 32

Are winning teams cohesive?

Answer 32

. Social cohesion helps working together
. Successful teams display high task cohesion
. Cohesive groups usually successful
. Winning teams may not need social cohesion if committed to task, task cohesion is enough
. Task cohesion more important, can over-ride social cohesion
. Success follows when task and social cohesion are high
. Other factors promote success, not just cohesion

Question 33

What faulty processes are there that negatively affect group productivity?

Answer 33

. Ringleman effect
. Motivational losses
. Social loafing

Question 34

What is the ringleman effect?

Answer 34

As group size increases the individual contribution decreases

Question 35

What is social loafing?

Answer 35

Reduction in motivation and individual effort - individual hides in the group