Sport Psychology: Group Cohesion Flashcards
What is cohesion?
. 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
What does task cohesion focus on?
It is results based and outcome based
What does social cohesion focus on?
It is when members are working together and interact
What are the two types of cohesion?
Task and Social cohesion
What is coaction?
Coaction is when everyone in a group completes the task at the same time but separately
What is interaction?
Interaction happens when everyone completes different roles and integrates them all together
What is Carrons Antecendants?
The factors that may affect cohesion
What are the 4 main influences on a team that may influence cohesion according to Carron?
. Environmental factors
. Personal factors
. Team factors
. Leadership factors
What do environmental factors consist of?
. Age
. Geography
. Contractual obligations
. Time available
. Size of group - social loafing
. Ringleman effect
What do personal factors consist of?
. Acceptance or roles
. Does the group align in terms of aspirations
. Work ethic
. Opinions
. Values
. Happiness
What do leadership factors consist of?
. Leadership style shown by captain or coach
. Leader and team relations
What do team factors consist of?
. Desire for success - more success = more cohesion
. Team ability
. Team productivity
. Shared experiences/goals
What is task cohesion?
Individuals working together to achieve an end result/common goal
What does task cohesion allow for?
It allows members to make their own contribution
What is social cohesion?
Individuals relating to each other to interact in the group?
What does social cohesion allow for?
It allows support for each other and trust to develop
What is a lack of cohesion caused by?
. Poor tactics
. Lack of communication
. Misunderstanding of roles
. Bad timing
. Poor strategies
. Social loafing
What is cohesion affected by?
. 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
What is Steiners Model?
Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity - Losses due to faulty processes (AP=PP-FP)
What is actual productivity?
The performance of the team during the game, the result
What is potential productivity?
The groups best performance/maximum capability when at optimal cohesiveness
What is potential productivity affected by?
Affected by skills and ability
What are faulty processes?
Factors that go wrong and reduce cohesiveness
What can cause faulty processes?
. Poor coordination or cooperation
. Not listening to the coach, misunderstood patterns/roles, motivation, poor cooperation and bad communication
What are some motivational problems that are faulty processes?
. Ringleman effect
. Social loafing
What are some coordination problems that are faulty processes?
. Tactics/strategies
. Communication/Interaction
What is the ringleman effect?
When group performance decreases with group size
What is social loafing?
Individual loss of motivation in a team player due to lack of performance identification when individual efforts are not recognised
What do social loafers do?
They take the easy option and make limited contribution to the cause because they are lazy
What are some of the causes of social loafing?
. 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
How can you avoid social loafing?
. Highlight individual performance
. Statistics
. Give specific roles/responsibilities
. Praising rewarding behaviour
. Raising individuals confidence
. Punish social loafing
. Training with an audience present
Are winning teams cohesive?
. 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
What faulty processes are there that negatively affect group productivity?
. Ringleman effect
. Motivational losses
. Social loafing
What is the ringleman effect?
As group size increases the individual contribution decreases
What is social loafing?
Reduction in motivation and individual effort - individual hides in the group
