Studying Groups Flashcards
A measurement method that involves
watching and recording individual and group actions
Observation
Openly watching and recording group behavior with no attempt to conceal one’s research purposes.
Overt observation
Watching and recording group behavior without the participants’ knowledge
Covert observation
Watching and recording group behavior while taking part in the social process.
Participant observation
Change in behavior that occurs when
individuals know they are being studied by researchers.
Hawthorne effect
A group, usually located at a university or other research institution, that is responsible for reviewing research procedures to make certain that they are consistent with ethical guidelines for protecting human participants
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
A research procedure used to collect and analyze nonnumeric, unquantified types of data, such as text, images, or objects.
Qualitative study
A research procedure that classifies (codes) group members’ actions into defined categories.
Structured observational method
A research procedure used to collect
and analyze data in a numeric form, such as frequencies, proportions, or amounts.
Quantitative study
A structured coding system developed by Robert Bales used to classify group
behavior into task-oriented and relationship-oriented categories.
Interaction Process Analysis (IPA)
A theoretical and structured coding system
developed by Robert Bales which assumes that group activities can be classified along three dimensions: dominance versus submissiveness, friendliness versus unfriendliness, and acceptance of versus opposition to authority
Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG)
Degree to which a measurement technique consistently yields the same conclusion at different times.
Reliability
Degree to which a measurement method
assesses what it was designed to measure.
Validity
Assessment method, such as a
questionnaire, test, or interview, that ask respondents to describe their feelings, attitudes, or beliefs.
Self-report measure
Research technique developed by Jacob
Moreno that graphically and mathematically summarizes patterns of intermember relations.
Sociometry
Graphic representation of the patterns of
intermember relations created through sociometry
Sociogram
Strong concurrence-seeking tendency
that interferes with effective group decision making, identified by Irving Janis
Groupthink
Research technique that involves examining, in as much detail as possible, the dynamics of a single group or individual.
Case study
Naturally occurring group (particularly when compared to an ad hoc group created by a
researcher in a laboratory study), such as an audience, board of directors, club, or team
Bona fide group
Individual or group who is unfairly held
responsible for a negative event and outcome; the innocent target of interpersonal hostility
Scapegoat
Research design in which the investigator
manipulates at least one variable by randomly assigning participants to two or more different conditions and measuring at least one other variable.
Experiment
Aspects of the situation manipulated by the researcher in an experimental study; the causal variable in a cause–effect relationship
Independent variable
Responses of the participant measured by the researcher; the effect variable in a cause–effect relationship.
Dependent variable
Group or collective that individuals
use as a standard or frame of reference when selecting and appraising their abilities, attitudes, or beliefs; includes groups that individuals identify with and admire and categories of noninteracting individuals.
Reference group
Research design in which the investigator measures (but does not manipulate) at least two variables and then uses statistical procedures to examine the strength and direction of the relationship between
these variables.
Correlational study
Statistic that measures the strength and direction of a relationship between two
variables.
Correlation coefficient
Focus of empirical and theoretical interest selected when individuals or objects under study are nested in a series of increasingly inclusive or graded clusters; the source of the data the researcher seeks.
Unit of analysis
Wants, needs, and other psychological processes that energize behavior and thereby determine its form, intensity, and duration
Motivation
Subjective state of positive or negative affect
often accompanied by a degree of arousal or activation.
Emotion
Collective emotional mood of a group.
Group affective tone
Theoretical explanation of the way organisms acquire new responses to environmental stimuli through such conditioning processes as stimulus–response associations and reinforcement.
Behaviorism
Economic model of interpersonal relationships which argues that individuals seek out relationships that offer them many rewards while exacting few costs.
Social exchange theory
General theoretical approach which assumes that groups are systems—collections of individual units that combine to form an integrated, complex whole
Systems theory
Any one of a number of general conceptual analyses of groups that assumes group processes mediate the relationship between individual, group, and situational input variables and resulting group outcomes.
Input–process–output (I–P–O) model
Mental processes that acquire, organize, and integrate information.
Cognitive process
Conceptual approach developed by John Turner and his colleagues that explains a
range of group behavior, including the development of social identity and intergroup relations, in terms of the social cognitive categorization processes.
Self-categorization theory
Biological approach to understanding behavior which assumes that recurring
patterns of behavior in animals ultimately stem from evolutionary pressures that increase the likelihood of adaptive social actions and extinguish nonadaptive practices.
Evolutionary psychology
