The psychology of Groups

Question 1

What is a Group?

Answer 1

→ A Group is two or more people who interact with and influence one another and perceive themselves as ‘us’. (Marvin Shaw, 1981)

Question 2

Why do Groups exist?

Answer 2

→ (Johnson et al., 2006) Groups may exist for a number of reasons, to meet a need to belong, to provide information, to supply rewards, and to accomplish goals.

Question 3

What is the Structure and Composition of Groups?

Answer 3

A. Collective influence:
1. Social Facilitation
2. Social Loafing
3. Deindividuation

B. Social influence:
1. Group Polarization
2. Groupthink
3. Minority Influence

Question 4

Give me a personal experience of when you felt you belonged in a group.

Answer 4

a) I have joined an Eminem fan club group chat online and it made me feel like I was in a group because we interact together as well as all share a mutual liking of that music artist so it connects us together in a way. (Marvin Shaw, 1981)

Question 5

What is Social Facilitation?

Answer 5

→Social Facilitation is the improvement in an individual’s performance of a task when others are present.

Question 6

How are we affected by the presence of others? explain.

Answer 6

→ we are affected by people who are merely present as a passive audience or as co-actors. As social animals, we are primed to be ever-conscious of others.

Question 7

What are co-actors?

Answer 7

→ Co-actors are co-participants working individually on a non-competitive activity.

Question 8

The mere Presence of Others. Does it Improve or Hinder performance? Compare & Contrast.

Answer 8

A. Improved performance
→ (Norman Triplett, 1898) noticed that cyclists’ racing times were faster when they raced together than when each one raced alone against the clock. To test that theory he asked children to wind string on a fishing reel as rapidly as possible. And the results show that they wound faster when they worked with co-actors than when they worked alone.

B. Hindered performance
→ (Halfmann et al., 2020) have revealed that on some tasks the presence of others hinders performance. Other’s presence diminishes efficiency at learning and solving problems.

Compare & Contrast -
→ (Park and Catrambone, 2007) discovered that while the presence of virtual humans facilitated their participants in achieving simple tasks, it hindered them in the accomplishment of complex tasks.

→ (Robert Zajonc, 2008) The Drive Theory suggests that arousal enhances whatever response tendency is dominant. Increased arousal enhances performance on easy tasks (dominant) promoting correct responses. On complex tasks (not dominant) increased arousal promotes incorrect responding.

Example -

→ (Rockloff et al., 2007) Gambling behavior, This study investigates whether gambling is prone to social facilitation if it is done in the presence of other gamblers. By giving them 5 bucks and placing them in a gambling room filled with other gamblers on the same machine who then hear and see flashing lights and announcements of other fake gamblers winning. And as the results show all participants ended up playing more games and losing all the money. Proving the Influence the presence of others has.

Question 9

Give me a personal experience that shows how the mere presence of others affects your performance.

Answer 9

a) I have noticed that I perform so much better in tasks that I have mastered when surrounded by co-actors than in a newer task that I don’t feel as confident in. I have realized that I tend to second guess every step I make when I am not confident in my ability to perform that task and it becomes 10 times harder and takes longer time to do when surrounded by others than when alone. (Robert Zajonc, 2008)

Question 10

The Presence of many Others. Does it Improve or Hinder performance?

Answer 10

→ (Knowles, 1983) Arousal and self-conscious attention created by a larger audience interfere even with well-learned, automatic, dominant behaviors.

Question 11

Give me a personal experience that shows how the presence of many others affects your performance.

Answer 11

a) I tend to be more stressed and self-conscious when jumping a course in an event in front of many others even when I have trained a million times on the same height at home with no complications. (Knowles, 1983) & (Mullen & Baumeister, 1987)

Question 12

Why are we Aroused in the Presence of Others?

Answer 12

→ (Cottrell et al., 1968) state that observers make us apprehensive because we wonder how they are evaluating us. Otherwise known as Evaluation Apprehension.

→ (Mullen & Baumeister, 1987) State that the self-consciousness we feel when being evaluated can also interfere with behaviors that we perform best automatically.

→ (Sanders, 1981) The Distracted-Conflict Theory says that when we wonder how co-actors are doing or how an audience is reacting, we become distracted.

Question 13

What is Evaluation Apprehension?

Answer 13

→ Evaluation Apprehension is the concern for how others are evaluating us.

Question 14

Give me a personal experience that shows the affect of being aroused by others.

Answer 14

a) I Graduated with a French Diplomat otherwise known as BAC and to do so one of our final exams was an oral one where I had to present a topic I created in front of a jury, and I got nervous to the point where I was uncontrollably crying the whole time and was hard for me to even breath at times because of the evaluation apprehension effect. (Cottrell et al., 1968)

Question 15

What is Social Loafing?

Answer 15

→ Social loafing is the reduction of individual effort that occurs when people work in groups compared to when they work alone.

Question 16

Do Individuals exert less effort in a group? explain.

Answer 16

A. Loafing
→ (Harkins et al., 1980) In this experiment they placed 6 people in a semi-circle, blindfolded, and had them put headphones on which they blasted with the sound of people shouting and clapping, and were then asked to shout and clap believing that they were among others who were doing the same. The results showed that the participants produced one-third less noise than when they thought themselves alone. Thus proving social loafing.

B. not fully
→ (Gockel et al., 2008) discovered that groups loaf less when their members are friends or they feel identified with or indispensable to their group.

Explanation -
→ (Jones, 2013) explains social loafing as being free-riders which happens when rewards are divided equally, regardless of how much one contributes to the group.

→ (Tan & Tan, 2008) This study shows that when people are not accountable and cannot evaluate their own efforts, responsibility is diffused across all group members. (evaluation apprehension)

Question 17

What is a free-rider?

Answer 17

→ Free-riders are people benefiting from the group but giving little in return.

Question 18

Give me a personal experience of you experiencing social loafing.

Answer 18

a) Whenever I find myself in a group setting where we all are doing the same act, I tend to rely on others to carry on with it and find myself being less enthusiastic and not putting in as much effort as I would normally do. (Harkins et al., 1980)

Question 19

Explain with an example the difference between Social Facilitation and Social Loafing.

Answer 19

→ When individuals cannot be evaluated or held accountable, loafing becomes more likely. An individual swimmer is evaluated on her ability to win the race. In a tug-of-war, no single person on the team is held accountable, so any one member might relax or loaf.

Question 20

What is Deindividuation?

Answer 20

→ Deindividuation is the loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster responsiveness to group norms, good or bad.

Question 21

When do people lose their sense of self in groups?

Answer 21

→ Groups can generate a sense of excitement, of being caught up in something bigger than one’s self, and can likely abandon normal restraints, to forget their individual identity, to become responsive to group or crowd norms.

Question 22

What influences make you more susceptible to deindividuation?

Answer 22

1. The bigger the group the bigger the anonymity
2. People’s attention is focused on the situation, not on themselves
3. “everyone is doing it”
4. Group experiences that diminish self-consciousness tend to disconnect behavior from attitudes.

Question 23

Give me an example of deindividuation.

Answer 23

→ Children were more likely to transgress by taking extra Halloween candy when in a group, when anonymous, and especially when deindividuated by the combination of group immersion and anonymity. (Diener et al., 1976)

Question 24

What is group Polarization?

Answer 24

→ Group Polarization is a group-produced enhancement of members’ pre-existing tendencies. When a rather homogenous group discusses a topic, the opinion of the group often merges into a more extreme one.

Question 25

Do groups intensify our opinions?

Answer 25

→ (Moscovoco & Zavalloni, 1969) Experimenters had people discuss attitude statements that most of them favored or opposed. Would talking in groups enhance their shared initial inclinations? this phenomenon is called ‘Group Polarization’ which is a discussion that typically strengthens the average inclination of the group members.

→ (Brauer et al., 2001) found that French students’ dislike for certain other people was exacerbated after discussing their shared negative impressions.

Question 26

Give me a personal experience of a group polarization.

Answer 26

a) In high school it is tradition for the committee members to plan an end-of-an-era senior trip which I was planning on joining but had some concerns; and when discussing the matter with a group of friends at school about how unorganized, boring, and overpriced the senior school trip was, I became more adamant about my concerns and ended up deciding to not go on the trip anymore and instead plan one of our own. (Moscovoco & Zavalloni, 1969) & (Brauer et al., 2001)

Question 27

What is the Risky Shift Phenomena? explain.

Answer 27

→ (Stoner, 1961) tested the common belief that groups are more cautious than individuals. He had participants advise imagined characters how much risk to take, and the results showed that the groups’ decisions were riskier; dubbed the ‘Risky Shift Phenomena’. That risky shift not only occurs when a group decides; after a brief discussion, individuals will alter their decisions as well.

→ (Moscovici & Zavalloni, 1969) This group phenomenon became reconceived as a tendency for group discussions to enhance group member’s initial leanings.

Question 28

What Influences the risky shift phenomena?

Answer 28

A. Culture
→ (Finney, 1978) Risky behavior may to some extent be understood by the culture the participants are from (ex: many risk shift studies take place in North America where the values of success, status, and risk are held in high esteem).

B. Circumstance
→ (Chen et al., 2000) However, the risky shift was not universal. It changes depending on each scenario; there were decision dilemmas on which people became more cautious after discussions. (ex: If an individual supports a family and kids).

Question 29

Persuasive argument theory?

Answer 29

→ (Burnstein & Vinokur, 1977) Demonstrate how a disagreeing minority can be persuaded through the deliberation of the information by the majority otherwise known as ‘Information influence’. 90% of the time a whole jury will make the same decision after the trial.

→ (Brauer, Judd, & Glinder, 1995) Show how active participation in discussion produces more attitude change than passive listening. When expressed in their own words, the verbal commitment magnifies the impact. The more group members repeat one another’s ideas, the more they rehearse and validate them.

→ (Tesser, Martin, & Mendolia, 1995) State that the process of thinking about the issue strengthens our opinions.

Question 30

Social identity theory, what is it?

Answer 30

→ (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) According to John Turner, a group constitutes simply from feeling and perceiving oneself to be a member is sufficient to think and act as one. This group provides us with a social identity. Feeling attached and having common interests (ingroup members), thinking of ourselves as quite different from other social groups in relevant ways (outgroup members).

To test that -
→ (Hogg et al., 1990) In this study they showed participants an audio of a group who they were told had similar views (ingroup) and then showed them the argument made by groups other than theirs (outgroup). When participants believed they were members of a group that made risky decisions, when exposed to outgroups making cautious decisions the individual participant made extremely risky choices.

Question 31

What is group think?

Answer 31

→ Group-think is the tendency for groups to think in harmony. It is a mode of thinking in highly cohesive groups in which the desire to reach a unanimous agreement overrides the motivation to adopt proper rational decision-making procedures.

Question 32

Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?

Answer 32

1. Hides reality by seeking agreement
2. Inhibits from uncovering a better truth
3. Makes people conform, not empowered to deviate
4. Seek approval instead of taking risks