The Social Group

Question 1

What is an entitativity group?

Answer 1

Perception by group members themselves or others that the people together are a group
Distinct units that are bound together
High entitativity: homogenous groups with clear structure, boundaries and purpose

Question 2

What is an intimacy group?

Answer 2

e.g. family
entitativity is highest
groups that are closely tied together

Question 3

What are task groups?

Answer 3

groups that come together temporarily to achieve a specific goal
entitativity is lower

Question 4

What is a common bond group?

Answer 4

Members of the group have close bonds with other members in the group
Sense of belonging is found within these relationships

Question 5

What is a common identity group?

Answer 5

Members have close ties with the group itself
Attachment to the group

Question 6

What is Tuckman’s stage model?

Answer 6

Forming: Individuals hope to be accepted, learn about each other and the task, avoidance of conflict

Storming: everyone knows each other, conflict which may be suppressed for the interest of harmony, questioning roles and responsibilities

Norming: conflict addressed, people understand each other better and appreciate the skills, roles and responsibilities are established

Performing: not all groups reach this phase, roles change according to the needs, work interdependently

Adjourning: the task is completed, the group ends, this can happen when members lose motivation

Question 7

What does Moreland and Levine’s group socialization model mean?

Answer 7

Group members come together to meet each other’s needs and accomplish goals
Individual and group evaluate each other, is it rewarding and worthwhile?
Members leaving and joining have a powerful influence on the group

5 membership phases:
1. investigation
2. socialization
3. maintenance
4. resocialization
5. remembrance

Question 8

What is a limitation of Tuckland’s stage model?

Answer 8

Incomplete model because it doesn’t show how groups evolve over time because it doesn’t focus on the perspective of the individuals

Question 9

What is the investigation phase in group socialization?

Answer 9

Prospective member
Level of commitment has to be met by both the group and individual wanting to join
High moral standing will enhance a groups sense of self worth

Question 10

What is the socialization phase in group socialization?

Answer 10

Marginal member
Individual starts being accepted into the group
Distinct level of commitment
Investiture: embrace an individuals identity, boosted wellbeing and commitment
Divestiture: strip away an individuals identity which causes stress and uncertainty

Question 11

What is the maintenance phase in group socialization?

Answer 11

Member
Phase can last long Individual is now accepted
Commitment can fall on either sides
Role negotiation occurs for rewards
Group may not value or invest in members
These failures cause resocialization

Question 12

What is the resocialization phase in group socialization?

Answer 12

Marginal member
Group reassimilates
If this is successful, commitment increases and convergence occurs. If not successful, the commitment falls further and the individual may leave
The individual is an ex member and the remembrance phase begins
Harsher and less forgiving towards old members that left than new members that wan to join
However, if the group and individual can negotiate and reconcile resocialization is possible

Question 13

What is remembrance in the group socialization?

Answer 13

Ex member
Individual reminisces
Continued feelings of obligation and loyalty

Question 14

What is an aggregate?

Answer 14

Share connections
No psychological value

Question 15

What is a group?

Answer 15

Common fate
Interact
Perceive yourself as belonging to the group
Interdependent
Common goal
Structure of norms and rules
Influence each other

Question 16

What is an ingroup and outgroup?

Answer 16

ingroup: groups we belong too
outgroup: groups we don’t belong too

Question 17

What did Moreland and McGinn 1999 find?

Answer 17

Students put into groups and created art together
Groups were dissolved
Criticism of former group’s work by former members of the group vs non-members
Participants were more upset by and reject criticism of the groups work when it came from other members of the former group ​
The “remembrance” stage of socialisation – Ties that bind groups together, continue to influence people even after they are formally cut

Question 18

What are intiation rites in group socialization?

Answer 18

Pleasant: includes ceremonies and gifts
Unpleasant: involve humiliation
Cognitive dissonance means people accept negative outcomes of rites

Question 19

What did Aronson and Mills find in 1959?

Answer 19

Female participants recruited for group discussion on psychology of sex ​
First asked to read boring excerpt of discussion before joining discussion​

Three groups: ​
Mild initiation task – read out five words with vague sexual meaning ​
Embarrassing initiation task – read out sexually explicit passages ​
Control: No task ​

Result: Participants in embarrassing initiation task rated discussion as much more interesting than participants in other two groups​

Question 20

What did Gerard and Mathewson 1966 find?

Answer 20

Replication of Aronson and Mills
The more unpleasant task (receiving a severe electric shock) was perceived as unrelated to later task ​
Evaluation of group was not affected in this condition ​because there was no dissonance
Not perceived as initiation ritual ​

Another version:
Ran different version of experience in which unpleasant task (severe electric shock) was perceived as initiation into group​
Participants who received severe shock rated group as much more attractive, as result of cognitive dissonance

Question 21

What is group cohesion?

Answer 21

The extent to which a group holds people to one another which gives unity and commonality

Question 22

What predicts group cohesion?

Answer 22

Attraction
Does the group satisfy the individuals goals?
Forces within the group

Question 23

What did Festinger suggest about forces in group cohesion?

Answer 23

Forces: attractiveness of group members, attractiveness of group, interdependence, interaction

Forces act on an individual to make the group cohesive

Group cohesion affects the behaviour of the individual and if they will adhere to the groups standards

Question 24

What are the limitations of group cohesion?

Answer 24

Difficult to measure
They measure attractiveness from the perspective of an individual, so they are examining interpersonal attractiveness, not a process unique to groups
Other structural features are important such as norms, roles and status

Question 25

What are norms?

Answer 25

Uniformities of behaviour that differentiate and determine groups from other groups

Formal or informal
Regulate behaviour
Some are universal, some vary across cultures

Question 26

What does Milgram’s subway study suggest about norms?

Answer 26

Able bodied students ask people who are sitting down in subway to give up their train seat so the student could sit
68% of passengers did so
Students participating in the study felt uncomfortable because of the norm that pregnant women or elderly people should be sitting down and young, able bodied people should stand

Question 27

What did Cialdini 1990 find?

Answer 27

In litter free setting, confederate who litters draws attention to implicit norm to keep place clean and so people litter less ​

Confederate littering already dirty environment activates norm of untidiness – people tend to litter more often ​

Norms do not need to be explicitly said e.g. signs to be powerful​

Norm accessibility​: people saw how others behaved and behaved accordingly

Question 28

What are descriptive and injunctive norms?

Answer 28

Descriptive norms: describe what people do
Injunctive norms: what people approve or disprove of

Question 29

What did Siegel and Siegel 1957 find?

Answer 29

Students randomly assigned to dormitory (liberal) or sorority (conservative) lodging

At the beginning of the year, views were conservative. Dormitory students became more liberal in their attitudes from exposure to liberal norms
Influenced by social norms

Question 30

Why do norms work so well?

Answer 30

Enforced
Internalised
Fixed during socialization
Consensual
Frequently activated
Action heuristics to make life easier (norms are a mental shortcut for figuring out how to behave in life, you don’t have to think much about it- its instincts)

Question 31

What are roles?

Answer 31

Shared expectation of how people in a group are supposed to behave

Question 32

What are the issues of roles?

Answer 32

Make people lose sense of right and wrong
e.g. Stanford Prison experiment
Are an issue when they seem illegitimate or arbitrary e.g. gender roles

Question 33

What did Twenge 2001 find about gender roles?

Answer 33

Tracked women’s social status in US between 1931 and 1993
Compared this with levels of their own assertiveness
Pattern followed trends in women’s social status
Pre war: assertiveness high as women took men’s roles, status was high
Post war: men were forced back into assertive roles, women were again seen as domestic, lowers status
Feminist movement in 70s improved status and also assertiveness

Question 34

What are social roles?

Answer 34

Some social roles are more valued than others
People legitimise status differences
People support systems which are unfair to them

Question 35

What are the theories of social roles?

Answer 35

System justification theory: people’s dependence on social systems for wealth and security motivates them to justify these social systems
Social creativity: groups become creative on what they focus on to maintain the groups esteem e.g. we are a poor country, but we are great at sport

Question 36

What are deviants?

Answer 36

Deviate far rom group norms
Generally disliked

Question 37

What did Marques 1988 find?

Answer 37

People presented with good or bad speeches by ingroup or outgroup members
Participants watched speeches (bad vs good) given by ingroup vs outgroup member ​
Measured favourability towards speech ​
Bad speeches were rated as bad when they came from an ingroup rather than an outgroup member

Question 38

What are subjective group dynamics model?

Answer 38

Threats to the perceived superiority of the ingroup​
Ingroup members who flout norms of desirable behaviour are derogated
Because deviants threaten the positive image of the ingroup and people want to evalute their group positively

Question 39

What is the intergroup sensitivity effect?

Answer 39

People are more likely to accept criticism when it comes from ingroup members rather than outgroup members

Question 40

What are imposters?

Answer 40

Individuals posing as legitimate group members when they are not

Question 41

What did Schoemann and Branscombe 2011 find?

Answer 41

Asked young adults how they felt about an older target dressing young​
Said to be trying to “pass” as young or not trying to pass as younger
Participants rated older adult trying to ‘pass’ as younger as less likeable and more deceitful

Question 42

What is schism?

Answer 42

Groups breaking off into smaller groups called subgroups
Subgroups differ in crucial aspects e.g. attitudes
Can cause conflict for larger groups
Rivalry between subgroups

Question 43

What are cross cutting categories?

Answer 43

Subgroups that represent categories that have members outside of the immediate larger group

Question 44

How can interdependence affect groups?

Answer 44

Interdependence: people can achieve more as a group, rather than alone

Question 45

How does affiliation and similarity affect groups?

Answer 45

Group together with people who have the same attitudes, creating opinion based groups

Question 46

How does the sociometer affect groups?

Answer 46

Inclusion in groups and building relationships is adaptive ​
Higher self-esteem in situations where people felt included than when they felt excluded ​
High self-esteem – stable group memberships ​
Low self-esteem – people seek out ways to improve group memberships/inclusion in the group ​

Question 47

How does terror management affect groups?

Answer 47

People look for structure in their lives to confront the inevitability of their death
Mortality salience
Being a part of the group raises self esteem and self worth
Group membership counteracts Mortality salience

Question 48

How does the need for social identity affect groups?

Answer 48

Personal identity: defines by one’s personal characteristics and relationships
Social identity: defined by one’s groups members

Group memberships give us motivation to protect the group because it is a part of the self image.
Group memberships give positive consequences for the self

Question 49

How does optimal distinctiveness affect groups?

Answer 49

People like to be affiliated with others but at the same time like to distinguish themselves from others
Groups allow us to do both

Question 50

What is the cyberball (Williams 2000)?

Answer 50

When we want to study people that have been ostracized we have to be careful because we don’t want to lower their self esteem.
Cyberball helps with this, it’s a computer game. Participant plays ball with 2 other people, these people they play with don’t exist. At first they all pass the ball equally, at the end of the task the participant is excluded and isn’t thrown the ball at all.

Question 51

What are the effects of ostracism?

Answer 51

People are psychologically distressed, causes anger and sadness
Hurts even when we don’t want to be a part of a group
Resembles physical pain