Topic 9 - Group Processes

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

2 or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other; assembled for a common purpose

dyad = exactly 2 people

Question 2

4 reasons why people join groups?

Answer 2

1) Sense of belonging
2) Source of information: help us resolve ambiguity in the social world
3) Source of identity
- Help us define who we are (I AM this)
- Help us feel distinct from other groups (I am NOT that)
4) Establish social norms: help guide action

Question 3

Why do we join groups from an evolutionary standpoint?

Answer 3

Better able to survive
Evolutionary drive
As a consequence, this need to belong has become innate and present in all societies

Question 4

What is the difference between social norms and group norms?

Answer 4

Social norms: ideas about what behaviours are acceptable in a society (expended obedience)
- Ex. don’t laugh at a funeral, don’t cry at a comedy show

Group norms: specific to particular groups
What is expected of people differs across groups and situations
- Ex. Hell’s Angels, Grandma’s quilting group

Question 5

What are social roles?

Answer 5

shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave in that group

Question 6

What is a potential cost to having social roles?

Answer 6

can have role enmeshment. Can get so far into a role that their personality, values, and identities can get lost.

Risk of DEINDIVIDUATION (where own sense of self can get blurred or lost)

Question 7

Describe the Stanford prison experiment.

Answer 7

Didn’t take long to slip into roles, quickly took things much too far. Obedience to authority and adhering to social roles caused issues.

Question 8

What is group cohesiveness?

Answer 8

qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members

Question 9

How does group cohesiveness impact likelihood to stay in group, take part in group activities, and recruiting?

Answer 9

The more cohesive a group is, the more its members are likely to:
- Stay in the group
- Take part in group activities
- Try to recruit new like-minded members

Question 10

When does cohesiveness help performance? When does it hinder performance?

Answer 10

If task requires close cooperation - cohesiveness helps performance

If maintaining good relationships among group members becomes more important than finding the best solution, cohesiveness can become a negative factor
- Might have problems making strong business decisions for example

Question 11

Why do group members tend to be alike in age, gender, and opinions?

Answer 11

Groups attract people already similar to existing members

Group members more likely to recruit similar others

Groups operate in ways that encourage similarity in the members (promote conformity, obedience to norms and roles)

Question 12

What is a strength of a homogenous group? What is a strength of a diverse group?

Answer 12

homogenous groups = more cohesive

diverse groups = often perform better (creative problem solving, information sharing, flexible problem solving)

Question 13

What are 3 ways in which individual behaviour is impacted by a group setting?

Answer 13

social facilitation

social loafing

deindividuation

Question 14

What is social facilitation?

Answer 14

when the presence of others energizes us

Question 15

What is social loafing?

Answer 15

when the presence of others relaxes us

Question 16

What is deindividuation?

Answer 16

the loosening of normal social constraints on behaviour when people can’t be personally identified

Question 17

According to social facilitation theories, how do people perform on simple vs. complex tasks when in the presence of others?

Answer 17

Social facilitation: People do better on simple (well-learned) tasks and worse on complex (difficult) tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated.

Question 18

Why/how presence of others improves performance?

Answer 18

arousal

presence of others increases arousal

arousal increases HR, alertness, etc. and improved performance when task is simple

Fluster effect if challenging - arousal can then diminish performance

Question 19

3 theories of why the presence of others causes arousal / social facilitation:

Answer 19

1) Other people cause us to become particularly alert and vigilant

2) Other people make us apprehensive about how we’re being evaluated (evaluation apprehension)
- Wondering what they might be thinking about us

3) Other people distract us from the task at hand

Question 20

How was social loafing tested experimentally? What was the result?

Answer 20

tug of rope

When a group pulled on a rope, each individual exerted less effort than when doing it alone

Question 21

How was performance impacted by social loafing (in complex vs. simple tasks)?

Answer 21

People did worse on simple tasks but better on complex tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated.

Question 22

Will working in the presence of others when working in a group diminish performance? What are the 2 things we need to know?

Answer 22

1) Can individual efforts be evaluated?

2) Is the task simple or complex?

Question 23

Is social loafing more likely among men or women? Why?

Answer 23

Social loafing is more likely among men than women.

Females tend to focus on and care more about personal relationships with other individuals on average. This may make females less likely to participate in social loafing when in groups, because we don’t want personal relationships with others to be diminished.

Question 24

Is social loafing tendency higher in Western or Eastern/Asian countries?

Answer 24

Higher tendency to social loaf in Western cultures because of how we define ourselves.

Asian cultures: slightly more interdependent self; reduces social loafing tendencies because it risks alienating oneself from the group
Western - more egocentric self; focus on self.

Question 25

What is the result of deindividuation?

Answer 25

Loss of self-awareness in groups
- Sense of anonymity

Characteristic of the individual in the crowd

Psychological state of decreased self-evaluation or self-consciousness

Question 26

What is the role of special dress or clothing for a group?

Answer 26

Can be aimed at reducing individual awareness, self-consciousness, and sense of self as individuals

Encourages adoption of group norms and background of identity within group

Question 27

How does hiding identity before going into battle impact violence?

Answer 27

Warriors that hide identity before going into battle, were significantly more likely to kill, torture, or mutilate prisoners, than those who did not hide their identities

Question 28

Why does deindividuation lead to impulsive and sometimes violent acts?

Answer 28

makes people feel less personally accountable

increases obedience to group norms (not always violent)

Question 29

Can deindividuation lead to positive behaviour?

Answer 29

Yes, it can have both positive and negative effects.
Ex. women’s groups and being able to express self more freely and vulnerably; can be a positive experience

Question 30

Does deindividuation require face-to-face contact?

Answer 30

No - ex. cyberbullying or online aggression

Question 31

What are the pros and cons of deindividuation online?

Answer 31

Pros: free and open discussion of difficult topics - ex. to voice mental health concerns

Cons: reduction in common civility; bullying

Question 32

What are outcomes of victimization (such as in the example of cyberbullying)?

Answer 32

• Reduced ability to learn
• Feeling unsafe at school
• Increased social, mental health, and behavioural problems
• Physical problems - headaches, stomach aches
• Reduced self-esteem

Question 33

What is trolling?

Answer 33

Posting inflammatory and digressive or off-topic messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses, either for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain

Question 34

How can deindividuation be reduced?

Answer 34

• Enhance personal identification
• Reduce feelings of anonymity
• Create virtual panopticon
  ○ No sense of when they are being watched or not - act as if in a state of constant surveillance.

Question 35

What is a panopticon?

Answer 35

From tower, guard can see every cell and inmate, but inmates can’t see into the tower

No sense of when they are being watched or not - act as if in a state of constant surveillance

Question 36

When can groups perform better than individuals?

Answer 36

when group members freely contribute independent opinions from a variety of viewpoints

if people are motivated to search for the answer that is best for the entire group, not just themselves

when they rely on group members’ unique areas of expertise

Question 37

Do groups usually perform better than individuals?

Answer 37

Often these things that make groups perform well don’t happen, so they become less effective

Question 38

What is process loss?

Answer 38

any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving

inefficient problem-solving in groups

Question 39

What are the reasons for process loss for group problem solving?

Answer 39

Groups might not try hard enough to find the most competent member

Most competent members might find it difficult to speak up or disagree with everyone
- Conformity variables, etc.

Communication problems arise within group

Question 40

What are 2 important forms of process loss?

Answer 40

failure to share unique information

groupthink

Question 41

Explain the issue of failure to share unique information

Answer 41

negatively impacts group decision-making or problem-solving

• Groups often fail to share information that only some members have
• Groups tend to focus on the information they share and ignore facts known to only some members
• Failure to collect and aggregate unique information

Question 42

What is groupthink?

Answer 42

A kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important that objectively considering the facts

Question 43

When is groupthink most likely to occur?

Answer 43

• Highly cohesive group
• Isolated from contrary opinions
• Ruled by a directive leader who makes his or her wishes known and does not encourage dissent

Question 44

What are antecedents of groupthink?

Answer 44

• Group is highly cohesive
• Group isolation
• Directive leader
• High stress
• Poor decision-making procedures

Question 45

What are symptoms of groupthink?

Answer 45

• Illusion of invulnerability
• Belief in the moral correctness of the group
• Stereotyped views of out-group
• Self-censorship
• Direct pressure on dissenters to conform
• Illusion of unanimity
• Mindguards

Question 46

What kinds of defective decision making can result from groupthink?

Answer 46

• Incomplete survey of alternatives
• Failure to examine risks of the favored alternative
• Poor information search
• Failure to develop contingency plans

Question 47

What is group polarization?

Answer 47

Tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members - toward greater risk if people’s initial tendency is to be risky and toward greater caution if people’s initial tendency is to be cautious

Joining a group is likely to lead an individual’s attitudes to become more extreme

Question 48

How does joining a group possibly impact the opinions of an individual?

Answer 48

Group is likely to be made up of people like you, so you are not encountering counter-evidence or different opinions

attitude becomes more extreme

Question 49

What are the 2 main reasons that group polarization occur?

Answer 49

persuasive arguments interpretation:
- individual bring to the group a set of arguments, some of which others have not considered

social comparison interpretation:
- in order to be liked, many people then take a position that is similar to everyone else’s but a little more extreme

Question 50

Describe polarization in American politics.

Answer 50

• Moving apart, more polarization as the years go on
• Increasingly problematic and conflict occurring

Question 51

How does targeted media impact polarization?

Answer 51

Social media feeds and on-demand media tend to vary widely based on a user’s past preferences and experiences - tailored to us and what we are known to think, agree with, etc.

What you click on will influence what you are exposed to, even like Netflix.

Question 52

What is the great person theory for leadership?

Answer 52

idea that certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the situation

ex. Leaders tend to be slightly more intelligent, extroverted, confident, charismatic.

Question 53

What does research say about how personality or individual differences and leadership abilities are related?

Answer 53

says that they are only WEAKLY related

Question 54

In a study of individual factors in effective leadership, what 3 individual factors were actually related to effective leadership?

Answer 54

people more likely to be effective leaders shared 3 things:
all tall, small families, published books before taking office

Question 55

What are the 2 types of leadership styles?

Answer 55

transactional leaders

transformational leaders

Question 56

What is the difference between transactional leaders and transformational leaders?

Answer 56

Transactional leaders: set clear, short-term goals and reward people who meet them

Transformational leaders: inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals.

Question 57

Is being a transactional or transformational leader linked to personality traits?

Answer 57

No, not closely linked with personality traits, not as if they are born to be one type of leader or another.

Question 58

What are some of the strengths of transactional leaders and transformational leaders?

Answer 58

Transactional leaders - do a good job of making sure the needs of the organization are met and that things run smoothly, good organizers

Transformational leaders: think outside the box, good at identifying long-term goals and inspire their followers to work hard to meet these goals.

Question 59

Is being a transactional leader or transformational leader mutually exclusive?

Answer 59

Not mutually exclusive, in fact most effective leaders adopt both styles to some extent.

Question 60

What was learnt in terms of the type of leadership in the Rajneesh Movement?

Answer 60

there was blended leadership

charisma and order

Question 61

What is the contingency theory of leadership?

Answer 61

leadership effectiveness depends on how task-oriented or relationship-oriented the leader is and on the amount of control/influence the leader has over the group

Question 62

According to the contingency theory of leadership, what are the 2 types of leaders?

Answer 62

1) Task-oriented leader: concerned more with getting the job done than with workers’ feelings and relationships

2) Relationship-oriented leader: concerned primarily with workers’ feelings and relationships between the group members

Question 63

In what situations are task-oriented leaders most effective?

Answer 63

high-control work situations
- when leader’s position is powerful (clear hierarchy and task)
- work is structures and well-defined

low-control work situations
- when leader’s position is not powerful (ambiguous who is in charge)
- work is not clearly defined

Question 64

In what situations are relationship-oriented leaders most effective?

Answer 64

moderate-control work situations
- things are running fairly smoothly
- some attention to poor relationships / hurt feelings is needed

Question 65

What are the gender differences in leadership?

Answer 65

more difficult for women to achieve leadership positions

Question 66

In business leadership, what % of chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies are womne?

Answer 66

<10%

higher rates in Norway, Sweden, France, and Australia

lower rates in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan

Question 67

Is the representation of women in companies’ board of directors the same around the world?

Answer 67

No, huge variations around the globe
but overall trend that women are under-represented

Question 68

According to the social psychology perspective, what is a big part of why it is difficult for women to achieve leadership positions?

Answer 68

A big part of this from social psychology perspective is due to gender stereotypes

Question 69

What are the gender stereotypes in Canada and US in terms of good leaders?

What traits are women often stereotyped to have?

Answer 69

belief that good leaders have agentic traits (assertive, controlling, dominant, independent - traditionally associated with masculinity)

Women are often stereotyped as having more communal traits (concerned with the welfare of others, warm, helpful, affectionate)

Question 70

Explain the double bind for women in terms of gender and leadership.

Answer 70

if warm and communal (fitting stereotype) - maybe more likeable, viewed as having low leadership potential

if agentic and forceful - more likely to be seen as unlikeable and not acting like a woman should; maybe more leadership potential

Question 71

What is it that people believe is holding women back from top jobs?

Answer 71

• Women held to higher standards
• General populous or business not ready or willing to hire/elect women leaders
• Family responsibilities don’t leave enough time
• Women don’t have sufficient connections/party support
• Idea that women are not tough enough - sexist
• Idea that women don’t make as good managers - sexism

Question 72

What is the glass cliff vs. glass ceiling?

Answer 72

Glass cliff:
Women are thought to be better at managing crises (especially interpersonal)
- Puts them in precarious positions where they are brought into lead during tense situations where it is difficult to succeed
- Even when women have broken through the glass ceiling into top positions, they are more likely than men to be put in charge of units that are in crisis and in which the risk of failure is very high

Glass ceiling: - invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic (women or other minorities) from rising above a certain level in a particular hierarchy)

Question 73

What does the USask example of our 1 female president represent?

Answer 73

example of glass cliff

Question 74

How does culture influence leadership?

Answer 74

there are cultural differences and similarities

differences:
- autonomous leaders are valued more in Eastern Europe than Latin America

similarities in leadership qualities:
- charisma
- team-orientation

Question 75

What happens when individuals in groups have incompatible or conflicting goals?

Answer 75

potential for interpersonal conflict

Question 76

What is a social dilemma?

Answer 76

a conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual, if chosen by most people, will have harmful effects on everyone

What is best for an individual is not always best for the group as a whole.

Question 77

What can be a result of the social dilemma?

Answer 77

Can create conflict and disappointment when the individual actions are causing collective loss

Question 78

What is the prisoner’s dilemma?

Answer 78

2 people, acting in their own self-interest, can bring about poor outcomes for themselves

Question 79

What is game theory?

Answer 79

Game theory explores how when we interact with others, how we make decisions and what is most strategic from mathematical perspective

Often highlights the ways in which humans act, which are not always conducive to their own self-interest

Question 80

What makes people more likely to adopt a cooperative strategy in the case of the prisoner’s dilemma?

Answer 80

They are playing the game with a friend

Expecting to interact with their partner in the future

Change norms about expected behaviour (ex. change name from “Wall Street game” to “Community game”)

Others employ a tit-for-tat approach
(Training you to be more cooperative)

Question 81

In this social age, what else can help deter people from violating rules or legal restrictions? How do social dilemmas take on a different shape?

Answer 81

harsh social shaming

removed anonymity, exposed exploiters

Question 82

What are key features of new religious movements or cults?

Answer 82

Authoritarian charismatic leader

Formal indoctrination / thought reform program
- Indoctrination - process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically –> actively pursuing uncritical acceptance of the groups’ belief, derailing dissent or critical thinking

Exploitation / destruction / control
- Ex. insisting handing over paychecks, that they cut ties with loved ones outside the group, or engage in self-harming behaviours to show devotion to the group

Transcendent belief system (beyond the range of normal/physical human experience)

Question 83

What is indoctrination?

Answer 83

Process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically –> actively pursuing uncritical acceptance of the groups’ belief, derailing dissent or critical thinking

Question 84

What are common elements of indoctrination?

Answer 84

Recruit vulnerable persons

Soft sell - suggest you need something more in life

Indoctrination into truth and better way of life / demonizing of dominant culture

Foster intense attachment to leader

Construct on external enemy

Foster peer pressure - conformity

Leaders exhibit sociopathic, narcissistic traits - demands obedience