Topic 9 - Group Processes Flashcards
What is a group?
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
4 reasons why people join groups?
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
Why do we join groups from an evolutionary standpoint?
Better able to survive
Evolutionary drive
As a consequence, this need to belong has become innate and present in all societies
What is the difference between social norms and group norms?
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
What are social roles?
shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave in that group
What is a potential cost to having social roles?
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)
Describe the Stanford prison experiment.
Didn’t take long to slip into roles, quickly took things much too far. Obedience to authority and adhering to social roles caused issues.
What is group cohesiveness?
qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members
How does group cohesiveness impact likelihood to stay in group, take part in group activities, and recruiting?
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
When does cohesiveness help performance? When does it hinder performance?
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
Why do group members tend to be alike in age, gender, and opinions?
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)
What is a strength of a homogenous group? What is a strength of a diverse group?
homogenous groups = more cohesive
diverse groups = often perform better (creative problem solving, information sharing, flexible problem solving)
What are 3 ways in which individual behaviour is impacted by a group setting?
social facilitation
social loafing
deindividuation
What is social facilitation?
when the presence of others energizes us
What is social loafing?
when the presence of others relaxes us
What is deindividuation?
the loosening of normal social constraints on behaviour when people can’t be personally identified
According to social facilitation theories, how do people perform on simple vs. complex tasks when in the presence of others?
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.
Why/how presence of others improves performance?
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
3 theories of why the presence of others causes arousal / social facilitation:
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
How was social loafing tested experimentally? What was the result?
tug of rope
When a group pulled on a rope, each individual exerted less effort than when doing it alone
How was performance impacted by social loafing (in complex vs. simple tasks)?
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.
Will working in the presence of others when working in a group diminish performance? What are the 2 things we need to know?
1) Can individual efforts be evaluated?
2) Is the task simple or complex?
Is social loafing more likely among men or women? Why?
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.
Is social loafing tendency higher in Western or Eastern/Asian countries?
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.
