Unit 8: Group Processes

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

A group is a set of individuals with at least one of the following characteristics: (1) direct interactions with each other over a period of time; (2) joint membership in a social category based on sex, race, or other attributes; (3) a shared fate, identity, or set of goals.

Question 2

What is a collective?

Answer 2

A collective is people engaged in common activities but having minimal direct interaction.

Question 3

Define social facilitation.

Answer 3

Social facilitation is the idea that the presence of others increases arousal which can affect performance on a task in different ways, depending on the task.

Question 4

Explain how, according to Zajonc, the mere presence of others affects performance of different tasks.

Answer 4

Performance on easy tasks is enhanced and performance on difficult tasks is impaired. There are three steps in the process from the presence of others to performance of the task: (1) the presence of others creates physiological arousal and energizes behaviour; (2) increased arousal enhance the person’s tendency to perform the reaction that comes to them most quickly and easily (dominant response); and (3) the type of task determines the quality of the person’s performance with easier tasks being done successfully and difficult tasks being done unsuccessfully.

Question 5

What are two alternative explanations for the social facilitation phenomenon?

Answer 5

1. Evaluation apprehension theory

2. Distraction-conflict theory

Question 6

What is evaluation apprehension theory?

Answer 6

A theory holding that the presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when those others are seen as potential evaluators.

Question 7

What is distraction-conflict theory?

Answer 7

A theory holding that the presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when those others distract from the task and create attentional conflict.

Question 8

Describe the social loafing phenomenon.

Answer 8

The social loafing phenomenon is a group-produced reduction in individual output on easy tasks where contributions are pooled.

Question 9

Identify factors that can reduce the likelihood of social loafing occurring when in a group.

Answer 9

1. People believe that their own performance can be identified and thus evaluated, by themselves or others.
2. The task is important or meaningful to those performing it.
3. People believe that their own efforts are necessary for a successful outcome.
4. The group expects to be punished for poor performance.
5. The group is small.
6. The group is cohesive.

Question 10

Describe the collective effort model.

Answer 10

The collective effort model is the theory that individuals will exert effort on a collective task to the degree that they think their individual efforts will be important, relevant, and meaningful for achieving outcomes that they value.

Question 11

How does the collective effort model account for social facilitation?

Answer 11

Individuals try harder on a collective task when they think their efforts will help them achieve outcomes that they personally value. Individuals are likely to increase their efforts to compensate for anticipated social loafing of group members (social compensation) when the outcome is important to them and if they believe their efforts can help achieve the desired outcome.

Question 12

How does the collective effort model account for social loafing?

Answer 12

When the outcome is not important to them, if they believe their efforts won’t affect the outcome much, or if they don’t think they will be able to compensate for the social loafing of other members, individuals will exert less effort (the sucker effect).

Question 13

Define deindividuation.

Answer 13

the loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behaviour

Question 14

How can environmental cues and a sense of social identity affect the deindividuation process?

Answer 14

The two types of environmental cues that affect the deindividuation process are accountability cues and attentional cues. When accountability is low, individuals are less likely to be caught and held responsible for deviant behaviour. This affects the individual’s cost-reward calculations and they become more likely to engage in gratifying but usually inhibited behaviours. Attentional cues refer to when a person reacts more to the immediate situation rather than to their internal standards of conduct and the long-term consequences of their behaviour. When accountability is low and attention is focused away from the self it contributes to a deindividuated state.

Question 15

Why do people join a group?

Answer 15

1. People have an innate need to belong to groups because it increases their chances of survival and reproduction compared to living in isolation.
2. Membership in groups gives individuals a greater sense of personal and social identity because an important part of people’s feelings of self-worth comes from their identification with particular groups.

Question 16

Outline the socialization process of new members to a group.

Answer 16

The new member of the group makes whatever changes are necessary to fit in and assimilate into the group. At the same time, the group accommodates the new member and makes the necessary changes to include them. Existing group members provide modelling, mentorship, and/or personal relationships with new members to help them be successful in the group.

Question 17

What are the stages in a group development process?

Answer 17

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning

Question 18

What are roles?

Answer 18

Roles are the expected set of behaviours for each person in a group and they can be formal or informal. Roles can also be instrumental or expressive.

Question 19

What are instrumental roles?

Answer 19

Instrumental roles help the group achieve its tasks.

Question 20

What are expressive roles?

Answer 20

Expressive roles provide emotional support and maintain morale.

Question 21

What are norms?

Answer 21

Norms are rules of conduct for members of a group and they can be formal or informal. Conforming to norms encourages group cohesiveness.

Question 22

What is group cohesiveness?

Answer 22

Group cohesiveness is the extent to which forces exerted on a group push its members closer together.

Question 23

What factors contribute to group cohesiveness?

Answer 23

1. commitment to the group task
2. attraction to group members
3. group pride
4. number and intensity of interactions

Question 24

Describe the relationship between group performance and group cohesiveness.

Answer 24

Group performance and cohesiveness have a positive bidirectional relationship. However, the research evidence indicates that performance affects cohesiveness more than cohesiveness affects performance. This relationship is stronger in smaller groups than in larger ones.

Question 25

Define risky shift.

Answer 25

Risky shift is the tendency for groups to become riskier than the average of the individual members.

Question 26

Define group polarization.

Answer 26

Group polarization is the exaggeration through group discussion of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members.

Question 27

What are the processes by which group polarization can be facilitated?

Answer 27

1. The higher the number of arguments and the more persuasive those arguments are, the more extreme the attitudes of group members become.
2. When group members discover more support for their opinions than originally anticipated, it motivates them to go beyond that norm to a more extreme norm. By adopting a more extreme attitudinal position, people can distinguish themselves in the group in a manner approved by the group
3. Ingroup members want to distinguish themselves from outgroup members so they take an extreme position in order to distance themselves from the position of an outgroup.

Question 28

Define groupthink.

Answer 28

A group decision-making style characterized by an excessive tendency among group members to seek congruence.

Question 29

What are the antecedents to groupthink?

Answer 29

1. high group cohesiveness
2. a group structure that has homogeneous members, directive leadership, unsystematic procedures, and is working in isolation
3. stress or urgency that can overrule accuracy

Question 30

What are the behavioural symptoms of groupthink?

Answer 30

1. overestimation of the group
2. close-mindedness
3. increased pressures toward uniformity that may involve mindguards and pressure on dissenters, self-censorship, and illusion of unanimity

Question 31

What are the consequences of groupthink?

Answer 31

1. defective decision making

2. a high probability of making a bad decision

Question 32

How can groupthink be prevented?

Answer 32

1. avoid isolation by consulting widely with outsiders
2. leaders explicitly encourage criticism and not take a strong stance early in the group discussion in order to reduce conformity pressures
3. establish a strong norm of critical review
4. have one group member who is responsible for reminding the group about the dangers of biased decision making
5. make individual group members believe that they are personally responsible for the outcome of the decision(s) that the group makes
6. increase the diversity of group members
7. establish a group norm that encourages critical thinking and discourages looking for congruence

Question 33

Describe transactive memory.

Answer 33

A shared system for remembering information that enables multiple people to remember information together more efficiently than they could alone by matching information to individuals based on their expertise and interest. This system can improve group performance when tasks and roles are distributed among group members in a rational and/or efficient manner (e.g. matching individuals to tasks based on skills, expertise, or preferences). When this is not done, process loss can occur.

Question 34

How does goal setting in a group affect the group’s performance?

Answer 34

Goal setting improves group performance. Groups perform better when they have goals that are specific, challenging, and reachable.

Question 35

When is goal setting especially effective?

Answer 35

1. when group members are committed to the goals
2. believe they have the ability to achieve them
3. when there are incentives in place for reaching goals

Question 36

Define a social dilemma.

Answer 36

A situation in which a self-interested choice by everyone creates the worst outcome for everyone.

Question 37

Describe the prisoner’s dilemma.

Answer 37

A type of dilemma in which one party must make either cooperative or competitive moves in relation to another party; typically designed in such a way that competitive moves are more beneficial to either side, but if both sides make competitive moves, they are both worse off than if they both cooperated.

Question 38

What are resource dilemmas?

Answer 38

Social dilemmas concerning how two or more people share a limited resource. There are two types: commons dilemmas and public goods dilemmas.

Question 39

What is the commons dilemma?

Answer 39

The commons dilemma describes the situation when if people take as much as they want of a resource that does not replenish itself, there will be nothing left for anyone (aka the tragedy of commons). Relevant current examples include deforestation, air pollution, and ocean dumping.

Question 40

What is the public goods dilemma?

Answer 40

In the public goods dilemma all individuals are supposed to contribute resources to a common pool that they can access/use to everyone’s benefit but if individuals don’t contribute, the service can’t continue. The private gain of withholding contributions conflicts with the public good of having the service/resource available to all.

Question 41

What is threat capacity?

Answer 41

Threat capacity is the ability to punish an individual who engages in a prohibited behaviour. Threat capacity can act as a deterrent to conflict escalation.

Question 42

How can perceptions of others escalate group conflict?

Answer 42

Perceptions of others refers to the tendency for groups to view members of the opposing group in a conflict as “the other” and characterize them in simplistic and exaggerated ways. Typically, groups see in their enemies what their enemies see in them. In extreme cases, this othering can lead to dehumanization where there is a perception that people in the other group lack human qualities or are subhuman. These perceptions of others can contribute to the escalation of group conflict and promote prejudice and violence.

Question 43

What are the strategies that are commonly used to reduce group conflict?

Answer 43

1. Graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension-reduction (GRIT)
2. 50-50 compromise
3. Integrative agreement

Question 44

What is Graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension-reduction (GRIT)?

Answer 44

Graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension-reduction (GRIT) is a strategy for unilateral persistent efforts to establish trust and cooperation between opposing parties. One group takes the first move toward cooperation by making an initial concession and the other group typically reciprocates. As a generalization, aggressiveness is met with aggressiveness and cooperativeness with cooperativeness.

Question 45

What is 50-50 compromise?

Answer 45

The most common successful outcome to negotiations where negotiators start at extreme positions and gradually work toward a mutually acceptable midpoint.

Question 46

What is integrative agreement?

Answer 46

A negotiated resolution to a conflict in which all parties obtain outcomes that are superior to what they would have obtained from an equal division of the contested resources.

Question 47

What is an arbitrator?

Answer 47

an outside party that is brought in during particularly difficult or significant negotiations and who has the power to impose a settlement

Question 48

What is a mediator?

Answer 48

an outside party that is brought in during particularly difficult or significant negotiations who works with the parties in conflict to try to reach a voluntary agreement