W9: Group Processes

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

A set of individuals who have direct interaction with each other over time and have a shared fate, identity, or set of goals.

Question 2

Why do we join groups?

Answer 2

1. Increased chances of survival and reproduction.
2. Increased sense of personal and social identity. According to Social Identity Theory, this can serve as a source of self-esteem.
3. Increased meaning and purpose: sense of immortality as groups live on beyond our lifetimes.
4. Increased sense of control.

Question 3

What is the link between collectivism and harsh environments?

Answer 3

Stronger collectivism is found in regions with harsher environments.

Question 4

Name three types of harsh environments.

Answer 4

Pathogen prevalence, (lower) economic development, and climate stress.

Question 5

Why do harsher environments lead to stronger collectivism?

Answer 5

These environments increase focus on survival goals and the utility of groups.

Question 6

What is the link between pathogen prevalence and stronger collectivism?

Answer 6

Stronger collectivism is found in regions with higher prevalence.

Question 7

What is the reason behind this link?

Answer 7

Collectivism helps to restrict the transmission of pathogens through stronger in-group favouritism and stronger conformity.

Question 8

What is the link between climate stress and collectivism?

Answer 8

Stronger collectivism is found in regions with less optimal temperature (<22 degrees Celsius).

Question 9

What are the psychological issues that groups face? Hint: SSSDGG. Define each term.

Answer 9

1. Social facilitation: the process by which the presence of others enhances our performance on an easy task but impairs our performance on a difficult one.
2. Social loafing: the phenomena where individuals exert less effort in group tasks, especially when contributions are pooled.
3. Deindividuation: the loss of a person’s sense of individuality in groups.
4. Stereotype threat: people experience fear that they may confirm the negative stereotypes of their own group, and this threat can impair the performance of members of stigmatised groups.
5. Groupthink: a group decision-making style characterised by an excessive tendency for members in a group to seek concurrence.
6. Group polarization: the exaggeration of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members through group discussion

Question 10

What is social facilitation?

Answer 10

Social facilitation: the process by which the presence of others enhances our performance on an easy task but impairs our performance on a difficult one.

The presence of another person or member of the same species (conspecifics) increases our arousal, resulting in energized behaviour. This strengthens our dominant response (a reaction occurring more quickly and easily in a given situation/stimulus).

Social facilitation depends on the type of task. With an easy task, our performance is enhanced. With a difficult task, our performance is impaired.

Question 11

What experiment supports social facilitation?

Answer 11

The cockroach experiment! When it came to an easy task, cockroaches completed the task more easily in the presence of an audience than when there was no audience. However, when it came to difficult tasks, the cockroaches took a longer time in the presence of an audience than to no audience.

Question 12

What is social loafing?

Answer 12

Social loafing: the phenomena where individuals exert less effort in group tasks, especially when contributions are pooled.

Shared responsibility is a factor.

Question 13

What experiment supports social loafing?

Answer 13

Ingham (1974): rope pulling experiment! Participants pulled 20% harder when they thought they were pulling alone than when they thought they were pulling with others.

Question 14

How do we reduce social loafing?

Answer 14

By increasing the responsibility of group members!

1. Break large projects into small components.
2. Peer evaluation.
3. Keep groups small.
4. Make each group member in charge of a certain task.

Question 15

What is the collective effort model?

Answer 15

The theory that individuals will exert effort on a collective task when they think their efforts will help achieve outcomes they personally value.

Through this model, it is shown that people even increase personal efforts to compensate for anticipated social loafing or poor performance by other group members.

Question 16

What is deindividuation?

Answer 16

Deindividuation: the loss of a person’s sense of individuality in groups.

Question 17

What are the three factors that contribute to deindividuation?

Answer 17

Arousal, anonymity, and a reduced sense of personal responsibility.

Question 18

What 2 types of environmental cues make deviant behaviour more likely to occur?

Answer 18

Accountability cues and attentional cues.

Question 19

What is the Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)?

Answer 19

A model of group behaviour that explains deindividuation effects as the result of a shift from personal identity to social identity.

The characteristics and norms of the group determine how people act.

Question 20

What is stereotype threat?

Answer 20

Stereotype threat: people experience fear that they may confirm the negative stereotypes of their own group, and this threat can impair the performance of members of stigmatised groups.

Question 21

When is impaired performance the strongest?

Answer 21

When relevant negative stereotypes in a given context are salient and especially among those with a stronger identity of the stigmatised groups.

Question 22

What experiment supports this theory?

Answer 22

Schmader (2002). When measuring math performance, females with a stronger gender identity attained lower scores than females with low gender identity. Furthermore, the gender stereotype is math salient.

Question 23

What is groupthink?

Answer 23

Groupthink: a group decision-making style characterised by an excessive tendency among group members to seek concurrence.

Question 24

What are the symptoms of groupthink?

Answer 24

Overestimation of the group, close-mindedness, pressures toward unanimity, defective decision-making.

Question 25

How can we prevent groupthink?

Answer 25

1. Allow criticism and establish a strong norm of critical review.
2. More equal power distribution.

Question 26

What is an example of groupthink?

Answer 26

Challenger disaster due to closed-mindedness and pressure toward conformity.

Question 27

What is group polarisation?

Answer 27

Group polarisation: the exaggeration of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members through group discussion.

If most group members initially lean toward a risky position on an issue, group members on average will move toward an even riskier position after a discussion.

Question 28

Why does group polarisation happen?

Answer 28

1. Persuasive arguments theory. The greater the number and persuasiveness of the arguments to which group members are exposed, the more extreme their attitudes become.
2. Social comparison. People compare themselves to fellow group members and take more extreme positions to distinguish themselves in the group.