Week 12 Flashcards
Define group
- a collection of individuals who have relationships to each other that make them interdependent to some significant degree
Purposes of group living
- protection from predators
- efficiency in acquiring food
- assistance with rearing children
- defense against human aggressors
Social facilitation
- the effect of presence of others on performance
Evidence supporting that having people around enhances performance
- Triplett - brought 40 kids and had them turn fishing reels as fast as they could
- they turned reels faster when they were around other kids doing the same thing
Evidence supporting that having people around impedes performance
- Allport - students asked to refute philosophical arguments as best as they could in a 5 min period, they did better when working alone than with a group of
When does social facilitation occur?
- when a task is simple or well-learned.
Dominant response
- the most likely response of an individual that is in a person’s hierarchy of possible responses in any context
Zajonc’s model of social facilitation
- when the mere presence of others acts as arousal, which causes an increase in dominant response tendencies
- depending on wether its simple task or difficult, performance is facilitated, or is impaired.
Micheals et al study
- researchers secretly watched pool players who were playing alone at a student union; rated as “skilled” or “unskilled”
•The researchers then walked up to the pool table and watched them
•Skilled players started playing better
•Unskilled players started playing worse
Why does social facilitation occur?
- Evaluation apprehension - we dont wanna look bad, so if others can evaluate us, we have increased arousal
- mere presence - simply having other people around makes us very alert and vigilant, and we need to be able to act fast.
Social lofting
- exerting less effort when working on a group task in which individual contributions cannot be monitored because other people are around
Free riders
- people who benefit from the group give little in return.
Culture/gender differences in social loafing
- women do it less than men
- east asains do it less than westerners
Groupthink
A style of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering facts realistically.
Elements of Janis’ groupthink hypothesis
- antecedent conditions
- motivation
- symptoms of groupthink
- symptoms of defective decision making
Even if a group’s most important goal is a correct decision, individual members may be more concerned with what? (4)
- being judged by others
- pleasing the leader
- not hurting other people’s feelings
- avoiding responsibility if things go wrong
Examples of antecedent conditions
- directive leadership
- high cohesiveness
- lack of procedures for info search and appraisal.
How was JFK and the Bay of pigs an example of groupthink?
- many serious flaws present, as top advisors were unwilling to challenge bad ideas cus it might disturb perceived group agreement - but they still approved it.
- shows that logical thinking was not in play. - it was mainly how advisors perceived that info - cohesive thinking overrides logical thinking.
How do you prevent groupthink?
- group leaders need to remain impartial. - members try to please them if they make their opinions known
- group members must seek divergent opinions
- create subgroups that meet separately beforehand
- seek anonymous opinions.
Group polarization
Group decisions tend to be more extreme than those made by individuals - people are more inclined to go in the direction they are already inclined to go
Moscovici and Zavalloni
- French participants expressed opinions about (a) General Charles DeGaulle and (b) Americans
•First, individually
•Then, as a group
•The group opinion of CDG was even more positive as a group
•The group opinion of Americans was even more negative as a group
•Group polarization more likely occurs when individuals already have strong opinions
Why does group polarization occur?
- when people share their ideas, everyone gets exposed to new arguments
- you probably dont think of all possible argument in favor of your opinion, so these new arguments will strengthen your original opinion.
Why does group polarisation occur in context of social comparison?
- if the decision is risky, you wanna think you were slightly riskier than the avg person.
What problems do hierarchies solve for living?
- provide rules for dividing resources
- Guide group discussion and decision making
- provide order
- motivated selfless action
How do leaders benefit their group?
- provide skills and expertise
- socially skilled
- extroverted
- emotional intelligent
- generous/selfless