Week 7 - Group Processes Flashcards
reasons that people join a group
humans may have an innate need to belong to groups stemming from evolutionary pressures that increased people’s chances of survival and reproduction
process of adjustment to a new group.
the individual is socialized to how things work in the group.
How do roles influence groups?
- Groups function much better when members are assigned roles that best match their talents and personalities
- the more role ambiguity, the worse one’s job performance is
How do norms influence groups?
Rules of conduct
– Can be formal or informal
How does cohesiveness influence groups?
The causal relationship works both ways: On the one hand, when a group is cohesive, group performance often improves; on the other hand, when a group performs well, it often becomes more cohesive.
Zajonc’s social facilitation model
The presence of others:
• Enhances performance on easy tasks
• Impairs performance on difficult tasks
Explain how the presence of others affects task performance, and how Zajonc’s social facilitation model accounts for these effects
- Enhances performance on easy tasks
* Impairs performance on difficult tasks
Describe how working with others on a task affects productivity
Easy task = improved performance
Hard task = decreased
social facilitation and situations likely to lead to
Zajonc proposed a three-step process:
The presence of others creates general physiological arousal, which energizes behavior. Based on experimental psychology research and principles of evolution, Zajonc argued that all animals, including humans, tend to become aroused when in the presence of conspecifics—that is, members of their own species.
Increased arousal enhances an individual’s tendency to perform the dominant response. The dominant response is the reaction elicited most quickly and easily by a given stimulus.
The quality of an individual’s performance varies according to the type of task. On an easy task (one that is simple or well learned), the dominant response is usually correct or successful. But on a difficult task (one that is complex or unfamiliar), the dominant response is often incorrect or unsuccessful.
social loafing and situations likely to lead to
A group-produced reduction in individual output on tasks where contributions are pooled.
People worked less hard in a group, when:
– The task is easy
– Individual efforts cannot be identified
Social loafing is occurs if:
• People believe their own performance can’t be identified
• Task isn’t important
• People believe their efforts aren’t necessary for success
• Group won’t be punished for poor performance
• Group is large
Define deindividuation
Loss of a person’s sense of individuality and
the reduction of normal constraints against
deviant behaviour
Group in terms of group processes
Two or more individuals who interact over time and have shared fate, goals, or identity.
How environmental cues can affect deindivuation?
• Accountability cues
– Affect cost‐reward calculations
• Attentional cues
– Focuses a person’s attention away from self
The effect of social identity on deindividuation
social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE)
Proposes that whether deindividuation affects people for better or for worse reflects the characteristics and norms of the group immediately surrounding the individual as well as the group’s power to act according to these norms
the different types of tasks that groups perform
additive task: the group product is the sum of all the members’ contributions.
Conjunctive: group product is determined by the individual with the poorest performance
Disjunctive: group product is (or can be) determined by the performance of the individual with the best performance
Explain process loss
The reduction in group performance due to obstacles created by group processes, such as problems of coordination and motivation.
relationship
between group performance and type of task
Additive: social loafing:- group performs less than its potential.
Conjunctive: group performance on conjunctive task tends to be worse than the performance of a single average individual
Disjunctive: Can perform well unless group processes interfere
Discuss the advantages of
brainstorming.
Coming up with more ideas - alone or electronic
Discuss the disadvantages of
brainstorming.
Production blocking. When people have to wait for their turn to speak, they may forget their ideas
Free riding. As others contribute ideas, individuals may feel less motivated to work hard themselves
Evaluation apprehension. In the presence of others, people may be hesitant to suggest wild, off-the-wall ideas
Performance matching. Group members work only as hard as they see others work.
Describe group polarization
The exaggeration through
group discussion of group members’ initial
tendencies
entitativty
refers to the perception of a group as pure entity
