Week 7-People in Groups

Question 1

Social facilitation effects propose that the presence of others instinctively causes drive from arousal…

Answer 1

Drive Theory

Question 2

A group is likely to be higher in entitativity when…

Answer 2

Clear boundaries exist from other groups

Question 3

According to Tuckman’s (1965) model of group socialization, groups enter into the norming stage after which stage

Answer 3

Storming

Question 4

Define a group

Answer 4

Two or more people who share a common definition and evaluation of themselves and behave in accordance with such a definition

Question 5

What are the different group characteristics?

Answer 5

Common bond (personal goals) vs. Common identity (attachment to the group itself)
Egocentric vs Altruistic
Women (common bond)vs. Men(common identity)

2. Aggregates (can become a team, common faith, interdependent) vs. Groups
3. Individual vs. Collectivist stance

Question 6

What is enti-tavity and cohesiveness?

Answer 6

Entit-ativity: Property of a group that makes it seem like a coherent, distinct, and unitary structure. E.g. Rugby Team (high in entitativity); Running club (low in entitativity)

Cohesiveness: Property of a group that affectively binds people and gives them sense and meaning (esprit de corps; team spirit)- attraction, similarity, cooperation

If one high in enta-tivity; high in cohesiveness also.

Question 7

Groups and Performance- How is our performance affected by presence of others?

Answer 7

Competing-Norman Triplett (1898)- People cycle faster when they pace with others than when they do it alone
Social facilitation is the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance on simple tasks when others are present. SOCIAL FACILITATION for simple tasks.

Question 8

Why do social facilitation occur?-Zajonc Drive Theory

Answer 8

Presence of others creates arousal; a sense of drive which energises and motivates us; increase in performance for dominant responses which causes social facilitation (if not social inhibition).

Question 9

Why do social facilitation occur?- Evaluation of Apprehension Theory

Answer 9

Cottrell et al. (1968): Audience manipulation. Evaluating audience elicit drive. Feeling if other people are gonna judge us.
a)Blindfolded
b) Merely present
c)Attentive audience
Attentive audience produced most facilitation

Learned experience

However, Schmitt et al better performance on an easy task inhibited on a difficult task. Mere presence is enough no need of the attentive audience.

Question 10

Why do social facilitation occur?- Distraction conflict theory

Answer 10

Presence of others (audience/co-actors) creates attentional conflict, a drive of dominant response. Drive overcomes distraction. Experience of attentional conflict

Question 11

Other explanations for social facilitation

Answer 11

Self-Discrepancy

Cognitive resources

Question 12

What happens when we work in groups? Impacts of working in groups

Answer 12

Maximilien Ringelmann (1913) examined the efficiency of various people (animals and machines) performing agricultural tasks

Ringelmann effect- Individual effort on task diminishes as group size increases.

Question 13

Ringelmann effect- Why is loss in effort?

Answer 13

• Coordination Loss – due to problems coordinating behaviour
• Motivation Loss – participants were less motivated as group size increases.

Condition 1 – real groups pull ropes
Condition 2 – pseudo-groups pull ropes (no coordination possible, therefore loss of force must be due to loss of motivation)

Question 14

What is Social Loafing?

Answer 14

A reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task compared with working either alone or co-actively.

Latane et al-The participants were instructed to cheer and clap as loudly as possible. The amount of noise each participant produced was decreased by 29% in group of two, 49% in group of four and 60% in group of six.

The increase in the number of new members to the group leads to a decrease in terms of the significance of impact on effort.

Question 15

What is the free-rider effect?

Answer 15

A free-rider is someone who exploits a shared public resource without contributing to its maintenance.

Free-riders take advantage of the group product without contributing to it.

Loafers reduce effort on group tasks but still contribute to the group effort

Question 16

Why do people loaf?

Answer 16

Output equity: People loaf on collective tasks because they think others do. They want to maintain equity and don’t want to appear the ‘sucker’

Evaluative apprehension: Presence of others gives a sense of anonymity for those not motivated to do the task

Matching to standard: People loaf because they have no clear performance standard to match

Question 17

Is loafing inevitable?

Answer 17

Meaningfulness and importance of task can reduce loafing.

Collectivistic cultures
Presence of an outgroup
Salient group identity

Question 18

Define Group Cohesiveness

Answer 18

Cohesiveness: Property of a group that affectively binds people and gives them sense and meaning (esprit de corps; team spirit)

Question 19

Field of Forces Predicticting levels of cohesiveness

Answer 19

Attractiveness- to individual group members; and of group

Mediation of goals-social interaction per se
individual goals requiring interdependence.

More cohesiveness- membership commitment to group and adherence to group standards.

Question 20

Why do cohesiveness and group behaviour happen in small and big groups?

Answer 20

Interpersonal—->Intergroup

Switch from personal identity to social identity. The shift in self-categorisation.

Question 21

Self Categorization Theory

Answer 21

SHIFT FROM PERSONAL ATTRACTION TO SOCIAL ATTRACTION; increasing cohesiveness and performance. As identification increases.

Self-concept cognitive mechanism that underpins the behavioural continuum

Salient social identity leads to self-stereotyping by which the self-perceived as interchangeable with other ingroup members (depersonalisation)

Group behaviour is associated with a change in the structure of the self- a change in self-categorization.

Found that social attraction was related to prototypicality and norms, particularly for high identifiers.

Question 22

What is Group socialisation?

Answer 22

How people move in and out of groups.
Groups are dynamic in nature:
-New members join
-Old members leave
-Members are socialised by the group
-The group is influenced by members

Question 23

Stages of group socialisation

Answer 23

Tuckman (1965)

1) Forming
2) Storming- Disagreements what’s best for the group
3) Norming- feel what is normative of group
4) Performing- performs optimally towards shared norms and moral
5) Adjourning- Group dissolves because goals achieved or moved on.

Question 24

Morland and Levine group socialisation

Answer 24

1) Evaluation- rewards get from a group
2) Commitment- what we get from a group/ desire for continued commitment.
3) Role transition- non-members, full members; partial members

5 stages of role transition:
Investigation of new members; entry into the group; new member accommodated and integration of group; acceptance; unexpected transition marginal member; resocialisation. Exited- reminiscent of the group.

Initiation tactics. Boring discussion group tasks.

Question 25

What are (group) norms?

Answer 25

Norms: Attitudinal and behavioural uniformities that define group membership and differentiate between groups. How to act in situations.

Explicit or unconscious norms. Ethnomethodology-detection of norms when it is violated. Hidden norms that are actually there.

Question 26

What are the different types of norms?

Answer 26

Descriptive norms: perception of which behaviours are typically performed

Injunctive norms: perception of whether a behaviour will be approved or disapproved of by a given group.

Question 27

Theory of planned behaviour

Answer 27

Subjective norms- what other people think we ought to be doing

Question 28

Functions of norms

Answer 28

Stability & Predictability
Individual Function: Specify the range of behaviour that is acceptable in a certain context

Group Function: Coordinate the action of members towards the fulfilment of group goals

Prolong exposure to liberal norms change attitudes (Newcombe); normative shift in beliefs

Question 29

Why do we join groups?

Answer 29

-Some groups we don’t join, we are thrown into them (age, sex, ethnicity, social class; social categories)
-Degree of choice for others (occupations, degrees, political groups etc)
-Degree of choice is flexible
-Physical proximity
-Similar interests, attitudes, and beliefs
-Shared goals that require behavioural interdependence
-Social support (emotional support, avoiding loneliness)
-Basic motive of affiliation/need to belong
Social identity (help us understand who we are)

Question 30

Define group structure

Answer 30

Division of the group into different roles that often differ with respect to status and prestige.
Zimbardo what it’s like to go into these roles.

Question 31

What happens without groups?

Answer 31

People with stronger social relationships had a 50% increased likelihood of survival than those with weaker social relationships.