Week 9

Question 1

What is a Group?

Answer 1

1) Direct interactions among group members over a period of time
Vague because does not say for how long or what kind of interaction
2) Shared fate, identity, or set of goals

Question 2

What is the evolution of groups?

Answer 2

Evolutionary view:
Survival advantage
The need to belong: innate and present in all societies

Question 3

How do groups form? Based on what?

Answer 3

Group members tend to be alike in age, sex, beliefs, and opinions

Question 4

What is group cohesiveness?

Answer 4

Factors that bind members of groups together and promote liking, unity, and commitment among members

Question 5

Does cohesiveness help group performance?

Answer 5

In general, yes, but complex
If task needs close cooperation, cohesiveness helps
Cohesiveness can lead to narrow-mindedness and conformity, which can hinder performance

Question 6

What is an example of group influence?

Answer 6

On June 15, 2011, the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley cup
100,000 people gathered in downtown Vancouver and collectively flipped out

Question 7

What is Social Facilitation?

Answer 7

Others’ Presence
↓
Arousal
↓
Strengthens 
Dominant
 Response
↙↘
   Enhances easy behaviour               Impairs difficult behaviour

Question 8

What happened in the Tirplett(1898) study? (Presence of others)

Answer 8

Children rolled up fishing line on a reel
Condition 1: by themselves
Condition 2: in the presence of other children
Faster when?
In the presence of other children

Question 9

What happened in the La cucaracha (Zajonc, 1969) study?

Cockroach study, social facilitation

Answer 9

When a cockroach does an easy maze in front of other cockroaches they run fast and complete the maze quickly Figure.1 Simple maze
Vs. when the maze in difficult and the cockroaches does the maze in front of other cockroaches they slow down a lot because they are unsure and feel pressure from being watched Figure2. Complex maze

Question 10

What are the 3 ideas that explain the role of physiological arousal?

Answer 10

Other people cause us to become alert and vigilant
Other people make us feel apprehensive about how we are being evaluated
Other people distract us from the task at hand

Question 11

Explain the 1st idea that explains social facilitation.

Answer 11

1. Other people cause us to become alert and vigilant
   Others can be unpredictable, we are in a state of alertness in their presence
   Makes sense when thinking about human and animal (cockroach) studies
   Alertness = arousal
   “Mere presence” hypothesis

Question 12

Explain the 2nd idea that explains social facilitation.

Answer 12

2. Other people make us feel apprehensive about how we are being evaluated
   Not just mere presence
   Observation + evaluation
   “Evaluation apprehension theory”

Question 13

Explain the 3rd idea that explains social facilitation.

Answer 13

3. Other people distract us from the task at hand
   Divided attention = increased arousal
   Studies have shown that nonsocial distractions (e.g. flashing lights) causes the same social facilitation as the presence of other people.
   “Distraction-conflict theory”

Question 14

Working toward common goals? (Tug o’ War study)

Answer 14

Tug o’ War
36 participants
Pull on a rope in a tug o’ war
IV: Alone or
One person behind
Two people behind
Three people behind
DV: How hard people pull
Competing hypotheses 

The more people pulling the less each person pulls.

Question 15

What is social loafing?

Answer 15

The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts towards a common goal than when they are individually accountable
No evaluation apprehension = less effort
Want to get rid of social loafing?
- Make individuals accountable

Question 16

Does social loafing always occur with group efforts?

Answer 16

Not when
task is challenging, appealing, involving
group members are friends
big reward for effort
main difference between the two is whether or not you are being evaluated

Question 17

What is the difference between social facilitation and social loafing?

Answer 17

Facilitation enhances performance on simple tasks and impares on complex tasks
Loafing impares performance on simple tasks and enhances on complex tasks

Question 18

Why do groups allow us to do strange things?

Answer 18

Social facilitation: groups can arouse people
Social loafing: groups can diffuse responsibility
When arousal and diffused responsibility combine:
Deindividuation;

Question 19

What is Deindividuation?

Answer 19

Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension

Occurs in group situations that foster anonymity and draw attention away from the individual

Question 20

How does Deindividuation increase ?

Answer 20

By feeling anonymous.
The loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behaviour
leads to an increase in impulsive and deviant acts

Question 21

Few examples of Deindividuation.

Answer 21

Participants in a darkened room cheat more
Wearing sunglasses leads people to act more selfishly in a two-player game
Online chat

Question 22

How do we counteract Deindividuation?

Answer 22

Increase self-awareness
The presence of mirrors
Large name tags
Individualized clothing

Question 23

How do groups affect decision-making?

Answer 23

Tend to assume that a group is better than an individual
Two heads are better than one
Too many cooks spoil the broth

Question 24

Why isn’t a group always the best?

Answer 24

Additive task: Result is SUM of all members
- Folding a billion paper cranes
Conjunctive task: Result is determined by WEAKEST LINK
- Mountain climbing
Disjunctive task: Result is determined by STRONGEST MEMBER
- Best shot during team golfing

Question 25

What is brainstorming?

Answer 25

Express ALL ideas, even if bad, the more ideas the better

Groups brainstorming actually come up with fewer ideas than people brainstorming on their own, then later combining

Question 26

What is a set-back of brainstorming?

Answer 26

Possibly due to social loafing, but also being constrained by other people’s ideas, and guided in that same direction

Question 27

What is Process Loss?

Answer 27

Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving

Question 28

When can Process Loss occur?

Answer 28

Groups might not try hard enough to find out who the most competent member is
Most competent members might struggle to disagree with everyone else
Communication problems can arise

Question 29

What happens when groups focus on the information they know.?

Answer 29

ignore facts known to only some members of the group

Question 30

Process loss example, medical team.

Answer 30

Medical team trying to decide on the course of treatment of a person with abdominal pain
All members know some facts
- Patient is a male in his fifties with a history of digestive problems
Some members of the team, however, know things the other members do not
- The physician who first examined the patient in the emergency room may be the only one who knows that the patient had seafood for dinner that night
- One of the nurses may be the only one to have seen the results of a blood test showing that the patient has an abnormally high white blood cell count

To make the most informed decision, the group needs to pool all of the information and use it to decide on the best course of treatment

Question 31

How do you fix process loss?

Answer 31

Longer group discussion
Assign different group members to specific areas of expertise
Simple awareness
- Also occurs in close relationships

Question 32

What is a Transactive Memory?

Answer 32

The combined memory of two people is more efficient than the memory of either individual

Question 33

What is Group Polarization?

Answer 33

Discussion of a topic will strengthen an opinion shared by all group members
If people already favour a decision, they will favour it even more after discussion
If people are against a decision, they will be against it even more

Question 34

What is Groupthink?

Answer 34

A kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner.

Question 35

How to aviod the groupthink trap?

Answer 35

Wise leaders can take several steps to avoid groupthink:
Remain impartial
Seek outside opinions, from independent evaluators or experts
Create subgroups
Seek anonymous opinions
Encouraging members to raise objections and concerns
Assign one or more members to be a “Devil’s advocate”