Week 9 Flashcards
What is a Group?
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
What is the evolution of groups?
Evolutionary view:
Survival advantage
The need to belong: innate and present in all societies
How do groups form? Based on what?
Group members tend to be alike in age, sex, beliefs, and opinions
What is group cohesiveness?
Factors that bind members of groups together and promote liking, unity, and commitment among members
Does cohesiveness help group performance?
In general, yes, but complex
If task needs close cooperation, cohesiveness helps
Cohesiveness can lead to narrow-mindedness and conformity, which can hinder performance
What is an example of group influence?
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
What is Social Facilitation?
Others’ Presence ↓ Arousal ↓ Strengthens Dominant Response ↙↘ Enhances easy behaviour Impairs difficult behaviour
What happened in the Tirplett(1898) study? (Presence of others)
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
What happened in the La cucaracha (Zajonc, 1969) study?
Cockroach study, social facilitation
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
What are the 3 ideas that explain the role of physiological arousal?
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
Explain the 1st idea that explains social facilitation.
- 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
Explain the 2nd idea that explains social facilitation.
- Other people make us feel apprehensive about how we are being evaluated
Not just mere presence
Observation + evaluation
“Evaluation apprehension theory”
Explain the 3rd idea that explains social facilitation.
- 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”
Working toward common goals? (Tug o’ War study)
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.
What is social loafing?
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
Does social loafing always occur with group efforts?
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
What is the difference between social facilitation and social loafing?
Facilitation enhances performance on simple tasks and impares on complex tasks
Loafing impares performance on simple tasks and enhances on complex tasks
Why do groups allow us to do strange things?
Social facilitation: groups can arouse people
Social loafing: groups can diffuse responsibility
When arousal and diffused responsibility combine:
Deindividuation;
What is Deindividuation?
Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension
Occurs in group situations that foster anonymity and draw attention away from the individual
How does Deindividuation increase ?
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
Few examples of Deindividuation.
Participants in a darkened room cheat more
Wearing sunglasses leads people to act more selfishly in a two-player game
Online chat
How do we counteract Deindividuation?
Increase self-awareness
The presence of mirrors
Large name tags
Individualized clothing
How do groups affect decision-making?
Tend to assume that a group is better than an individual
Two heads are better than one
Too many cooks spoil the broth
Why isn’t a group always the best?
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
What is brainstorming?
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
What is a set-back of brainstorming?
Possibly due to social loafing, but also being constrained by other people’s ideas, and guided in that same direction
What is Process Loss?
Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving
When can Process Loss occur?
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
What happens when groups focus on the information they know.?
ignore facts known to only some members of the group
Process loss example, medical team.
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
How do you fix process loss?
Longer group discussion
Assign different group members to specific areas of expertise
Simple awareness
- Also occurs in close relationships
What is a Transactive Memory?
The combined memory of two people is more efficient than the memory of either individual
What is Group Polarization?
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
What is Groupthink?
A kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner.
How to aviod the groupthink trap?
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”
