lecture 5 - inter group behaviour

Question 1

measuring attitudes about groups
modern racism

Answer 1

-prejudice directed at racial groups that exists alongside the rejection of explicitly racist beliefs

Question 2

realistic group conflict theory

Answer 2

-a theory that group conflict, prejudice, and discrimination are likely to arise over competition between groups for limited resources
evidence from robbers cave experiment

Question 3

contact hypothesis

Answer 3

-contact between members of different groups can go a long way towards reducing group stereotypes and intergroup hostility

Question 4

how is intergroup contact beneficial

Answer 4

-intergroup contact is especially beneficial when members of different groups interact as equals, work together to try to accomplish common goals , and come together on a one on one basis, as well as when these interactions are supported by broader societal norms

Question 5

dynamics of group behaviour

Answer 5

-social facilitation
-group decision making
-leadership and power

Question 6

nature/purpose of living
-need to belong

Answer 6

human beings , like all large primates except the orangutan, are group living animals who influence, and must get along with others
-they need to belong

Question 7

what is a group

Answer 7

‘a collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree’ (cartwright and zander 1968, p46)

Question 8

social facilitation
what effect does the presence of other people have on human performance ?
-norman triplett (1898)
-fishing reel experiment

Answer 8

-norman triplett is credited with being the first person to experimentally examine the effect of other people’s presence on human performance
-inspired by noticing that the fastest cyclists competed directly against one another on the same track at the same time.

-triplett conducted an experiment in which he invited a group of 40 children to his laboratory and had them turn a fishing reel as fast as they could in the presence or absence of another child engaged in the same activity.
-he found that the children tended to turn the reel faster when in the presence of another child

Question 9

norman tripletts findings reinforced
-social facilitation research
-what happened in his experiment when others werent doing the same task

Answer 9

-subsequent experiments reinforced triplett’s findings and extended them in two important ways
:The same effects were obtained when the others were not doing the same thing(that is, not “coacting”), but were merely present as an audience of passive observers and the same effect was also observed in a vast number of animal species, indicating that the phenomenon is quite general and fundamental. Research on this topic thus came to beknown as social facilitation research

Question 10

excpetions to triplett’s findings on social facilitation

Answer 10

-numerous exceptions to triplett’s original findings emerged soon after, for example , presence of others sometimes inhibit performance on arithmetic problems, memory tasks and maze learning

Question 11

what is social facilitation

Answer 11

-refers to the positive or negative effect on performance due to the presence of others
-arousal from the presence of others increases people’s tendancy to do what comes naturally
-

Question 12

social facilitation on easy vs difficult tasks

Answer 12

-on easy tasks, they are predisposed to respond correctly, so increasing this tendency facilitates performance ;
-on new or hard tasks when they’re not predisposed to respond correctly, arousal hinders performance by making them more likely to respond incorrectly

Question 13

what can intensify the effects of social facilitation

Answer 13

evaluation apprehension
-this is a concern about looking bad in the eyes of others, about being evaluated
-that seems to be important
-cottrell et al 1968

Question 14

evaluation apprehension and distraction conflict theory

Answer 14

-according to distraction conflict theory, being aware of another persons presence creates a conflict between paying attention to that person and paying attention to the task at hand, and that this attentional conflict is arousing and produces social facilitation effects

Question 15

beyond social facilitation - what is social loafing

Answer 15

-the most common pattern of responses that runs counter to the standard social facilitation effects
-social loafing : is the tendancy to exert less effort on a group task when individual contributions cannot be monitored (latane et al 1979)

Question 16

are groups or individuals more likely to better answer certain questions?

Answer 16

‘many heads are better than one’
-presented with problems for which there are precise , factual answers, groups are more likely than the average individual to come up with the correct solution (laughlin 1988; laughlin and ellis 1986)

Question 17

what is groupthink

Answer 17

-refers to the faulty thinking by members of cohesive groups, in which critical decision-making scrutiny is subverted by social pressures to reach consensus.

(the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group, resulting typically in unchallenged, poor-quality decision-making)

-groupthink has been implicated in the faulty decision making that has led to various policy fiascos

Question 18

what is group decision making affected by :

Answer 18

-how cohesive a group is
-how directive its leader is
-ingroup pressures that can lead to the rejection of alternative viewpoints and self censorship (tendency to refrain from expressing reservations in the face of apparent group consenses)

Question 19

what is risky shift in group decision making

Answer 19

-a tendency for groups to make riskier decisions than individuals would

Question 20

what is group polarisation

Answer 20

-a tendency for group decisions to be more extreme than those made by individuals ; whatever way the group as a whole is leaning (eg conservative) group discussion tends to make it lean further in that direction (conservative)

Question 21

what can group polarisation result in

Answer 21

-can result in group discussion exposing members to more persuasive arguments in favour of a consensus opinion than they would have thought of themselves , and through social comparison, when people compare their opinions with those of others

Question 22

how can we avoid the problems created by group polarisation

Answer 22

-the group should encourage the airing of all viewpoints
-leaders should refrain from stating their opinions at the outset
-someone should be designated to play devils advocate

Question 23

leadership and power
-social hierarchies
-what does power involve

Answer 23

Social hierarchies are a natural part of group life
-Power involves control and the freedom to act.
It derives from interpersonal sources, such as a person’s position of authority or expertise, as well as individual factors, such as the ability to engage with others socially and build strong alliances.
Cf Machiavellian leadership

Question 24

define
-status
-authority
-dominance

Answer 24

status : The outcome of an evaluation of attributes that produces differences in respect and prominence, and which contributes to determining a person’s power within a group.

authority : power that derives from institutionalised roles or arrangements

dominance : behaviour enacted with the goal of acquiring or demonstrating power

Question 25

the influence of power on behaviour
according to approach/inhibition theory

Answer 25

-according to the approach/inhibition theory, people in positions of elevated power look at things more simplistically and act in more disinhibited ways, sometimes leading to extremes and abuse

Question 26

evidence - people of leadership and power acting in disinhibited ways

Answer 26

-Empathy failures associated with elevated power (Magee et al., 2006)

-Investigators first induced people to feel relatively powerful or powerless by having them recall a time when they exerted control over another person or when they were controlled by someone else.

-Participants then performed a simple perspective-taking task.
-when feeling powerful, participants were less likely to draw a reversed E on their forehead so that it was easy for another person to read

Question 27

influence of power on social perception - the negative consequences
-women
-racism

Answer 27

Researchers have found that powerful men who stereotype female employees by focusing exclusively on their weaknesses tend to
-grant female employees fewer resources(Vescioe et al., 2005)
-evaluate them more negatively in masculine contexts, and anticipate less success by female employees than by male employees(Vescio et al., 2003)

Similarly, feeling powerful leads prejudiced whites to focus to a greater extent on the weaknesses of black employees relative toother employees (Vescio et al., 2006).

Question 28

-elevated power is associated with ______ behaviour

Answer 28

antisocial

People in positions of power have a tendency to violate politeness-related communication norms, such as interrupting, speaking out of turn, and acting rudely at work (DePaulo &Friedman, 1998

Question 29

study of fraternity members

Answer 29

A study had two low-power fraternity members and two high-power members tease each other by making up nicknames and telling amusing stories about one another (Keltner etal., 1998).Although teasing can be a harmless way for friends to pass the time, in this study high-power participants teased low-power participants in more aggressive and humiliating ways, whereas low-power participants were quite restrained in how they teased their high-power fraternity brothersVC

Question 30

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