Group Behavior

Question 1

Groups

Answer 1

a set of individuals (2 or more) with at least one of the following:
- direct interactions over time
- joint membership in a social category based on some attribute (religion, sports team, etc.)
- sense of shared common fate, identity, or set of goals

Question 2

Social brain hypothesis

Answer 2

evolutionary pressures rewarded living in groups over living in isolation, the human brain developed in order to help us master complex social worlds

Question 3

Group Roles

Answer 3

Two kinds:
1) Instrumental - help the group achieve its tasks
2) Expressive - provide emotional support and maintain morale
Groups thrive when roles match each member’s skills

Question 4

Group norms

Answer 4

rules of conduct for the members (can be formal/informal and implicit/explicit)

Question 5

What predicts tolerance for deviating from norms?

Answer 5

• perceived similarity (homogeneity) of a group can lead to greater punishment of deviation
• perceived dissimilarity (heterogeneity) can lead to less punishment
• people may try to rise in status by punishing people who deviate from norms

Question 6

Group Cohesiveness

Answer 6

• the forces exerted on a group to push its members closer together and promote mutual liking
• members of cohesive groups are likely to:
  a) feel committed to group tasks
  b) feel positively towards other members
  c) feel group pride
  d) engage in many/intense interactions with the group
• often leads to better performance

Question 7

Social Facilitation

Answer 7

the effect other people have on performance by their mere presence
- people perform better in the presence of others (facilitation)
- people perform worse in the presence of others (inhibition)

Question 8

Dominant response

Answer 8

reaction elicited most quickly and easily by a given task/stimulus

Question 9

Zajonc’s Mere Presence Theory

Answer 9

the mere presence of others is sufficient to produce arousal (facilitates the dominant response)

Question 10

Evaluation Apprehension Theory

Answer 10

only occurs when someone is in position to evaluate performance (facilitates the dominant response)

Question 11

Distraction Conflict Theory

Answer 11

presence of others divides attention –> not sure what to attend to –> arousal –> facilitation of dominant response

Question 12

Social loafing

Answer 12

a group-produced reduction in individual output on easy tasks in which contributions are pooled

Question 13

When is social loafing less likely to occur?

Answer 13

• people believe that their performance can be identified and evaluated, by themselves or by others
• task is highly important/meaningful to those performing it
• people believe that their own efforts are necessary for a successful outcome
• the group expects to be punished for a poor performance
• the group is small
• the group is cohesive

Question 14

Collective Effort Model

Answer 14

Individuals try hard on a collective task to the degree that they think their individual effort is important, relevant, and will achieve outcomes they personally value

Question 15

Deindividuation

Answer 15

the loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behavior
- self-awareness is reduced in the presence of others
- reduced introspection and reflection

Question 16

Environmental cues (deindividuation)

Answer 16

Two types:
1) attentional cues - focus a person’s attention away from the self
2) accountability cues - feeling like one is not personally accountable

Question 17

Process Loss

Answer 17

Reduction in group performance due to the obstacles created by how groups work together

Question 18

Process Gain

Answer 18

Increase in group performance where the group outperforms the individuals who are a part of it

Question 19

Additive Tasks

Answer 19

Group product is the sum of individual contributions

Question 20

Conjunctive Tasks

Answer 20

Group product is determined by member with poorest performance

Question 21

Disjunctive Tasks

Answer 21

Group product is determined by member with best performance

Question 22

Brainstorming

Answer 22

technique that attempts to increase the production of creative ideas by encouraging group members to speak freely without criticizing their own or others’ ideas

Question 23

Drawbacks of Brainstorming

Answer 23

1) Production Blocking
2) Free Riding
3) Evaluation Apprehension
4) Performance Matching

Question 24

Group Polarization

Answer 24

the exaggeration through group discussion of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members (if no one says no, we think it’s a resounding yes)

Question 25

Biased Sampling

Answer 25

tendency for groups to spend more time discussing shared information (known by most/all members) rather than unshared information (only known by a few members)