Group Dynamics Ch 12

Question 1

ODDI process model

Answer 1

A conceptual analysis of the steps or processes that groups generally follow when making a decision, based on the intended purpose of each step or process in the overall decision making sequence.

Question 2

Planning Fallacy

Answer 2

The tendency for individuals and groups to underestimate the time, energy, and the means needed to complete a planned project successfully.

Question 3

Parkinson’s Law

Answer 3

A task will expand to the fill time available for its completion.

Question 4

Law of Triviality

Answer 4

The amount of time a group spends on discussing any issues will be in inverse portion to the consequentiality of the issue.

Question 5

Discussion

Answer 5

The communication of information between two or more people undertaken for some shared purpose, such as solving a problem, making a decision, or increasing participants mutual understanding of the situation.

Question 6

Collective Memory

Answer 6

A group’s combined memories, including each member’s memories, the group’s shared mental models, and transactive memory systems.

Question 7

Cross-Cuing

Answer 7

The enhancement of recall that occurs during group discussion when the statements made by group members serve as cues for the retrieval of information from the memories of other group members.

Question 8

Social Decision Scheme

Answer 8

A strategy or rule used in a group to select a single alternative among various alternatives proposed and discussed during the group’s deliberations, including explicitly acknowledged decision rules (e.g., the group accepts the alternative favoured by the majority) and implicit decisional procedures (e.g., the group accepts the alternative favoured by the most powerful members).

Question 9

Distributive Justice

Answer 9

Perceived fairness of the distribution of rights, resources, and costs.

Question 10

Normative Model of Decision Making

Answer 10

A theory of decision making and leadership that predicts the effectiveness of group-centered, consultative, and autocratic decisional procedures across a number of group settings (developed by Victor Vroom and his Associates).

Question 11

Procedural Justice

Answer 11

Perceived fairness and legitimacy of the methods used to make decisions, resolve disputes, and allocate resources; also, in judicial contexts, the use of fair and impartial procedures.

Question 12

Confirmation Bias

Answer 12

The tendency to seek out information that confirms one’s inferences rather than disconfirms them.

Question 13

Shared information Bias

Answer 13

(or common knowledge effect) The tendency for groups to spend more time discussing information that all members know (shared information) and less time examining information that only a few members know (unshared).

Question 14

Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire

Answer 14

A self-report measure of willingness to make risky decisions that asks respondents to read a series of scenarios involving a course of action that may or may not yield financial, interpersonal, or educational benefits and indicate what the odds of success would have to be before they would recommend the course of action.

Question 15

Risky-Shift Effect

Answer 15

The tendency for groups to make riskier decisions than individuals.

Question 16

Group Polarization

Answer 16

The tendency for members of a deliberating group to move to a more extreme position with the direction of the shift determined by the majority or average of the members’ predeliberation preferences.

Question 17

Mindguard

Answer 17

A group member who shields the group from negative or controversial information by gatekeeping a suppressing dissent.

Question 18

Abilene Paradox

Answer 18

The counterintuitive tendency for a group to decide on a course of action that none of the members of the group individually endorses, resulting from the group’s failure to recognize and manage its agreement on key issues (identified by Jerry Harvey).

Question 19

Entrapment

Answer 19

A form of escalating investment in which individuals expend more of their resources in pursuing a chosen course of action than seems appropriate or justifiable by external standards.

Question 20

Sunk Cost

Answer 20

An investment or loss of resources that cannot be recouped by current or future actions.

Question 21

Group-Centrism

Answer 21

A group-level syndrome caused by members’ excessive strivings to maintain and support their group’s unity that results in perturbations in a group’s decision-making capability and intergroup relations.

Question 22

Cognitive Closure

Answer 22

The psychological desire to reach a final decision swiftly and completely; also, the relative strength of this tendency, as indicated by a preference for order, predictability, decisiveness, and close-mindedness.