Group & Individual Behaviour

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

two or more people who interact over a period of time, have influence on each other and share a common goal

Question 2

What is power?

Answer 2

a person is said to have power over another if there is a reasonable expectation that the second person will behave in the way they desire, even against that person’s own wishes

Question 3

What are the types of power?

Answer 3

• reward power
• coercive power
• information power
• legitimate power
• expert power
• referent power

Question 4

What is reward power?

Answer 4

The ability to provide a desired response

Question 5

What is coercive power?

Answer 5

The ability to provide an unpleasant response

Question 6

What is information power?

Answer 6

Having knowledge that others desire

Question 7

What is legitimate power?

Answer 7

Power is given by a higher authority and may be due to role or position

Question 8

What is expert power?

Answer 8

Power is due to skills and depth of knowledge

Question 9

What is refer to power?

Answer 9

Power from others’ desire to relate to the person

Question 10

Lewin, Lippit and White first investigated leadership style in 1939 and described three styles:

Answer 10

• democratic: a style of leadership where the leader negotiates decisions with the group
• authoritarian: a style of leadership where the leader actively makes all decisions and has control over the group
• laissez-faire: leader is present but takes no part in the group dynamics r decision making. (No real structure or authority)

Question 11

Blake and Mouton expanded on this with their managerial grid, which showed team management to be the ideal approach, emphasising both concern for people (team members) and concern for productivity. What are the five major leadership styles they listed?

Answer 11

• country club leadership (low productivity/ high wellbeing)
• authoritarian leadership (high productivity/ low wellbeing)
• improvised leadership (low productivity/ low wellbeing)
• middle-of-the-road leadership (medium productivity/ medium wellbeing)
• team leadership (high productivity/ high wellbeing)

Question 12

What is a peer group?

Answer 12

a person’s friends and acquaintances of similar age, interests and social standing

Question 13

What is the influence of the peer group?

Answer 13

Push individuals to behave rebelliously against others

Question 14

Researchers generally agree that peer pressure contributes to behaviour in four main areas:

Answer 14

> social activities: parties, concerts, sporting activities
relationships: relations with parents and whether an individual has a boyfriend or
girlfriend
group norms: extra-curricular activities, style of dress, language used (especially
slang terms)
risk-taking behaviours.

Question 15

Beliefs about behaviours that would lead to success in peer relationships included:

Answer 15

> being sincere
having status
being responsible
entertaining others.

Question 16

What was Bond and Smith’s meta-analysis aim?

Answer 16

The aim of this analysis was it find the moderate variables (a variable that affects the strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables) that caused variation in levels of conformity

Question 17

What is meta analysis?

Answer 17

Research that examines the results of many other studies and combines all the findings. Among the most signi cant moderator variables, Smith and Bond found the following:
> normative influence
> culture
> informational influence
> group size
> unanimity
> deindividuation
> social loafing.

Question 18

What is normative influence?

Answer 18

Refers to a persons’ tendency to go along with the group so that they will fit in and gain approval of other group members. Group members similar to each other, (i.e. gender, race, etc) has been found to have greater normative influence, increasing the pressure towards conformity.

Question 19

What is culture?

Answer 19

> An individualist culture is one in which individuality and independence are highly valued, and it is considered important for people to achieve their individual goals.
A collectivist culture is one in which the individual’s goals are less important than group goals, and each person is encouraged to consider the needs of the group to be more important than their individual requirements.

Question 20

What is informational influence?

Answer 20

refers to the increased tendency to conform when the participant wants to provide a correct response but is not certain of their ability to do so, believing that others are more capable of making accurate judgements

Question 21

What is group size?

Answer 21

Conformity rates increased to a maximum with three or four people, and then remained approximately the same.

Question 22

What is unanimity?

Answer 22

If one of the person did not conform with the group, but gave the correct answer, conformity rate dropped from the average of 4/12 to 1/12

Question 23

What is deindividuation?

Answer 23

a sense of anonymity and loss of individuality that comes from being in a situation where individuals can’t be identified personally. It is a situation in which individuals are more likely to commit anti-social acts.

Question 24

What is self-loafing?

Answer 24

The tendency of an individual to reduce their effort when working in a group, compared with when they are working alone.

Question 25

Outline the Stanford prison experiment:

Answer 25

In the Stanford prison experiment, Zimbardo and his colleagues showed that the environment and roles assigned to people
can have significant influences on behaviour. Deindividuation was identified as a significant influence, increasing the cruelty of the guards and the sense of helplessness of the prisoners.

Question 26

Outline Milgram’s experiment:

Answer 26

Milgram, in his experiments on obedience, showed that people will go to extremes – even putting other people’s lives at risk – as long as they have the excuse that they are just following orders from an authority figure. This is true regardless of gender or race

Question 27

Asch found that people tend to conform to group opinions, even when they are obviously wrong:

Answer 27

• Conformity increased with group size up to three or four, and then remained consistent.
• Conformity was considerably reduced if the group was not unanimous in the opinion.
• Conformity was higher in collectivist cultures such as Asian countries and lower in individualist countries such as the United States and Australia.