group processes Flashcards
define group
set of individuals with at least one characteristic:
- direct interaction over period of time
- joint membership in social category
- shared, common fate, identity or set of goals
define collective
- assembly of people engaging in a common activity, little interaction with each other.
why join a group?
- human life requires groups
- social brain hypothesis
- protect from physical health, and gain personal, social identity
social brain hypothesis
human intelligence did not evolve primarily as a means to solve ecological problems, but rather as a means of surviving and reproducing in large and complex social group
group roles
- ways to define
- two fundamental types of roles
- match characteristic to?
- defined as formal (title) or informal
- instrumental role - help group achieve tasks
- expressive roles to provide emotional support and maintain morale.
- match characteristic to skill set = beneficial.
Power of roles - Stanford prison experiment
randomly assigned roles. prisoners were abused by guards. prisoners had mental breakdowns.
- controversial: Zimbardo mixed roles. experimenter and prison guard. Z wouldnt let ppl out, tried to encourage them to stay.
group norms
- defined?
- weak or strong conformity?
formal - explicit rules
informal - what to wear to party
strong conformity pressures, deviation can have consequences.
norm can be free-thinking = more heterogenous
group cohesiveness - define
- relationship btw cohesive & group performance
the forces exerted on a group that push its members close together
- causal relationship: more cohesive = better performance & vice versa. But, stronger evidence for better performance = better cohesiveness.
social facilitation - define
- two researchers, their findings
what impact does the presence of others have on our performance
- triplett: enhance performance when biking with ppl.
- competitive instinct; nervous energy increases performance.
- zajonc = arousal is key. arousal affects performance depending on type of task.
the zajonc solution
- 3 steps
- presence of others
- arousal
- strengthen dominant response = quality of performance varies by difficulty of task
dominant response
- difficult vs easy
=> easy: correct response, performance enhancement
=> difficult: incorrect response, performance impairment
is social facilitation merely a human thing?
-study?
no. cockroaches show better performance in an easy task with presence of others.
worse performance on difficult task in presence of others
3 theories for social facilitation
zajonc mere presence theory
evaluation apprehension theory
distraction conflict theory
what is zajonc mere presence theory
presence enough to facilitate social facilitation
evaluation apprehension theory
others mut be in position to evaluate one’s performance to effect performance.
*concern for judgement => increased arousal => increase dominant response
distracttion conflict theory
attentional conflict between focusin on task and inspecting the distracting stimulus creates arousal.
- nothing uniquely social about “social” facilitation
which theoyr is correct
- what are they again?
mere presence, evaluation apprehension, distraction conflict.
- one study: blind-fold vs non blind fold = blind-folded = did better. evaluation is key.
- certain explanations work better under certain circumstances.
what is social loafing
group produced reduction i individual output on easy tasks in which contributions are pooled
when does social loafing occur
when - task is easy, individual efforts cannot be ID’d.
social loafing conditions
- when will it not occur
- people believe their own performance can be Id’d
- task is important
- efforts necessary for success
- group punished for poor performance
- group is small
- group is cohesive
3 factors to reduce social loafing
- limit scope of project.
- keep group small
- peer evaluations
social loafing vs social facilitation
- depends on 2 things
type of evaluation
- individual Id-able.
- easy task = social facil = enhance
- difficult task = social facil = impair
- group eval-
- easy = social load = impair
- difficult = social security = enhance
type of task : easy vs difficult
when does social security come into play?
when the type of evaluation if group & it is a difficult task.
deindividuation -define
- caused by?
loss of person’s sense of individuality and reduction of normal constraints against deviant behaviour
- caused by:
- arousal (pressence of others)
- anonymity
- lack of individual responsibility
