Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups Flashcards
Defining a Group:
Two or more people who interact and are
interdependent in the sense that their needs
and goals cause them to influence each other
Why Do People Join Groups?
Groups have a number of other benefits
–Important source of information
▪Help us resolve ambiguity in the social world
–Important aspect of identity
▪Help us define who we are
▪Help us feel distinct from other groups
–Establishment of social norms
*Social roles:
Shared expectations in a group about how
particular people are supposed to behave in
that group
–Potential costs to social roles
▪If enmeshed in a role, individual identities and
personalities can get lost.
Zimbardo and colleagues (1973) randomly
assigned male volunteers to play roles for
two weeks as
–Prisoners
–Guards
Students quickly assumed these roles.
*Researchers had to end the experiment
after only six days.
When Stanford Became a Prison
Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues randomly assigned students to play the role of
prisoner or guard in a mock prison. The students assumed these roles all too well.
The Guard Role
One of the guards from Zimbardo’s prison experiment at Stanford.
The Stanford Prison Study
*Guards
–Abusive
–Verbally harassed, humiliated prisoners
The Stanford Prison Study
*Prisoners
–Passive
–Helpless
–Withdrawn
Prison Abuse at Abu Ghraib
In 2004, American military guards routinely
abused prisoners in Abu Ghraib, a prison in
Iraq.
–Physical beatings, sexual abuse, and
psychological humiliation
*The American public was shocked by
pictures of
these abuses
A few “bad apples” happen to end up in the
unit guarding the prisoners?
–“What’s bad is the barrel.” (Zimbardo)
Group cohesiveness:
–Qualities of a group that bind members
together and promote liking between
members
The more cohesive a group is, the more its
members are likely to:
–Stay in the group
–Take part in group activities
–Try to recruit new like-minded members
If task requires close cooperation
–Cohesiveness helps performance
If maintaining good relationships most
important
Cohesiveness can interfere with optimal
performance
Group Diversity
Group members tend to be alike in age,
sex, beliefs and opinions.
*Why are they similar?
–Attracted to and likely to recruit similar others
–Groups operate in ways that encourage
similarity in the members.
Group Diversity
*Homogenous groups are more cohesive
*Diverse groups perform better
Social facilitation
People do better on simple tasks and worse
on complex tasks when they are in the
presence of others and their individual
performance can be evaluated.
Social Facilitation
The presence of others can mean one of
two things
1. Performing a task with coworkers doing the
same thing you are
2. Performing a task in front of an audience that
only observes you
Social Facilitation
If task is simple, well-learned
–The mere presence of others improves
performance.
–This phenomenon is found in humans as well
as other species!
Simple vs. Difficult Tasks
When working on a more difficult task
–Opposite results
▪A task can take longer to solve when others are
present than when performing alone.
▪People and animals do worse in the presence of
others when the task is difficult.
Arousal and the Dominant Response
(Zajonc, 1965)
The presence of others increases
physiological arousal
▪i.e., our bodies become more energized
*When such arousal exists
–It is easier to do something that is simple.
–It is harder to do something complex or learn
something new.
Why the Presence of Others
Causes Arousal
Three theories to explain the arousal and
social facilitation
1. Other people cause us to become
particularly alert and vigilant.
2. Other people make us apprehensive about
how we’re being evaluated.
3. Other people distract us from the task at
hand
Why the Presence of Others
Causes Arousal
Other people cause us to become
particularly alert and vigilant.
–Because other people can be unpredictable,
we are in a state of greater alertness in their
presence.
▪Causes mild arousal
Why the Presence of Others
Causes Arousal
They make us apprehensive about how
we’re being evaluated.
–When other people can see how you are
doing, you feel like they are evaluating you.
▪Evaluation apprehension can cause mild arousal.
They distract us from the task at hand.
–Divided attention produces arousal.
–Consistent with this interpretation, nonsocial
sources of distraction, such as a flashing light,
cause the same kinds of social facilitation
effects as the presence of other people.
