Groups

Question 1

Four core concerns

Answer 1

1 The impact of one individual on another’s behaviour & beliefs

2 The impact of a group on a member’s behaviour and beliefs

3 The impact of a member on a group’s activities and structure

4 The impact of one group on another’s group’s activities and structure

Question 2

Primary Groups:

Answer 2

Smaller wither strong emotional Ties—family

Question 3

Secondary Groups:

Answer 3

Formal and Impersonal

Question 4

What is Group Cohesion

Answer 4

A groups cohesion is the extent to which its members desire to remain in it, and resist leaving.

Question 5

True of false Highly cohesive groups maintain a firm hold over its members, time, energy loyalty and commitment- Marked by positive ties of “We Feeling”

Answer 5

True

Question 6

True or False Cohesion increases productivity and preforms and always equal success

Answer 6

False

Cohesion increases productivity and preforms but does not always equal success

Question 7

What is Social Cohesion:

Answer 7

• Enjoy having our beliefs validated

- They stay because they like the members, they like the interaction

Question 8

Task Cohesion

Answer 8

• Stay in group because they are interested and involved in the task that the group does

whether the members find the tasks valuable, interesting, and challenging

Question 9

Homophily refers to

Answer 9

The tendency for individuals to associate with similar others

Question 10

Goal Isomorphism refers to

Answer 10

A state in which group goals and individual goals are compatible in the sense that actions leading to group goals also lead to the attainment of individual

Question 11

What happened in The Ringelmann Rope-Pulling Task (1913) ask the members increased?

Answer 11

As numbers of member’s increase, the average contribution of each member decreases (pulled less)

• Motivation loss that occurs when an individual’s contribution becomes less clear to the group
• More people results in social loafing

Question 12

Attributes of Groups

Answer 12

Membership
Social interaction among members
Goals shared by members
Shared norms

Question 13

Explanations for Social Loafing

Answer 13

Diffusion of responsibility
Dispensability
“Sucker effect”

Question 14

Explain Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 14

As groups become larger, deindividuation (Loss of self-awareness in a groups)
- We are less likely to monitor what we are doing in the group

Question 15

Explain Dispensability

Answer 15

Contribution perceived as smaller, and more redundant

“If I stop pulling it, it’ll be fine”

Question 16

Explain the “Sucker effect”

Answer 16

If people perceive that they are doing more than their fair share of the group’s work, they may reduce effort, to wait and see the effort of other members

Question 17

Social Loafing refers to

Answer 17

the concept that people are prone to do less if they are in a group versus when they work alone.

Question 18

Social Facilitation

Answer 18

the tendency for improved performance in the presence of others

The presence of others produces a state of arousal that improves focus on simple behaviours or behaviours that we know well (dominant responses)

For complex or unfamiliar behaviours, performance may decrease in the presence of others

Question 19

Conformity

Answer 19

Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group

Question 20

Define a normative influence

Answer 20

when Individuals conform to the group in an attempt for social approval

Question 21

Define informational influence

Answer 21

when Individuals conform to the group due to an ambiguous situation

Question 22

Sherif (1936) Autokinetic Effect study

Answer 22

• Autokinetic effect: visual perception phenomenon
• a stationary, small point of light in a dark environment appears to move due to involuntary eye movement.

Conclusion: tendency to conform is higher when task is uncertain—they were not lying in order to fit in… because they estimate is fixed when they go back into isolation, they are using each other as a frame of reference

Informational influence of conformity

Question 23

Asch (1955) Line Study

Answer 23

-The task is to judge which of the three comparison lines is closest in length to the standard line

• 25% of participants showed no conformity, while 75% conformed at some point
• Public compliance without private acceptance,

-Showed majority opinion even when obviously incorrect strongly influences the judgements of the naïve participants

Normative influences of conformity

Question 24

Factors Shaping Conformity

Answer 24

• Group size—the bigger the group the more likely to conform.
• Strength of group norms—in more cohesive groups conformity is higher
• Group unanimity
• Individual motivation,
• Attractiveness to group— how much we like the group/ we want the group to like us

Task uncertainty + individual skill

Question 25

Floyd Allport 1924- Odor study

Answer 25

Original Lab study of conformity Ratings where more extreme when alone, and less extreme in front of others Conclusion: people adjust their response in the presence of others

Question 26

Obedience to Authority VS Conformity

Answer 26

Obedience to authority is behaving by instruction- the source is the authority Conformity is more broad, and shaped by society norms and roles. The source is the group

Question 27

The presence of others produces

Answer 27

a state of arousal that improves focus on simple behaviours -- dominant responses

Question 28

Explain Social Loafing

Answer 28

Group is decreasing your performance - Motivation loss that occurs when an individual's contribution becomes less clear to the group - Harder to identify your contribution as compared to others

Question 29

How to avoid Social Loafing

Answer 29

Visibility of task: hard for sucker effect to occur  Create a shared goal and connecting it to individual goal  Make the group less visible and make the person think they are in a smaller group  Embarrassment or visible penalties for not engaging  Track and report tasks -> make them measurable  Have a level of transparency but can also create conflict  Have a balance between transparency and motivation  Have an understanding of your individual role

Question 30

Evidence to support Social facilitation

Answer 30

Triplett's (1898) - increased speed in bringing reel with other's around them Allport experiment (1920) - Word association tasks improved in presence of others performing same task Michaels study of pool players ( 1882) - Observer stand close to the pool player  Good players improve by about 10%  Less skilled players decreased about 10% Resenbloom( 2007) observation of learner drivers  People sitting with people giving their driving test  Decreased the likelihood of them passing the test Gardner and Knowles study of college students and handwriting tests  Got students to write easy tasks  Then got them to write with their non-dominant hand  Projected picture of favourite TV star find more resources at oneclass.com find more resources at oneclass.com  Greater task completion for easy task in the presence of TV star image  Performance with non-dominant hand decreased

Question 31

Real Life Conformity examples

Answer 31

Jury Deliberations - Tanford and Panrod - Watched 3 trials - By the 3rd video, they came to a conclusion much faster than the 1st - People were going with the majority much faster 9/11 Twin Tower Office Victims - Some people didn’t leaǀe - due to looking around and seeing other people stay Groupthink - Overwhelmed by pressures for unanimity within the group, members fail to realistically evaluate alternative course of action, and make poor decisions

Question 32

Groups represent a fundamental concept of social behaviour and They shape individual behaviour in what ways?

Answer 32

- Social loafing - Social facilitation - Conformity to group pressures

Question 33

The extent that groups shape behaviour depends on a number of group-level and individual-level factors which are:

Answer 33

``` Group size Strength of group norms Group unanimity Individual motivation Attractiveness to group Task certainty + individual skill ```

Question 34

Sherif and Asch studies demonstrated that with the mere presence and behaviour of others leads to...

Answer 34

Conformity being even more common for individuals in established groups with strong in-group identification and norms The bigger the group, to a certain point, the more likely the group will conform