Groups - Class Oct28,2015 Flashcards
(33 cards)
Define a group.
2 or more individuals who share common goals, have a stable relationship, are somehow interdependent, and perceive that they are in fact a part of a group.
what are the six criteria for being a group?
1) Interact with each other
2) shared goals
3 relatively stable relationship
4) interdependent in some way
5) members must perceive themselves as part of a group (Most Important Factor)
6) structured interactions
What are some reasons that people join groups?
- Help us satisfy important psychological or social needs.
- Help us attain goals that we could not attain by ourselves
- Provide us with information and knowledge that would otherwise not be available
- Help us establish a positive “social identity” that becomes part of our self concept
Define roles within groups
- Assigned versus acquired by talent
- Task oriented (focus on the job), or relations oriented (focus on the people)
- Help clarify responsibilities and obligations of individuals belonging to a group.
* The way we play a certain role is consequence of the culture in which we live
What is role conflict?
when multiple roles conflict with each other, causes stress.
Explain Zimbardo’s Prison experiment.
you got this bitch
What is status within a group?
one’s social standing or rank; the evaluation of a role or person by the group.
How is status attained?
1) Size of individual’s contributions to success of group in achieving goals.
2) Degree of power individual holds over others
3) individual’s personality characteristics
Explain all the different aspects of norms (rules of the game)
- explicit/formal rules: stated clearly
- Implicit/informal rules: implied/inferred rather than said
- established to regulate behaviour of group members
- prescriptive rules (ought to do)
- Proscriptive rules (ought not do)
- Vary in importance, from frown, warning, to exile
- Established in many ways: leader makes it, it worked in the past, something bad happened, decided as a collective.
- Norms of production: 100% work, 100% play, or a mix
What is cohesiveness?
All pressures or forces causing members to remain part of the group
there is interpersonal cohesiveness (people based)
and task based cohesiveness (work based)
What are the factors that affect cohesiveness?
1) Amount of effort needed to gain entry into the group
2) external threats or severe competition
3) Size - Smaller the group, more cohesion (usually)
What is the difference between social facilitation and social interference?
Social Facilitation: Any increments in performance stemming from the presence of others
Social Interference: Any decrements in performance stemming from the presence of others.
Who is Norman Triplett
Watched cyclists, and noticed that in groups, on average, people were faster.
What is the drive theory of social interference?
when other people are there, you become aroused, heart pacing, increased blood flow, perspire, it increases the dominant responses. If you can’t think, then you do what you normally do (if you can do it well)
if you don’t know how to do that task well, others will interfere.
What is the Yerkes Dodson law?
The highest point - best performance - is when you have to be excited and nervous with anticipation and motivation BUT if its not enough/too much, you become apathetic/too aroused.
Define Evaluation Apprehension
We don’t like being evaluated/judged by others.
Problem: we find social inference/facilitation in ants and other insects therefore, it can’t explain it in animals with no consciousness similar to ours.
Define distraction conflict theory
Attention becomes divided by what you’re doing and what others are thinking of you.
What is Vigilance theory?
Being hyper aware when others are there, it promotes vigilance in the self and the task at hand automatically.
Seems to account for humans and other species
What is self loafing?
1) decreased individual effort and performance that occurs when people engage in shared group activity.
2) tendency to do worse on simple tasks and better on complex tasks when in the presence of others and individual performance cannot be evaluated.
Who is Max Ringlemann
noticed in tug a war people tried less when they were in a group versus if they were alone
Why do people partake in social loafing?
- Might perceive others as less motivated or skilled
- Might choose less ambitious goals when others are present
- Might think own contributions in group are less closely linked to outcomes
- Cultural differences
How do you get maximum effort from a group?
- Increase sense of personal responsibility and provide incentives for contribution
- Increase individual’s feelings of self-efficacy and make person feel contributions are indispensable.
- Make group activities involving, interesting, and challenging
- Optimize trust in group members that each is putting out maximum effort
- Make each member’s contributions highly visible by publicizing personal achievements
What are the four different types of group tasks?
additive, compensatory, disjunctive, and conjunctive.
what type of group task happens because you need people to help you, and the group all achieves the goal?
Additive
