Lecture 8 - Working in Groups Flashcards
What is social facilitation?
- Social facilitation is the tendency to perform better on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
- E.g., Triplett (1989), Clendenen et al. (1994)
What is social inhibition?
- Social inhibition is the tendency to perform worse on difficult or unfamiliar tasks in the presence of others
- E.g., Allport (1920)
What was Zajonc’s (1965) theory of social facilitation/inhibition?
- Presence of others -> increased arousal -> enhances dominant (well-learned) response
- If dominant response is correct: improved performance (facilitation)
- If dominant response is incorrect: impaired performance (inhibition)
What did Michaels et al. (1982) find in their billards study?
- Good players improved in front of others (71% -> 80%)
- Poor players worsened (30% -> 25%)
What is the Mere Presence theory?
Just the presence of others raises arousal, improving simple task eprformace and impairing complex task performance
What is Evaluation Apprehension?
- Arousal only increases when we believe others are judging us
- E.g., Risky skateboard tricks in front of attractive women (Ronay & von Hippell, 2010)
What is the Distraction-Conflict theory?
Others divide attention -> conflict -> arousal -> effects on performance (similar to facilitation/inhibition patterns)
What are conjuctive tasks?
Group performance depends on the weakest member (e.g., assembly line speed)
What are additive tasks?
Group output is the sum of individual efforts (trick-or-treating)
What are disjunctive tasks?
Group performance depends on the strongest member’s input (e.g., problem-solving tasks)
What is social loafing?
- Social loafing is the tendency to exert less effort on group tasks than when working alone
- E.g., Ringelmann (rope-pulling), Karau & Williams (1995, 1997)
When is social loafing reduced?
When:
- Individual effort is identifiable
- The task is important, e.g., Jackson & Williams (1985)
- The group is familiar
- Reward for success is valued, e.g., Sheppard & Wright (1985)
What is social compensation?
- When skilled members increase their effort to compensate for weaker members
- E.g., Williams & Karau (1991)
When is social compensation most likely to occur?
- When the task is important and the partner is low-ability (in any other situation, loafing is likely)
- Trivial task + low ability -> loafing
- Important task + low ability -> compensation
What is the Kohler Effect?
- When less competent individuals work harder in groups (esp. dyads) to match stronger teammates
- E.g., Kohler (1927, 1928), Kerr et al. (2007)
How does the Kohler Effect differ from social compensation?
- Kohler = weaker person increases effort
WHEREAS - Compensation = stronger person increases effort
What are Osborne’s (1957) four brainstorming rules?
1) No criticism
2) Encourage wild ideas
3) Aim for quality
4) Build on others’ ideas
What did Taylor, Berry, & Block (1958) find about brainstorming?
Groups generated fewer, less unique, and lower-uality ideas than individuals working alone (ideas summed)
What kind of task is brainstorming treated as vs. what it really is?
Treated as additive, but the real goal is disjunctive (identifying the best)
Summarise key points from this “Working in Groups” lecture
- Presence of others -> arousal -> better or worse performance (depends on task difficulty)
- Group taks may reduce individual effort (social loafing), uess effort is meaningful (social compensation/Kohler effect)
- Brainstorming groups ften underperform compared to individuals due to production blocking and social loafing
What is the Ringelmann effect?
- People exert less force in larger groups pulling rope- - Ringelmann’s rope-pulling study
Does brinstorming improve idea quality?
- No, groups generate fewer, less unique, and lower-quality ideas than individuals
- Taylor, Berry & Block (1958)
