psy124

• Group


  A set of individuals who directly interact over time and have a shared fate, goals or identity
• Some say a group has to be made of 3 people
• Collectives


  People engaging in a common activity with little direct interaction with each other
• Groups


  • They vary on whether they're integrated and coherent (fit really well together)
  • People get more satisfaction from being in that group
  • People identify more strongly with that group
• Why join a group

  • Might need others to accomplish things (e.g., running a household, engaging in sports, creating art, etc.)
  • Basic human needs (safety in numbers, reproduction, etc.)
  • Social identity, we know who we are based on what groups were a part of
• 3 key features of groups

  • Roles
  • Norms
  • Cohesiveness
• Roles


  • Set of expectations around behaviours, people may have roles and that could be what others expect them to do
  • Can be formal or informal
• 2 fundamental types of roles

  • Instrumental roles: help people achieve tasks, e.g., captain of a sports team
  • Expressive: providing emotional support to group members and maintaining morale
• Groups function better when members are assigned the roles that best match their personalities and talents
• Role uncertainty


  Related to different issues, typically been studied within a workplace context (can lead to burnout, workplace bullying, etc.)
• Norms


  • Rules of conduct for members (how you're supposed to behave or even think)
  • Can be formal or informal
  • Norms can often cause conformity amongst groups of people and groups may punish those who deviate from the norm
  • Groups vary in tolerance to norm violations
• Cohesiveness


  • How much various different forces push group members to be closer together such as through feelings of intimacy, unity, and commitment to group goals
  • Feel commitment to group tasks
  • Feel positive toward other group members
  • Feel group pride
  • Interact often with each other
  • Group cohesion increases group performance and vice versa
• Tight culture


  Strong norms, little tolerance for norm deviating behaviour
• Loose culture


  Weaker norms, greater tolerance for deviant behaviour
• Social facilitation


  When the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but impairs performance on difficult tasks
• Triplett's cyclist research, noticed cyclists who were racing were faster in the presence of other cyclists
• The Zajonc 3-step solution

  1. Presence of others increases physical arousal, energizes behaviour

  2. Arousal enhances our tendency to perform the dominant response

  3. Quality of performance varies based on the type of task
• Zajonc cockroach studies: Easy maze - cockroaches were faster with audience, Difficult maze - cockroaches were slower with audience
• Meta-analysis of 241 studies supported social facilitation
• Many modern examples, e.g., driving tests, e-gambling, why firefighters, police officers, military personnel and other practice scenarios ad nauseum
• Mere presence of others


  Sufficient to produce social facilitation
• Evaluation apprehension theory


  Presence of other will produce social facilitation effects only when those others are seen as potential evaluators
• Distraction-conflict theory


  The presence of others will produce social facilitation effects only when those others distract from the task and create attentional conflict
• Social loafing


  • A group-produced reduction in individual output on easy task in which contributions are pooled
  • Occurs during group tasks when an individual's effort cannot be determined
• Ringelmann's pulling rope task, when part of a group people made less of an effort than when working individually
• Strategies to reduce social loafing in group projects

  • Limit the scope of the project
  • Keep the group small
  • Use peer evaluations
• Social loafing is less prevalent in women than in men and less prevalent in people from collectivist than individualist cultures
• Group norms of low productivity in a collectivist culture can result in more social loafing
• Deindividuation


  • When people lose their sense of individuality and experience reductions on the normal constraints of behaviour, are more likely to engage in deviant behaviour
  • Occurs in presence of others
• Contributors to deindividuation


  • Arousal
  • Anonymity or accountability cues, more difficult to be held accountable
  • Attentional cues, things that pull attention away from the self (e.g., alcohol)
• Group Polarization


  The exaggeration of initial tendencies in the thinking of a group through group discussion
• Causes of group polarization


  • Persuasive arguments theory: the more persuasive the arguments we are exposed to, the more extreme our thinking becomes on that topic
  • Comparison and categorization
• E.g., group approves of carbon tax, one member suggests doubling carbon tax
• Ted talk on group polarization
• Groupthink


  A group decision-making style characterized by an excessive tendency among group members to seek agreement
• 3 pieces that contribute to groupthink

  • Highly cohesive groups
  • Group structure
  • Stressful situations
• Steps to prevent groupthink

  • Avoid isolation
  • Consult widely with outsiders
  • Reduce group pressures to conform
  • Leaders should explicitly encourage criticism
  • Leaders should not take a strong stand early in discussion
  • Establish a strong norm of critical review
  • Subgroups should separately discuss the same issue
  • Assign a member to question all decisions and ideas
  • "Second chance" meeting to reconsider group decision
• Criticisms of groupthink: Very difficult to experimentally test, Researchers disagree with janis's antecedents, Steps to prevent groupthink are more likely to improve decision making nonetheless
• Social dilemma


  • A situation in which a self interested choice by everyone will create the worst outcome for everyone, e.g., using non-renewable resources
  • Pursuit of self interested choice can sometimes be self destructive
• Prisoner's dilemma


  One party must make either cooperative or competitive moves in relation to another party