Social Psych Exam 4

• What are John Gottman's 4 horsemen?

  Criticism, defensiveness, contempt, stonewalling
• Criticism attacks the character of the recipient instead of focusing on a specific behavior
• Contempt is an expression of superiority that comes out as sarcasm, cynicism, mockery
• Defensiveness is self-protection through righteous indignation or playing the victim
• Stonewalling is when the listener withdraws from the convo without resolving anything
• Lessons from extremely long-term relationships and ideas that reflected are respect each other, accept differences, expect change, patiences, sense of humor
• Reasons for a relationship ending: premature commitment, ineffective communication, becoming bored/dissatisfied, low investment - easy to walk away, jealousy
• Jealousy arises when we think the one we care about may transfer their affection to a rival
• A group is 2 or more who interact and are interdependent
• Groups can be pre-determined (no choice) (ex: race, family) OR self selected (student, frat, profession)
• Groups can also be temporary (ex: for a project, this year's classmates) OR permanent (ex: family, some friends)
• Groups can also be common-bond groups: face-to-face/individuals interact/ know each other (families, sororities, clubs) OR common-identity groups: linked by category, not relationships (professional organizations, unions)
• Groups are important to our identity and behavior, source of info, support, safety, they influence us
• 1 group feature impacting identity and behavior is norms - rules/expectations for the group, how people in the group should think, feel and act
• We are socialized by our groups: we learn how to act and what to believe
• Norm of reciprocity - should give what we get
• Norm of social responsibility - should take care of those in need
• Another feature impacting identity and behavior: roles - jobs or functions within the group, some are formal, effects powerful- influence our identity
• Another feature: status - rank in group

  groups often have a hierarchy, status can be assigned or achieved, those with higher ranks often have more resources, more power, more freedom
• Another feature is cohesiveness - the "pull" members feel to stay in group, it increases effort needed to become member - why?


  justification of effort
• Cohesiveness increases when we feel threats/competition

  Why?

  we feel safer with familiar others
• Cohesiveness can help in hard tasks that require cooperation to succeed. It can hurt when members put harmony above good decisions
• 3 common needs can be met, at least partially, through group membership: need for affiliation (belong), need for control (power), need for affection (positive relationships)
• Benefits of joining a group: learn about self and world, gain status, accomplish goals we can't do alone, receive social support
• Drawbacks of joining a group: membership can limit personal freedom, groups make demands on members
• Group effectiveness can hinder good decision making - it is likely: if diversity breaks down, if people pay too much attention to others in the group at the expense of critical thinking, if people are selfish
• Research suggests that "brainstorming sessions" are ineffective
• Combining ideas from those working alone often leads to better solutions than having people work in groups
• Pluralistic ignorance is when most in a group privately reject a norm but go along with it because they assume that everyone else accepts it
• For groups to be better than individuals, they must avoid process loss
• Process loss is any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving
• Groupthink is bad decisions that are made due to problem-solving processes resulting from a specific combination of group characteristics
• Ex of groupthink: space shuttle challenger, many admitted they had reservations they were too afraid to bring up before launch
• Highest risk groups of groupthink: cohesiveness, isolated, with directive leader who signals preferences and surrounds with "yes" men
• To prevent groupthink: leader be impartial, encourage critical evaluation, occasionally subdivide the group, then reunite and air differences
• Group polarization is when a group of people with similar views become more extreme as they discuss the issue
• 2 reasons we get more extreme: informational influence and normative influence
• Informational influence includes persuasive arguments - discussion exposes you to new reasons for your belief, and also leads to pooled ideas.

  Active participation - verbal commitment magnifies impact
• Normative influence - want to fit it - people quickly join saying what matches the groups, but resist saying what they believe if it doesn't match group, then those thoughts get weaker. Ppl want to fit belong, but some people want to stick out
• Social facilitation (feel seen/energized/evaluated) what happens when you're in a group and individual efforts can be evaluated, feel alert and experience evaluation apprehension, dominant response is strengthened; you do better on easy tasks and worse on hard ones