Groups

• Social group


  A set of individuals with a shared purpose and who normally share a positive social identity
• Group


  Two or more people who interact with and influence one another over a period of time
• Key Feature of a group

  • Distinct entities- entitativity- the perception , either by the group members themselves or by others, that the people together are a group
  • Similarity - Members have something in common
  • Communication - Frequent communication and interaction
  • Interdependence - Extent to which members are mutually dependent on each other to reach a goal
  • Group structure - Stable norms and roles that define appropriate behavior in a group
  • Social Identity - Affective feelings that we have toward groups; Part of the self-concept that results from our membership in social groups
  • Group Cohesiveness - Forces exerted on a group that push its members closer together
• Stages of Group Development

  1. Forming - When members of a group come together and begin their existence as a group; Individual members learn about group norms, structures, procedures

  2. Storming and conflict - Members may disagree on some issues; members express their ideas and persuade others to accept; May lead to disbanding of the group

  3. Norming and performing - Group members feel great satisfaction and identification with the group; group identity; Groups have the ability to meet goals and challenges

  4. Adjournment stage - Goal has been accomplished
• Phases of Group Membership

  1. Investigation phase - Group seeks people who seem likely to be able to attain group goals, and prospective members look for groups that provide the opportunity to satisfy personal goals

  2. Socialization phase - Group tries to shape the individual's thinking and behavior so that he or she can and will make the maximum contribution to the group; Formal and informal indoctrination; through 'coaches'

  3. Maintenance Phase - Group attempts to define specialized roles for each full member that maximizes his or her contribution to the group's goals; Individual member often tries to define his or her role in the group to maximize personal needs

  4. Resocialization phase - When a member is relabeled as marginal, he enters resocialization where both parties try to convince each other again to meet their role expectations; If a mutually agreeable negotiation is struck, marginal member will once again be regarded as full member

  5. Remembrance phase - Group develops a consensus concerning the ex-member's contributions to the group's goals and similarly, the individual ex- member reminisces about the costs and benefits of being a member of the group
• Functions of groups


  • Accomplishing tasks
  • Satisfaction of socioemotional or expressive needs
• Social Facilitation


  1. Norman Triplet's study on bicycle records; Proposed: the presence of another rider releases the competitive instinct, which increases nervous energy and enhances performances

  2. Robert Zajonc: presence of others increases arousal which can affect performance in different ways, depending on the task at hand; Social facilitation - process whereby the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but impairs performance on difficult tasks; Presence of others facilitates the dominant response, not necessarily the task itself
• Evaluation apprehension theory


  Performance will be enhanced or impaired only in the presence of others who are in a position to evaluate the performance
• Distraction-conflict theory


  Being distracted while working on a task creates additional conflict; When conflicted about where to pay attention, arousal increases
• Social Loafing


  A group-produced reduction in individual output on tasks where contributions are pooled; Free rider problem; Avoidance of the "sucker effect"
• Factors that can reduce social loafing

  • Limit the scope of the project- break down into smaller components
  • Keep the groups small
  • Use peer evaluations
  • Make individual members accountable for their work
• Cyberloafing


  Involves the personal use of e-mail and the internet at work
• Collective Effort Model


  Asserts that individuals will try hard on a collective task when they think their efforts will help them achieve outcomes they personally value; Social compensation- increasing their efforts on collective tasks to compensate for the anticipated social loafing or poor performance of other group members
• Deindividuation


  Loss of a person's sense of individuality and reduction of normal constraints against deviant behavior
• Accountability cues


  Affect the individual's calculations of cost-reward ratio
• Attentional cues


  Focus attention away from the self
• Social Identity Model of Deindividuation effects (SIDE)

  Proposes that whether deindividuation affects people for better or for worse reflects the characteristics and norms of the group immediately surrounding the individual as well as the group's power according to these norms
• Process loss


  Reduction of group productivity due to problems in the dynamics of a group
• Process loss examples


  • Additive tasks - people often indulge in social loafing which create process loss
  • Conjunctive tasks - the group performance is determined by the individual with the poorest performance, e.g. mountain climbing teams
  • Disjunctive task - group product is (or can be) determined by the performance of the individual with the best performance, e.g. problem solving task or developing a strategy
• Process gain


  Groups outperform the best members on some kinds of task where: the correct answer is clearly evident to everyone in the group once it is presented; the work in the task can be divided up so that subgroups can work on different aspects of the task; process gain is called synergy in the business world
• Brainstorming


  A technique that attempts to increase the production of creative ideas by encouraging group members to speak freely without criticizing their own or others' contributions
• Osborn (1953) claimed that brainstorming could generate more and better ideas, however, it was found that several individuals working alone produce a greater number of better ideas
• Factors that reduce the effectiveness of Brainstorming

  • Production blocking - people may forget their ideas while waiting for their turn to speak
  • Free riding/ Social loafing
  • Evaluation apprehension
  • Performance matching
• Factors that enhance the number and creativity of ideas

  • Being motivated for the collective success of the group
  • Being motivated to exert effort to achieve a thorough and accurate understanding of the group task or problem
  • Electronic brainstorming
  • Training people on effective brainstorming
  • Alternating types of brainstorming session (brainstorming alone and then in groups)
  • Giving the group a subset of categories to begin the brainstorming session
  • Using trained facilitators
• Group Polarization


  The exaggeration of initial tendencies in the thinking of group members through group discussion
• Persuasive arguments theory


  The greater the number & persuasiveness of the arguments to which group members are exposed, the more extreme their attitudes become
• Social Comparison Theory


  People view social reality by comparing themselves with others; As Individuals learn that most of the group members lean in one direction on some issue, they may adopt a more extreme attitude in this same direction
• Groupthink


  A group decision-making style characterized by excessive tendency among group members to seek concurrence (agreement or uniformity)
• Examples of Groupthink


  • Disintegration of US space shuttle Columbia
  • Failure of the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs during the John Kennedy's administration
• Characteristics that contribute to the development of Groupthink

  • Highly cohesiveness
  • Group structure - Homogenous members, directive leadership, Isolation, unsystematic procedures
  • Stressful situations
• Symptoms of Groupthink


  • Overestimation of the group
  • Closedmindedness
  • Increased pressures toward uniformity - mindguards and pressure on dissenters, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity
  • Defective decision making - incomplete survey of alternatives, incomplete survey of objectives, failure to examine risks of preferred choice, failure to reappraise initially rejected alternatives, poor information search, selective bias in processing information at hand, failure to work out contingency plans
• Preventing Groupthink


  • Groups should consult widely with outsiders, to avoid isolation
  • To reduce group pressures to conform, leaders should encourage criticisms and not to take a strong stand early in the group discussion
  • To establish a strong norm of critical review, subgroups should separately discuss the same issue, a member to play a devil's advocate role; a second chance meeting should be held to reconsider the group decision before taking action
• Social dilemma


  A situation in which a self-interested choice by everyone will create the worst outcome for everyone
• Prisoner's dilemma


  A type of dilemma in which one party must make either cooperative or competitive moves in relation to another party
• Types of resource dilemmas

  • Commons dilemmas - if people take as much as they want of a limited resource that does not replenish itself, nothing will be left for anyone; Tragedy of the commons
  • Public goods dilemma - all of the individuals are supposed to contribute resources to a common pool e.g. public library, roads and parks, schools; if no one gives, the service cannot continue and everyone will suffer
• Responding to Social Dilemmas

  • Trust is essential in promoting cooperation because it reduces fear of being exploited
  • A sense of belongingness and identity with the greater group promotes cooperation
  • Threat of punishment (groups punish members who exploit others)
• Groups tend to be more competitive than individuals in mixed-motive situations
• There are gender differences in cooperation and competition
• There are cultural differences in negotiations