Lecture 7 - Group Processes

Groups

Two or more individuals who interact and are interdependent, meaning their needs and goals cause them to influence each other

Why People Join Groups

Innate social drive; groups provide protection, resources, help raising offspring, safety, problem-solving, reduced environmental uncertainty, and help learning acceptable behaviours

Entitativity

The degree to which a collection of people are perceived as a group by members or others; can be high (e.g. family) or low (e.g. demographic categories)

Social Facilitation

The tendency for individuals to perform better on simple or well-learned tasks when in the presence of others and when individual performance can be evaluated

Zajonc et al. (1969) - Easy Maze

Found cockroaches moved faster from a light to a dark area in an easy maze when in a group compared to alone, demonstrating social facilitation

Triplett (1898)

Found cyclists' race records were faster with another rider present than when racing alone, and children wound a fishing reel faster in the presence of other children than alone

Social Inhibition

The tendency for individuals to perform worse on complex tasks when in the presence of others

Zajonc et al. (1969) - Difficult Maze

Found cockroaches took longer to move from light to dark in a difficult maze when in a group compared to alone, demonstrating social inhibition

Arousal and Dominant Response (Zajonc, 1965)

Suggests the presence of others causes physiological arousal, which exacerbates the dominant response — making easy/simple tasks easier and difficult tasks harder

Theories on Why Presence of Others Causes Arousal

The presence of others increases alertness/vigilance, evaluation apprehension (concern about being judged), and distraction from the task

Social Loafing

The tendency to exert less effort on simple/unimportant tasks in the presence of others when individual performance cannot be evaluated or distinguished, due to reduced noticeability and motivation

Ringelmann (1913)

Found that individuals exerted less effort pulling a rope when in a group compared to when pulling alone

Jackson & Williams (1985)

Found individuals completed simple mazes faster alongside another participant, and also completed difficult mazes faster when working with another participant, though this finding hasn't been widely replicated

Deindividuation

The loosening of normal behavioural constraints, occurring when people cannot be identified (e.g. in crowds); can produce antisocial behaviour but also positive behaviour (e.g. dancing at a masked party despite normally not dancing)

Group Cohesiveness and Diversity

How similar or dissimilar a group is based on characteristics such as race or gender

McLeod et al. (1996)

Compared racially homogeneous vs racially diverse groups brainstorming tourism ideas; homogeneous groups reported liking each other more, but diverse groups performed better on the task, suggesting cohesiveness promotes likeability while diversity promotes performance

Herring (2009)

Found a positive correlation between gender/race diversity and business sales performance (correlational, not causal)

Groupthink

A decision process in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is prioritised over realistically evaluating facts; can be a tactic to avoid ostracisation

Social Dilemmas

Conflicts in which the most individually beneficial action, if taken by most people, has harmful collective effects — individual rationality leads to collective irrationality

Prisoner's Dilemma

A scenario where the best joint outcome is both parties staying silent, but the individually rational choice is to confess, since staying silent risks a "sucker's payoff" if the other party confesses instead

Tit-for-Tat Strategy

A cooperation-encouraging strategy of first acting cooperatively, then mirroring whatever the opponent did on the previous trial

Future Orientation

Anticipating future interaction and interdependence with someone increases cooperation