Chapter 9-11 Psych

Social Roles

Shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave

Group Cohesiveness

Qualities that bind members together and promote mutual liking

Social facilitation

The tendency for people to do better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated.

Evaluation Apprehension

the concern about being judged.

Social Loafing

tendency for people to relax when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated. People do worse on simple tasks they dont care about but better on complex ones

Women tend to be higher than men in…

relational interdependence

relational interdependence

the tendency to focus on and care about personal relationships with other individuals

Deindividuation

The loosing of normal constraints on behavior when people can’t be identified

Why does deindiviudation lead to violent acts?

People feel less accountable for their actions when they can recognize there is a reduced likelihood that they can be singled out and blamed for their behavior

Process Loss

Aspects of group interaction that prevents good problem solving

Transactive Memory

When the combined memory of a group is more efficient than the memory of its individual members

Groupthink

Kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

Symptoms of groupthink

the group begins to feel that it’s invulnerable and can do no wrong and people self-censor

How to make groupthink less likely

Remain impartial, seek outside opinions, create subgroups, and seek anonymous opinions

Risky Shift

groups tend to make decisions that are more extreme in the same direction as the initial prepositions of their members

Group polarization

the tendency of groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of their members

Group polarization occurs for two main reasons

persuasive arguments and social comparison

Persuasive arguments interpretation

Each member presents arguments that other members have not considered and therefore match that position

Social Comparison interpretation

When people discuss and issue in a group, they first check out how everyone else feels. In an effort to fit in, many people take a position that is insular to everyone else’s but even just a little bit more extreme

Great person theory

Certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the nature of the situation the leader faces

Transactional leaders

set clear, short term goals and reward people who meet them

Transformational leaders

Inspire followers to focus on common, long term goals

Contingency theory of leadership

Leadership effectiveness depends both on how task oriented or relationship oriented the leader is and on the amount of control and influence the leader has over the group

Task oriented leaders

More concerned with getting the job done than with worker’s feelings and relationships. Do well in high-control work situations and low-control situations

Relationship oriented leaders

more concerned with worker’s feelings and relationships. Do well in moderate control situations

Social Dilemma

Conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people, be harmful to everyone

tit-for-tat strategy

A way of encouraging cooperation by at first acting cooperatively but then always responding the way your opponent did (cooperatively or competitively) in the previous trail

Negotiation

Form of communication between opposing sides in a conflict in which offers and counteroffers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree

Integrative solution

Outcome to a conflict whereby the parties make trade-offs on issues according to their different interests; each side concedes the most on issues that are unimportant to it but are important to the other side

Social facilitation

When the presence of others energizes us, enhances performance on simple tasks but impaired on complex tasks

Using threats to resolve conflict…

Tends to escalate rather than resolve conflicts, moreso when both sides have equal threat capacity

Prosocial Behavior

any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person

Altrusim

the desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper

Kin selection

the idea that behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection

Norm of reciprocity

The expectation that helping other will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future

social exchange theory

Much of what we do steams from the desire to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs