Chapter 9: Group Processes

Group (def.)

Two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other

Social Roles

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

Group Cohesiveness

Qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between them

Social Facilitation

When people are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated, the tendency to perform better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks

Social Loafing

When people are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated, the tendency to perform worse on simple or unimportant tasks but better on complex or important tasks

Deindividuation

The loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can’t be identified (such as when they are in a crowd)

Process Loss

Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving

Transactive Memory

The combined memory of a group that is more efficient than the memory of the individual members

Groupthink

A kind of decision process in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner

Group Polarization

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

Great Person Theory

The idea that certain key personality traits make a person a good leader, regardless of the situation

Transactional Leaders

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

Transformational Leaders

Leaders who inspire followers to focus on common, long-term goals

Contingency Theory of Leadership

The idea that the effectiveness of a leader depends both on how task- or relationship-oriented the leader is and on the amount of control the leader has over the group

Task-Oriented Leaders

Leaders who are concerned more with getting the job done than with workers’ feelings and relationships

Relationship-Oriented Leaders

Leaders who are concerned more with workers’ feelings and relationships

Social Dilemma

A conflict in which the most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone

Tit-for-Tat Strategy

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

Negotiation

A 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

A solution to a conflict whereby the parties make trade-offs on issues, with each side conceding the most on issues that are unimportant to it but important to the other side