Week 9 | Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups

Two factors that make a group a group

1. Direct interactions among group members over a period of time

2. Shared fate, identity, or set of goals

Entitativity

How “groupy” the group is

Evolutionary view of groups

• Basic human needs (Safety in numbers, reproduction)

• Need others to accomplish things (sports, orchestra)

• Need to belong

Need to Belong

All people are motivated to

• form relationships

• resist the falling-out of these relationships

Composition of groups

Group members tend to be homogeneous

• alike in age, sex, beliefs, and opinions

Why are people in groups similar to each other? (2 reasons)

• Groups attract people who are already similar

• Groups tend to operate in ways that encourage similarity

What are the 3 key features of groups?

1. Roles

2. Norms

3. Cohesiveness

Roles

Set of expected behaviours

• Can be formal or informal

2 fundamental types of roles

• Instrumental

  • helps group achieve tasks

• Expressive

  • provides emotional support and maintains morale

Do groups function better when members are assigned roles that match their talents and personalities?

Yes obviously

Norms

Rules of conduct for members

• can be formal or informal

Reactions to Norm deviations

Groups vary in tolerance to norm violations

• Groups often have strong conformity pressures on those who deviate from the norm

Group Cohesiveness

Factors that bind members of groups together and promote liking, unity, and commitment among members

4 things group members are likely to do if the group is cohesive

• Feel commitment to group tasks

• Feel positive toward other members

• Feel group pride

• Interact often with group

Does Cohesiveness help group performance?

Generally yes, but its complex

• if task needs close cooperation, cohesiveness helps

• cohesiveness can lead to narrow-mindedness and conformity, which can hurt performance

Social Facilitation

The idea that being in a group changes the way we act and do things

Triplett fishing line experiment

Children rolled up fishing line on reel, once alone and once with other people watching

• They were faster when other kids were watching

Zajonc’s order of Social Facilitation

Others presence → Arousal → Strengthens dominant response

• Easy tasks become easier

• Hard tasks become harder

What is the “Dominant Response”?

What is “Facilitation”?

Dominant response

• Reaction provoked most easily by a stimulus

Facilitation

• Facilitation of the dominant response, NOT necessarily the task

Cockroach example of Social Facilitation

Cockroach ran straight line to food, faster when friends watched

Cockroach ran turned line to food, slower when friends watched

3 reasons that explain the role of heightened arousal around others

1. Other people cause us to become alert

2. Other people make us feel nervous about how others are evaluating us

3. Other people distract us from the task at hand

3. Other people distract us from the task at hand

Divided attention = split cognitive resources

• Nonsocial distractions like flashing lights cause similar effects as the presence of people

Social Loafing

The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts towards a common goal

• they can’t be individually held accountable

• other people relax us = we do less

Social Loafing: Tug of war example

The more people were pulling, the less pulling each person did

Social Loafing: Noise example

People made more noise alone than when they believed they were with other people

4 ways to get rid of Social Loafing

• Make individuals accountable

• Task is challenging and involving

• Group members are friends

• Big reward for effort

Who loafs more? Collectivist vs Individualist cultures?

Individualist cultures loaf more

• Collectivist cultures loaf less because they care about the group a lot

Social Facilitation VS Social Loafing (what two things do they each lead to?)

Facilitation

• Enhanced performance on simple tasks

• Impaired performance on complex tasks

Loafing

• Impaired performance on simple tasks

• Enhanced performance on complex tasks

Why do groups allow us to do strange things?

Social Facilitation: Groups can arouse people

Social Loafing: Groups can diffuse responsibility

These lead to: De-individuation

• The loss of sense of individuality and reduction of constraints against deviant behaviour

How does De-individuation happen?

• Anonymous situations

• Situations that draw attention away from the individual

4 ways to reinforce individual accountability

• The presence of mirrors

• Nametags

• Individualized clothing

• Practicing mindfulness

Group Decisions: 3 kinds of tasks

1. Additive task

2. Conjunctive task

3. Disjunctive task

Additive task

Result is a SUM of all members

• Snow shovelling

Conjunctive task

Result is determined by WEAKEST LINK

• Mountain climbing

Disjunctive task

Result is determined by STRONGEST MEMBER

• Best shot in darts

Brainstorming in groups VS alone

Groups came up with less ideas than people on their own who came together after

• guided in the same direction as others ideas

Process Loss

Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving

3 Reasons why Process Loss happens

• Groups don’t try hard enough to find out who the most competent member is

• The most competent member finds it difficult to disagree with everyone else

• Communication problems

Process Loss: Failure to share unique information

Groups tend to focus on the information they all know, and ignore facts that only some members know

3 things to fix Process Loss

• Longer group discussion

• Assign different group members to specific areas of expertise

• Transactive memory (2 or more people)

Group Polarization

The tendency for groups positions to be exaggerated over time/become more extreme

Ex: US political parties

2 Causes of Grouo Polarization

• The more persuasive arguments we’re exposed to, the more extreme our thinking becomes

• Support group values more strongly to stand out and get favour

Groupthink

A group decision-making style with excessive tendency to seek group agreement

4 ways to prevent Groupthink

• Avoid isolation

• Leaders should encourage criticism

• Always have a devils advocate

• Re-discuss group decisions