Chapter 12: Groups

Social facilitation

the effect, positive or negative, of the presence of others on performance

Dominant response

in a person’s hierarchy of possible responses in any context, the response the person is most likely to make

Evaluation apprehension

people’s concern about how they might appear or be evaluated in the eyes of others

Social loafing

the tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task in which individual contributions cannot be monitored

Groupthink

faulty thinking by members of highly cohesive groups in which the critical scrutiny that should be devoted to the issues at hand is subverted by social pressures to reach consensus

Self-censorship

withholding information or opinions in group discussions

Group polarisation

the tendency for group decisions to be more extreme than those made by individuals; whatever way the group as a whole is leaning, group discussion tends to make it lean further in that direction

Power

the ability to control one’s own outcomes and those of others

Social hierarchy

the arrangement of individuals within a group in terms of their relative power

Approach/inhibition theory

high power individuals are inclined to go after their goals and make quick, sometimes rash, judgements; whereas low-power individuals are more likely to constrain their behaviour and pay careful attention to others

Deindividuation

a reduced sense of individual identity accompanied by diminished self-regulation that can come over people when they are in a large group

Individuation

an enhanced sense of individual identity produced by focusing attention on the self, which generally leads people to act carefully, deliberately and in accordance with their sense of propriety and values

Self-awareness theory

when people focus their attention inward on themselves, they become concerned with self-evaluation and how their current behaviour conforms to their internal standards and values

Spotlight effect

people’s conviction that other people are paying more attention to them (to their appearance and behaviour) than they actually are