Group Processes

what is a group?

social groups share some form of connectedness or unity

2 or more people who interact and influence one another

is interaction necessary?

self-categorisation theory - don’t need to meet group or learn the social norms just ‘need us vs them’

no interaction or co-presence needed

can we be group members even if we don’t want to be?

group cohesiveness

a sense of team spirit with shared perception and reality

attraction to the group as a whole rather than liking individuals

group cohesion positivity predicts how long a group will stay together

lower if group don’t want to be part

what is the 5 stage model of group development (Tuckman)

1. forming - initial meeting

2. storming - competition around roles and power

3. norming - agreement on rules

4. performing - cooperation

5. adjourning - group disbands due to shared goals being reached or cannot be reached together

what is social facilitation?

others mere presence improves the speed and accuracy of task performance

what did Triplett find?

a third of participants were inhibited by another competitor

particularly for tasks or situations that are more complex or novel

what is drive theory? (Zajonc)

others presence → arousal → dominant response → either social facilitation (simple or routine tasks) or social inhibition (complex or novel tasks)

what is evaluation apprehension?

arousal comes from fear of being judged

study:

conditions = no audience, non-evaluating audience and evaluating audience

findings = probability of dominant response was higher in the evaluating audience than the other 2 conditions

what is the distraction-conflict theory?

audiences or competitors may divide our attention

conflict between focusing on a task and paying attention to others

easy task = small amount of attention needed

complex task = distraction leaves too little attention to complete the task successfully

what is social loafing?

the tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts towards a common goal than when they are individually accountable

who discovered the effect?

Ringelmann effect - discovery of the effect in a rope pulling experiment

what is the motivational explanations?

not an issue of coordination as social loafing observed in tasks that require little or no coordination

examples:

social impact theory - I = f(strength, immediacy, number)

arousal reduction - more people = less likely to notice your efforts

evaluation potential - think you individually will be less noticed due to number

dispensability of effort - think no one will notice others covering for them

collective effort model

social loafing is more likely when people:

find it more difficult to link their own effort and performance to the outcome (instrumentality)

they value the group outcome less than the individual outcomes (valence)

individual performance → group performance → group outcomes → individual outcomes → outcome valence

balance of how invested are you in group outcome:

expectancy x instrumentality x valence of outcome = motivational force

social justice explanations

“sucker” effect - nobody wants to be the “sucker” on the team

don’t want to be the person that puts all the work in while others don’t pull their weight

higher when: experience loafing by others or expect unfair workload

response to perceived injustice

social identity model

groups show minimal social loafing if there is social identification

group becomes part of the self so collective goals become personal goals and have higher trust in fellow group members

this reduces expectation of social loafing

team work and virtual teams

social loafing likely in a work environment doesn’t have coordination of roles and task contingencies

difficulties with visual teams = reduced visibility and traceability and social isolation

potential remedies = clear division and accountability and support for social aspects of teams

functional model

initial social leafing may lead to higher performance later on:

effort recovery - team effort provides recovery from demands for the individual that they can invest later

moral cleansing - guilt for easier loafing can increase motivation later

what is the wisdom of the crowd?

the average estimate of a crowd tends to be more accurate than individual estimates, even estimated by an individual expert

why does the wisdom of the crowd occur?

each individual makes mistakes but if these mistakes are random, they will average to and provide the best guesstimate

when does the wisdom of the crowd occur?

diversity of opinion

independence

what is the risky shift?

group decisions were significantly more risky than the mean of the individual group members prior choices

what is choice shift?

systematic difference between decision after group discussion and average of members initial decisions

initial values determine group shift

what are the explanations for choice shift?

diffusion of responsibility

familiarisation theory

leadership theory

social comparison theory

pluralistic ignorance

relevant arguments theory

what is group polarisation?

group discussions tend to produce more extreme decisions, opinions and attitudes in the direction that was initially favoured by the group

what were the findings for group polarisation?

individual choices less extreme than group consensus

individual choices after group discussion more extreme than before

when is group polarisation stronger?

when a shared social category exists

people don’t just follow arguments they follow the norms of groups they identify with

social identity tells people what a “good group member” should think

groupthink

excessive pressure towards unanimity that suppresses critical evaluation and dissent

antecedents conditions of groupthink

time pressures and stress

high cohesiveness and social identity

isolation from other sources of information

directive, authoritative leadership

symptoms of groupthink

illusions of invulnerability

illusions of unanimity

in-group favouritism

little search for new information

belief in morality of the group

pressure on dissenters to conform

what are echo chambers?

preferential interaction with like-minded others

reinforce existing beliefs

homophily creates selective exposure

what are filter bubbles?

social media algorithms selectively expose users to attitude-consistent information

algorithms tend to increase exposure to diverse content

tend to amplify psychological tendencies