Group Processes

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Group Processes

• Influences in social groups
• Chapter 9

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What is a group?

• Group (defn) a collection of two or more people
  who interact with each other and are
  interdependent
• You influence them, they influence you

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• Why do we join groups?
• -innate need to belong (Baumeister Leary, 1995)
• -groups become an important part of our
  identities
• -motivate us to become involved (ie, social
  activism)
• -groups help to establish social norms
• -groups establish well-defined social roles

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• There are potential costs to social roles
• Personal identities and personalities are lost
• There is a cost to acting inconsistent to these
  roles
• Example gender roles- arbitrary and unfair
  social prescriptions for what it is to be male
  and female

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• The composition of groups
• What do they have in common?
• a. range in size from 2-6 members
• b. they tend to be alike in terms of sex, age,
  beliefs and opinions
• -groups tend to attract similar others AND
  group members become more similar to one another
  over time

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• c. Group cohesiveness
• -qualities of the group that bind members of the
  group together and promote liking between the
  members
• The more cohesive more members will stay, take
  part in activities, and recruit like-minded
  members

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How groups influence the behaviors of individuals

• Social facilitation when the presence of others
  energizes us
• Social Loafing - when the presence of others
  relaxes us
• Deindividuation the loosening of normal
  constraints on behavior when in a group

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• Social facilitation the tendency for people to
  do better on simple tasks and worse on complex
  tasks in the presence of other people and
  individual performance is evaluated

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• The presence of others can take 2 forms
• Performing a task with others who are doing the
  same thing separately
• Performing a task in front of an audience that is
  not doing anything but observing

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• Does the presence of others affect us?
• Yes (Zajonc et al., 1969)
• Cockroach maze study
• -cockroaches ran a simple maze faster when in
  the presence of an audience compared to when not
  in the presence
• -ran a complex maze slower in the presence of
  audience

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• Zajonc (1965)
• -theoretical explanation
• -presence of others increases arousal which
  facilitates dominant, well-learned responses, but
  inhibits performance on difficult tasks

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• Why does the presence of others increase arousal?
• The presence of others makes us more alert
• It makes us concerned with what others think of
  us (apprehension evaluation)
• The presence of others distracts us

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• Social Loafing when the presence of others
  relaxes us
• In social facilitation research, behaviors are
  performed individually in the presence of others,
  and thus are easily observed.
• However, in some social situations, people act as
  a group- here, their behaviors are less easily
  observed.

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• Social loafing- tendency for people to do worse
  on complex tasks when they are in the presence of
  others and their individual performance cannot be
  evaluated
• Rationale being observed by others in this case
  is relaxing
• Relaxation impairs performance on simple tasks
  but enhances performance on complex

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• Eg Jackson Williams (1985)

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• Deindividuation
• the loosening of normal constraints on
  behavior, leading to an increase in impulsive and
  deviant acts

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• Why does this occur?
• a. presence of others, or the wearing of uniforms
  and disguises makes people feel less accountable
  for their actions
• b. The presence of others lowers self-awareness,
  thereby shifting peoples attention away from
  their moral standards.

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Group Decision-Making are two heads better than
one?

• One of the main functions of groups is to solve
  problems or engage in decision-making
• Most of us believe in the above statement
• Not always the case.

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• PROCESS LOSS when group interactions inhibit
  good problem-solving
• Most competent member needs to be heard in the
  group and to convince others

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• PROCESS LOSS occurs because
• Groups do not try hard enough to figure out who
  the most competent person is
• The most competent members finds it too difficult
  to break free from normative social pressures
• Poor communication in the group

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• d. Failure to share unique information
• -tendency for group members to focus on what they
  already know in common, and failing to discuss
  information that some members have but others do
  not
• Eg., Stasser Titus (1985)

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Information about participant A
Shared information condition
83 preferred A
Positive 1-8 Negative 1-4
Unshared information condition
24 preferred A
Positive 12, negative 1-4
Positive 34, negative 1-4
Positive 56, negative 1-4
Positive 78, negative 1-4
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• Recent research on getting groups to focus more
  on unshared information
• a) Unshared information is more likely to be
  brought up over time make discussions long
  enough to get beyond what everyone already knows
• b) Assign group members to specific areas of
  expertise

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• Groupthink
• -is a kind of thinking in which maintaining group
  cohesiveness and solidarity is more important
  than considering the facts in a realistic manner
  (Janis, 1972 1982)

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• Groupthink is most likely to occur when the group
  is
• Highly cohesive
• Isolated from contrary opinions
• Ruled by a directive leader who makes opinions
  known
• -several symptoms arise when these conditions are
  met

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• To avoid groupthink
• Ensure that leaders do not take a directive role
• Invite outside opinion from people who are not
  members of the group
• Divide the groups into subgroups who meet
  separately and then meet with the overall group
• Use secret ballots to ensure anonymity

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• Leadership in Groups
• What makes a good group leader?
• One theory the great person theory.
• -key personality traits make a good leader
  regardless of the situation facing the leader

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• Research indicates that personality traits are
  surprisingly unrelated to leadership.
• However, certain attributes do display a modest
  association with leader ship success. Leaders
  tend to be
• slightly more intelligent than non-leaders
• more driven by the desire for power
• more charismatic, more socially skilled,
• more adaptive and flexible, and
• more confident in their leadership abilities

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• However
• A study of Canadian Forces officer candidates
  over a 5-yr period found little relation between
  personality variables and leadership ability
  (Bradley et al, 2002).
• The one trait the emerged was dominance,
• Rather, integrative complexity

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• A study of the personal attributes of U.S.
  presidents found that only three variables
  height, family size, and the number of books a
  president published before taking office
• Presidents who were tall, came from small
  families, and had published many books were more
  likely to be great leaders (Simonton, 1987
  1992).

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• Leadership The right person in the right
  situation
• Having the right personality traits for the right
  situation

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• Timing is important.
• -eg, Canadian prime ministers are more likely to
  be considered great if the country faced
  particularly difficult times, such as a war,
  while they were in power.

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• Extreme crisis situations can be problematic,
  however. Generally, when people are under stress,
  their level of integrative complexity decreases.

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• Contingency theories of Leadership
• -focus on the characteristics of the leader, the
  followers and the situation
• Fiedlers contingency theory
• -leadership effectiveness depends on
• How task or relationship-oriented the leader is
• The amount of control the leader has over the
  group

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• Task-oriented leaders are most effective in
  situations that are either very high or very low
  in control (see Fig. 9.6).
• Relationship-oriented leaders are most effective
  in situations that are moderate in control.

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• Gender and Leadership
• Eagly and colleagues
• -women tend to lead more democratically
• -gender differences in leadership effectiveness?
• -depends on situation
• -women- interpersonal tasks
• -men- direct and control tasks

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• Note
• Gender differences are not that large
• Actual differences versus stereotypic
  prescriptions
• The Backlash effect (Rudman, 1998)

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Conflict

• Often people have incompatible goals
• Social dilemma
• - A conflict in which the most beneficial action
  for an individual, if chosen by most people, will
  have harmful effects on everyone

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• One of the most common social dilemmas is
  illustrated by a game called The Prisoners
  Dilemma
• It is a classical social dilemma because it pits
  peoples desire to look out for their own
  interests against their desire to look out for
  their partner as well.

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