Group Processes

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Chapter 8

• Group Processes

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Why Join a Group?

• The complexities and ambitions of human life
  require that we work in groups
• Humans have an innate need to belong to groups
• Social brain hypothesis
• May not only protect against physical threat, but
  also help gain personal and social identity

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What is a Group?

• A set of individuals who have at least one of the
  following characteristics
• Direct interactions with each other over a period
  of time
• Joint membership in a social category based on
  sex, race, or other attributes
• A shared common fate, identity, or set of goals

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Group Roles

• Peoples roles in a group can be formal or
  informal.
• Two fundamental types of roles
• An instrumental role to help the group achieve
  its tasks
• An expressive role to provide emotional support
  and maintain morale
• Beneficial to match roles to each members
  characteristics and skill set

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Group Norms

• Groups establish norms or rules of conduct for
  members.
• Norms may be either formal or informal.

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Group Cohesiveness

• The forces exerted on a group that push its
  members closer together.
• Cohesiveness and group performance are causally
  related.
• But relationship is complex
• Group cohesiveness can be affected in different
  ways as a function of cultural differences.

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Social FacilitationWhen Others Arouse Us

• How does the presence of others affect our
  behavior?
• Tripletts (1897-1898) fishing reel studies
• Later research found conflicting findings.
• Sometimes the presence of others enhanced
  performance.
• At other times, performance declined.
• What was going on?
• The Zajonc Solution

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Social Facilitation The Zajonc Solution
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Why Does Social Facilitation Occur?

• Zajoncs Mere Presence Theory
• Evaluation Apprehension Theory
• Someone must be in position to evaluate
  performance.
• Stereotype threat revisited.

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Why Does Social Facilitation Occur? (contd)

• Distraction Conflict Theory
• Attentional conflict between focusing on task and
  inspecting the distracting stimulus creates
  arousal.
• Maintains there is nothing uniquely social about
  social facilitation.
• Which theory is correct?

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Social Loafing When Others Relax Us

• Ringelmann (1880s) Individual output declines on
  pooled tasks.
• Social Loafing A group-produced reduction in
  individual output on easy tasks in which
  contributions are pooled.

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When Is Social Loafing Less Likely to Occur?

• People believe that their own performances can be
  identified and thus evaluated, by themselves or
  by others.
• The task is important or meaningful to those
  performing it.
• People believe that their own efforts are
  necessary for a successful outcome.

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When Is Social Loafing Less Likely to Occur?
(contd)

• The group expects to be punished for poor
  performance.
• The group is small.
• The group is cohesive.

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Why Does Social Loafing Occur?

• Collective Effort Model Individuals try hard on
  a collective task when they think their efforts
  will help them achieve outcomes they personally
  value.

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Culture and Social Loafing

• Prevalent around the world, but some cultural
  differences have been found
• Research has found social loafing to be less
  prevalent among women than men, and less
  prevalent in collectivist cultures than in
  individualist cultures

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Deindividuation

• The loss of a persons sense of individuality and
  the reduction of normal constraints against
  deviant behavior.
• A collective phenomenon that only occurs in the
  presence of others
• What can lead to deindividuation?

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Group PerformanceProblems and Solutions
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Brainstorming

• A technique that attempts to increase the
  production of creative ideas by encouraging group
  members to speak freely without criticizing their
  own or others contributions.

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Brainstorming in Groups
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Group Polarization

• Conflicting findings about the types of decisions
  groups make
• Sometimes riskier, other times more cautious
• Group Polarization The exaggeration through
  group discussion of initial tendencies in the
  thinking of group members.

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What Creates Group Polarization?

• Persuasive arguments theory
• Social comparison
• To differentiate from other groups

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Groupthink

• Excessive tendency to seek concurrence among
  group members.
• Emerges when the need for agreement takes
  priority over the motivation to obtain accurate
  information and make appropriate decisions.

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Symptoms of Groupthink

• Overestimation of the group
• Closed-mindedness
• Increased pressures toward uniformity
• Mindguards and pressures towards uniformity
• Self-censorship
• Illusion of unanimity

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Preventing Groupthink

• Avoid isolation by consulting widely with
  outsiders.
• Leaders should reduce conformity pressures.
• Establish a strong norm of critical review.

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Charting the Course of Groupthink
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Escalation Effects

• Occurs when commitment to a failing course of
  action is increased to justify previous
  investments.
• Groups more likely to escalate commitment.
• Also likely to do it in more extreme ways.

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Conflict Cooperation and Competition Within and
Between Groups
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The Prisoners Dilemma

• Is a type of dilemma in which one party must make
  either cooperative or competitive moves in
  relation to another party. The dilemma is
  typically designed so that the competitive move
  appears to be in ones self-interest, but if both
  sides make this move, they both suffer more than
  if they had both cooperated

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Culture and Social Dilemmas

• Evidence of strong cultural differences is mixed
  thus far
• Collectivistic cultures may cooperate more with
  friends or ingroup members, but compete more
  aggressively with outgroup members

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Conflict Escalation and Reduction

• Conflicts between groups are caused by many
  factors, including competition for scarce
  resources, stereotypes and prejudice, and
  competing ideologies.

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Reducing Conflict Through GRIT

• Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in
  Tension-Reduction (GRIT)
• A strategy for unilateral, persistent efforts to
  establish trust and cooperation between opposing
  parties.
• GRIT is a reciprocal strategy
• Research on GRIT is encouraging

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Negotiation

• Integrative agreement is a negotiated resolution
  where all parties obtain outcomes that are
  superior to a 50-50 split.

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Negotiation (contd)

• Key elements in successful negotiating include
• Communicating and trying to understand the point
  of view of the other person
• Disclosure of information
• Training in conflict-resolution techniques
• Simply taking a break
• Sometimes an arbiter is necessary

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Finding A Common Ground

• Recognition of a superordinate identity.
• Superordinate goals can elicit cooperation by
  appealing to peoples self-interest.
• These goals can also produce a superordinate
  identity.