Chapter 8

Group Processes

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

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

Group Roles

• People’s 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 member’s characteristics and skill set

Group Norms

• Groups establish norms or rules of conduct for members.

• Norms may be either formal or informal.

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.

Social Facilitation:When Others Arouse Us

• How does the presence of others affect our behavior?

• Triplett’s (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

Social Facilitation: The Zajonc Solution

Why Does Social Facilitation Occur?

• Zajonc’s Mere Presence Theory• Evaluation Apprehension Theory– Someone must be in position to evaluate

performance.– Stereotype threat revisited.

Why Does Social Facilitation Occur? (cont’d)

• 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?

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.

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.

When Is Social Loafing Less Likely to Occur? (cont’d)

• The group expects to be punished for poor performance.

• The group is small.• The group is cohesive.

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.

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

Deindividuation

• The loss of a person’s 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?

Group Performance:Problems and Solutions

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.

Brainstorming in Groups

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.

What Creates Group Polarization?

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

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.

Symptoms of Groupthink

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

Preventing Groupthink

• Avoid isolation by consulting widely with outsiders.

• Leaders should reduce conformity pressures.• Establish a strong norm of critical review.

Charting the Course of Groupthink

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.

Conflict: Cooperation and Competition Within and Between Groups

The Prisoner’s 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 one’s self-interest, but if both sides make this move, they both suffer more than if they had both cooperated

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

Conflict Escalation and Reduction

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

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

Negotiation

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

Negotiation (cont’d)

• 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

Finding A Common Ground

• Recognition of a superordinate identity.• Superordinate goals can elicit cooperation by

appealing to people’s self-interest.– These goals can also produce a superordinate

identity.