Group Influence - Social Psychology PDF

GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology GROUP INFLUENCE Injunctive norms The social Social Group norms that...

GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology GROUP INFLUENCE Injunctive norms The social Social Group norms that The set of individuals with a shared people feel purpose and who normally share a they have to positive social identity. follow based on what they Entitativity think other refers to something like people expect “groupiness”—the perception, either of them. by the group members themselves Prescriptive Norms or by others, that the people That tells the together are a group. group Similarity members A group can only be a group to the what to do, extent that its members have whereas (e.g something in common; at minimum, Beatitudes) they are similar because they all Proscriptive Norms belong to the group. That tells If a collection of people are them what not interested in the same things, share to do (e.g Ten the same opinions and beliefs, or Commandme work together on the same task, nts). then it seems they should be Role Stress considered by both themselves and This occurs when individuals others to be a group. experience incompatible demands However, if there are a lot of and expectations within or between differences among the individuals, the roles that they occupy, which particularly in their goals, values, often negatively impacts their ability beliefs, and behaviors, then they are to be successful in those roles less likely to be seen as a group. Social Identity Refers to the part of the self-concept Communication, Interdependence, and that results from our membership in Group Structure social groups A group is a group when the Communication members experience social Groups have more entitativity when identity—when they define the group members have frequent themselves in part by the group that interaction and communication with they belong to and feel good about each other their group membership Interdependence. the extent to which the group Social Identity Theory members are mutually dependent Seeks to explain the cognitive upon each other to reach a goal processes and social conditions Group Structure underlying intergroup behaviors, Another aspect of working groups especially those related to prejudice, whose members spend some time bias, and discrimination. working together and that makes them seem "groupy" Social Categorization ○ The relevant social norms for We categorize objects to understand groups include customs, them and identify them. In a very traditions, standards, and similar way, we categorize people rules, as well as the general (including ourselves) to understand values of the group. the social environment. GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology In other cases, however, the process Categorization helps individuals of group formation occurs continually simplify the social environment but over a long period of time. can also lead to stereotyping. Social Identification This means they begin to see themselves in terms of group characteristics and adopt its norms, values, and behaviors. Social Comparison After categorizing and identifying with a group, individuals compare their group to others. This comparison is often biased in favor of one’s own group, leading to in-group favoritism. This is critical to understanding prejudice, because once two groups identify themselves as rivals, they are forced to compete in order for the members to maintain their Storming and Conflict self-esteem. Members may attempt to make their Positive Distinctiveness own views known, expressing their When a social group is made to independence and attempting to appear more positive and valued by persuade the group to accept their using verbal and non-verbal cues. ideas. Individuals seek to build and May occur as the group first gets maintain positive distinctiveness for started, and it may recur at any point their group. during the group’s development, "individuals strive to achieve or to particularly if the group experiences maintain positive social identity". stress caused by a negative event, such as a setback in progress The Stages of Group Development toward the group goal. Potential stages that groups characterized by conflict and generally go through. competition as team members begin And even groups that have to address important issues remained relatively stable for long In some cases, the conflict may be periods of time may suddenly make so strong that the group members dramatic changes; for instance, decide that the group is not working when they face a crisis, such as a at all and they disband. change in task goals or the loss of a Groups that experience no conflict at leader. Groups may also lose their all may be unproductive because the meaning and identity as they members are bored, uninvolved, and successfully meet the goals they unmotivated, and because they do initially set out to accomplish. not think creatively or openly about the topics of relevance to them. Forming and Relationship Development Norming Stage and Performing In some cases, when a new group When the appropriate norms and forms to accomplish a goal (e.g roles for the group are developed. research group), the formation stage Once these norms have been occurs relatively quickly and is developed, they allow the group to appropriately considered the group’s enter the performing stage, which is first stage. when group members establish a routine and effectively work together. GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology - This arousal increases the likelihood At this stage, the individual group that we will perform the dominant members may report great response. satisfaction and identification with the group, as well as strong group Dominant Response identity. Groups that have effectively The action that we are most likely to reached this stage have the ability to emit in any given situation. meet goals and survive challenges. And at this point, the group becomes well tuned to its task and is able to perform the task efficiently. In some cases, this is because the task for which the group was formed has been completed, whereas in other cases it occurs because the group members have developed new interests outside the group. Adjournment Where group members prepare for the group to end. Is frequently stressful, and participants may resist the breakup. Faced with these situations, individuals frequently plan to get together again in the future, exchanging addresses and phone numbers, even though they may well know that it is unlikely they will actually do so. Sometimes it is useful for the group to work ahead of time to prepare members for the breakup. - Zajonc argued that if the task to be performed is relatively easy or the GROUP PERFORMANCE individual has learned to perform the task very well, the dominant Social Facilitation & Social Inhibition response was likely to be the correct response. Social Facilitation - Increase in arousal caused The tendency to perform tasks better by the presence of others or faster in the presence of others. would improve performance. Social Inhibition - If the task were difficult or not The tendency to perform tasks more well-learned, the dominant response poorly or slowly in the presence of would likely be the incorrect one others. - Increase in arousal would increase the occurrence of - Working around others could either the incorrect dominant help or hinder performance. response, performance - Robert Zajonc argued that when we would be hindered. are with others, we experience more - Zajonc’s theory explains how the arousal than we do when we are presence of others can increase or alone. decrease performance. GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology Expected performance of the group Process Losses & Process Gains is the sum of group members’ individual inputs. Process Gain E.g. K-Pop group, where all When groups work better than we members have contributions to the would expect, given the individuals overall performance. who form them. Compensatory (averaging) task Process Loss When the group input is combined When groups perform more poorly such that the performance of the than we would expect, given the individuals are averaged rather than characteristics of the members of added. the group. E.g. You have assigned parts of your Group Process research paper to each group The events that occur while the member. In general, some members group is working together on the may do excellent work compared to task. others. So instead of focusing on Refers to the way group members one member’s work, the group’s final interact, communicate, and works grade is based on the quality of the together to achieve a common goal. combined output. Group Member Characteristics If a member’s work is weaker, it can Refer to the relevant traits, skills, or be balanced out by the stronger abilities of the individual group contributions from the other members. members. The extent to which member skill Disjunctive task influences group performance varies When the group’s performance is across different group tasks determined by the best group Task Characteristics member. The task that the group needs to “Na buhat” member; “Hidilyn Diaz” accomplish. Conjunctive task When the group performance is determined by the ability of the TYPES OF TASK CHARACTERISTICS: group member who performs most poorly. Divisible Task E.g. If one group member is having Wherein each of the group members a hard time completing their part of working on the job can do a the report, and your topic is separate part of the job at the same dependent on their topic, this can time. slow down the progress of the E.g. assigning parts for a report group. Unitary Task Intellective task Task has to be done all at once and Involves the ability oof the group to cannot be divided up. make a decision or a judgment, and Specialization among group is measured by studying either the members is less useful, because processes that the group uses to each group member has to work on make the decision or the quality of the same task at the same time. the decision. E.g. laboratory activities during zoology Additive Task The inputs of each group member are added together to create the group performance GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology E.g. Not clapping during a speech or For example, how a jury comes up performance because people are with a verdict. The members of the thinking “other people will clap.” jury must use their cognitive skills, Tendency is, that there would only logical reasoning, and knowledge be a few people to exert the effort in application to find a solution to a clapping. problem or, in the case of the jury, to decide whether the suspect is guilty or not based on the arguments and GROUP DECISION MAKING provided evidence. Maximizing task - One important factor that helps Involves performance that is groups to outperform individuals on measured by how rapidly the group decision-making tasks is the type of works or how much of a product they interdependence they have are able to make. - Positively interdependent E.g. In an organization. When in an (cooperative) groups tend to make organization, every member has to better decisions than both negatively work together to reach the specific interdependent (competitive) groups goal immediately to avoid delays. and individuals. Criterion task - These process gains in group The group that can see that there is decision-making came from a variety a clearly correct answer to the of factors: problem that is being posed. 1. A group generates more E.g. Solving logic problems. If one ideas and solutions that they member sees the answer, other would not have arrived at members will follow to see the individually obvious answer. 2. Other group members are Judgmental task more likely to notice and There is no clear correct answer to correct mistakes that can the problem. affect the decision-making This involves studying the processes process. that the group uses to make the decision. Outcome Bias We naturally tend to look too much at the outcome when we evaluate - The nature of the task will influence decision-making. group performance and whether Can lead to process losses when it people perform better together, comes to group decision-making. compared to doing it alone. Groupthink A group process that can lead to Social Loafing very poor group decisions. When a group that is made up of A group process loss that occurs members who may actually be very when people do not work as hard in competent and thus quite capable of a group as they do when they are making excellent decisions alone. nevertheless ends up making a poor one as a results of a flawed group The Ringelmann Effect process and strong conformity A type of social loafing pressures. A process loss in which group More liekey to occur in groups in productivity decreases as the size of which members are feeling strong the group increases. social identity. GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology groups do not generate as many Members become unwilling to seek ideas as one would expect. out or discuss possible Furthermore, the ideas that they discrepancies or unsettling generate are usually of lesser quality information about a topic at hand. than those generated by an equal Group members are afraid to number of individuals working alone express ideas that contradict with who then share their results. another members, maybe the leader, thus the group is prevented from WHY BRAINSTORMING IS INEFFECTIVE making a fully informed decision. 1. Social loafing Additionally, when groupthink a. Because individuals occurs, this can lead to a situation perceived that the group where only a few group members members were not working are actually involved in conversation, very hard, and they matched and at times there are others talaga their own behavior to the nga don’t express any opinion, norm. because of the pressures of 2. Some members might be unwilling Conformity. And because there are to state their in brainstorming groups little to no dissent expressed in the because they are afraid to be group, then the group members negatively evaluated by other would assume that they are in members. complete agreement. 3. Production blocking a. In a group, only one person Mindguards can speak at a time, and this Members who help quash dissent can cause people to forget and to increase conformity to the their ideas because they are leader’s opinion. listening to others, or to miss what others are saying - Because of high levels of confromity, because they are thinking of the group egins to see itself as their own ideas. extremely valuable and important, highly capable of making Group Polarization high-quality decision and When, after discussion, the attitudes invulnerbale. held by the individual group - Such a situation is often conductive members become more extreme to poor decision-making, which can than they were before the group lead to tragic consequences. began discussing the topic. However, does not occur in all Shared Information Bias groups and in all setting, but tends to Where group members tend to happen most often when the discuss information that they all following 2 conditions are met: have access to while ignoring ○ Group members must have equally important information that is an initial leaning towards a available to only a few of the given opinion or decision. members. ○ Strengthened by discussion of the topic Brainstorming A technique where creative solutions would be increased when the group members generated a lot of ideas. However, it was discovered through various studies that brainstorming GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology *Cognitive Approach: Improving IMPROVING GROUP PERFORMANCE Communication and Information AND DECISION MAKING Sharing* Using groups in decision making can Poor information search and create outcomes working together information sharing can be reduced that any one individual could not by creating situations that foster hope to accomplish alone.* open and full discussion of the issue Example: A class works together to clean When group members don’t share or search their school in one day, something one for enough information, it can affect the student alone couldn’t finish results. Open discussions allow everyone to But group members often think that share ideas and make sure all the needed their group is being more productive information is covered. than it really is and their own group is particularly productive One important method of creating Example: A group thinks they did better adequate information sharing is to than other teams in a class project, but their ensure that the group has plenty of work is actually missing key details time to make its decision and that it Overvaluing the level of productivity is not rushed in doing it of groups is known as the illusion of Example: A group of students is choosing a group effectivity. leader for a school club. If they rush the Example:A group of students feels their decision, they might pick someone without presentation is perfect and doesn’t check for considering the skills needed. Giving them mistakes. Later, the teacher points out enough time to discuss each candidate errors they could have fixed. helps ensure they select the right person for the role. **Motivating Groups to Perform Better by Appealing to Self-Interest** One approach to increase full discussion of the issues is to have In addition to helping group the group break up into smaller members understand the nature of subgroups for discussion. group performance, we must be Explanation: Dividing the group into smaller aware of their self-interested goals. subgroups helps focus on specific parts of Example: One student likes art, so they the task. Each subgroup can discuss, share design the poster while another enjoys ideas, and decide on their assigned topic, speaking, so they handle the presentation. making the process more organized and efficient. Motivating groups to perform better can also be achieved by providing Devil’s Advocate can be encouraged rewards for their performance in conversations for individuals who Example: A teacher promises an extra is given the job of expressing grade point to the group that finishes the conflicting opinions and forcing the best project. group to fully discuss all the alternatives.** In providing rewards, one of the Explanation: The Devil’s Advocate is a potential problems is that group group member who questions ideas and members will compare their own suggests other options. This role helps the rewards with those of others. group think carefully and discuss all Example: If one member gets a higher possibilities before deciding. reward than others, it might cause jealousy or inspire others to work harder. The group leader is extremely important in fostering norms of open discussion in decision-making groups. GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology Explanation: A group leader plays an Setting goals appears to be effective important role in making sure everyone’s because it increases members effort ideas are heard. They guide discussions, and experience of success. It evaluate ideas, and help the group stay improves cooperation and focused on their goals. communication among members Explanation: Goals motivate members to One difficulty with many working work harder and communicate better with groups is that once they have each other. This teamwork leads to developed a set of strategies, these success, even when the task is difficult. plans become established social norms and it becomes difficult for the Example: A soccer team sets a goal to win groups to later adopt new, a game, encouraging all players to practice alternative and perhaps better harder. strategies. Explanation: Once a group decides on a Setting goals also has problems strategy, it can be hard to change it later, associated when the goal may turn even if they find a better option. However, to be too difficult. being open to new ideas is important to achieve the best results. Explanation: Sometimes, the goals might be Example: A team keeps using an old too hard to achieve. However, with strategy even though a new app could help teamwork and proper planning, even difficult them finish faster. tasks can become easier. Example: A team sets a goal to write a *Setting Appropriate Goals* 50-page report in one day, which causes stress and poor results. One aspect of planning that has been found to be strongly related to *Group Member Diversity: Costs and positive group performance is the Benefits* setting of goals that the group uses to guide its work.** Similarity among group members will Explanation: Setting clear goals helps the likely help the group reach group focus on what they need to achieve. It consensus on the best approaches provides direction and helps the members to performing a task and may lead it stay organized. to make decisions more quickly and effectively. Example: A group of students is working on Explanation: When group members share a research project. By setting clear goals, similar ideas or skills, it is easier for them to like completing the introduction by a certain agree on a plan. This speeds up date or gathering data within a week, decision-making and helps them work more everyone knows what needs to be done and effectively. when. This helps the group stay on track Example: A group of friends who think alike and ensures they complete the project quickly agrees on how to finish a project. successfully. Similarity among group members Groups that set specific, difficult and may be useful in some cases, yet attainable goals are much more groups that are characterized by effective than groups that are given diversity among members in terms goals that are not very clear. of personality, experience and abilities might have some potential Explanation: Goals that are specific and advantages.** challenging encourage the group to work harder. In contrast, unclear goals can lead Explanation: Diverse members bring to confusion and disorganized efforts. different strengths to the group. Assigning GROUP INFLUENCE Social Psychology tasks based on their expertise allows them the early stages of working together. Over to handle the work more effectively. time, this may lead to disagreements or changes in group members. Example: A group with artists, writers, and Example: A diverse group may face speakers creates a well-rounded arguments but still produce a strong final presentation. result because of their combined ideas. Diverse groups may also be able to take advantage of the wider range of resources, ideas and viewpoints that diversity provides. Explanation: Groups with diverse members have access to a broader range of ideas and perspectives, which helps in creating better results. Example: A multicultural group creates a project with ideas that appeal to people from different backgrounds. In meta-analysis of gender diversity, Wendy Wood (1987) found that there was some evidence that groups composed of both men and women tended to outperform same-sex groups because they are brought with different skills. Gender and ethnic diversity have at least some benefits for groups; there is also some potential cost of diversity. Explanation:Both men and women bring unique skills to the group, and their contributions should be valued equally. Treating everyone fairly ensures that all ideas are heard and respected. Extreme levels of diversity can also be problematic for group process because one difficulty may be harder for diverse groups to get past the formation stage. Example: A group with very different personalities might take longer to agree on how to start their work. More diverse groups may also show more turnover over time and group diversity may produce increased conflict between the group (Kim, 1988). Explanation: While diversity is helpful, it can also cause challenges, such as misunderstandings or conflicts, especially in