PSY10080: Introduction to Social Psychology - Group Processes Lecture Notes PDF

GROUPS PSY10080: Introduction to Social Psychology Dr. Glen Jankowski Email: [email protected] Office: Newman F220 Office hours: Wednesdays 12-2pm  This week’s learning objectives Learning objective Source Understand key functional and This lecture limiting ways groups influen...

GROUPS PSY10080: Introduction to Social Psychology Dr. Glen Jankowski Email: [email protected] Office: Newman F220 Office hours: Wednesdays 12-2pm  This week’s learning objectives Learning objective Source Understand key functional and This lecture limiting ways groups influence Reading member behaviour Critically evaluate research & This lecture theory on groups  Overview (Red = attention break) 1. MCQ further guidance 2. What are groups? 3. How do groups influence individuals? 3 min social loafing video 4. How do members operate within groups? 5. Summary & 6q MCQ: Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  MCQ (40%): Recap Questions are about prior lectures 30 questions from larger question bank in 30 minutes Taken in lecture room on 21/10/24 12pm Grades using UCD Alternative Linear Conversion Grade Scale: https://www.ucd.ie/students/exams/gradingandremediation/understandi nggrades/ Use of Chat GPT/ AI, copying or cheating will face penalties Accommodations: If you are registered with the Access Office *& require relevant accommodations for in-class tests, please email me asap if you haven’t already ([email protected]) More info including video guidance on Brightspace Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Overview (Red = attention break) 1. MCQ further guidance 2. What are groups? 3. How do groups influence individuals? 3 min social loafing video 4. How do members operate within groups? 5. Summary & 6q MCQ: Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  What is a group? Group = “two or more individuals in face-to-face interaction, each aware of his or her membership in the group, each aware of the others who belong to the group, and each aware of their positive interdependence as they strive to achieve mutual goals” (Johnson & Johnson, 1987) Personal belief determines whether it is a meaningful ‘group’ vs random number of individuals Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076 Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, F.P. (1987). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.  Terminology Intra-group: within the group Inter-group: between groups In-group: group to which I belong Out-group: group to which I do not belong Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076 Groups key in everyday social life  Properties of groups Group functions: Accomplish instrumental tasks, satisfy social & emotional needs etc Group properties High entitativity: Distinct & clearly bounded unit (e.g., sports team) High cohesiveness: Solidarity & liking between members Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Group development Tuckman (1965): 5 stages in development of group 1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076 Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399  Overview (Red = attention break) 1. MCQ further guidance 2. What are groups? 3. How do groups influence individuals? 3 min social loafing video 4. How do members operate within groups? 5. Summary & 6q MCQ: Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Group influence on individual: Social facilitation Triplett (1898): people cycled faster when another person was present than when alone 1st social psychology experiment May be restricted to tasks that are easy or very familiar If the task is new or difficult, the opposite can occur (i.e., social inhibition) Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Group influence on individual: Explanations of social facilitation Drive theory (Zajonc, 1965) evolved arousal when not alone Evaluation apprehension theory (Cottrell et al., 1968) concern with social rewards/punishments Distraction-conflict theory (Baron, 1986) Narrowed attentional focus when not alone Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076 Baron, R. S. (1986). Distraction-conflict theory: Progress and problems. Advances in experimental social psychology, 19, 1- 40. Cottrell, N. B. et al. (1968). Social facilitation of dominant responses by presence of others. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 9(3), 245-250. Group influence on individual: social loafing Ringelmann effect: individual effort in a task decreases as group size increases E.g., rope pulling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nzCEGN8eJM (3 min video) Latané, Williams & Harkins (1979) asked people to cheer as loudly as possible Noise per person reduced by 29% if 2 people, 49% if 4 people, 60% if 6 people Social loafing consequences including (e.g., underperformer in group project, herd immunity) Latané, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. Journal of personality and social psychology, 37(6), 822.  Group influence on individual: What factors might decrease risk of social loafing? Importance of outcome Identification with a meaningful group Personal identifiability/ visibility of individual effort Individual personality & values Demographics (e.g., cultural background) Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Overview (Red = attention break) 1. MCQ further guidance 2. What are groups? 3. How do groups influence individuals? 3 min social loafing video 4. How do members operate within groups? 5. Summary & 6q MCQ: Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Intra-group dynamics So far we have looked at how groups influence the behaviour of individual members We can also look at the processes that occur in the group as a whole – i.e. how members interact with each other These processes are known as intra-group dynamics Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076 Intra-group dynamics: Groupthink (Janis, 1972) ‘Groupthink’: when desire to reach unanimous agreement overrides rational decision-making procedures Excessive group cohesiveness + isolated from outside opinions + no clear rules for decision-making Influential concept but empirical evidence weak (Wekselberg, 1996) e.g., retrospective case study: Janis (1972) case study of poor US foreign policy decisions in 1961 Bay of Pigs crisis Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink: a psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin. Wekselberg, V. (1996). Groupthink: a triple fiasco in social psychology. Problems of theoretical psychology. North York, ON: Captus Ress, 217-27. Intra-group dynamics: Brainstorming Commonly used to facilitate creative thinking Little supportive evidence (Rietzschel et al., 2006) as evaluation apprehension, social loafing, distraction become problems Why do people still believe brainstorming works? “Illusion of group effectivity” Exposed to more ideas in a group May enjoy it Rietzschel, E. F., Nijstad, B. A., & Stroebe, W. (2006). Productivity is not enough: A comparison of interactive and nominal brainstorming groups on idea generation and selection. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(2), 244-251.  Mercier, H., Trouche, E., Yama, Intra-group dynamics: Collective H., Heintz, C., & Girotto, V. (2015). Experts and laymen grossly underestimate the reasoning benefits of argumentation for reasoning. Thinking & Reasoning, 21(3), 341-355. ‘Wisdom of crowds’ (Mercier et al., 2015) People are more accurate when in groups than individually (Galton – jelly bean guessing) Consider applications such as jury duty, democracies, online advice (e.g., upvoting responses/ comments on social media) Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Intra-group dynamics: Majority & minority influence People’s judgements can conform to group norms Sherif’s autokinetic effect & Asch’s line length experiments Under certain circumstances, minority perspectives can also shift people’s judgements (Moscovici & Personnaz, 1980) Moscovici, S., & Personnaz, B. (1980). Studies in social influence: V. Minority influence and conversion behavior in a perceptual task. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 16(3), 270-282.  Intra-group dynamics: Majority influence 4 min video: https://youtu.be/TYIh4MkcfJA?feature=shared  Overview (Red = attention break) 1. MCQ further guidance 2. What are groups? 3. How do groups influence individuals? 3 min social loafing video 4. How do members operate within groups? 5. Summary & 6q MCQ Ask questions / give feedback anonymously here: PollEv.com/ glenjankowski076  Summary Groups have complex dynamics between members that are functional or limiting They can exert a profound influence on behaviour Note: Yet more research is needed. The psychological study of ‘group processes’ is mainly preoccupied by groups that are (Hogg & Vaughan, 2022): Small (