PSYC212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Groupthink
Document Summary
Advantages: more resources important to have a diversity of skills, multiple view-points ensure more options are considered, divide and share responsibilities. Case study: bay of pigs disaster: us invasion of cuba that failed due to: Mind guarding group members guarding others from information that could lead to changes in. Janis"s group think theory: cohesiveness: group members express solidarity, mutual liking and positive feelings. Loyalty to the group is highly (cid:448)alued. i. e. people don"t (cid:448)oi(cid:272)e their dou(cid:271)ts (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause they don"t (cid:449)ant to upset the cohesion of the group. In closed style the leader expresses their own opinion first and consensus is encouraged over critical thinking. Silence is considered to be agreement and feelings of invulnerability are fostered. This can lead to bad decisions being made: followers: where individuals function as mind-guards and engage in self-censorship. Open leadership with low group cohesion produces the best decisions. Groups generally outperform individuals, but only where the team is effective.
