7125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Terror Management Theory, Social Loafing, Group Decision-Making
21 Jun 2018
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SUMMARY DOCUMENT
Group processes and decision making
- Group: two or more people with common definition and behave accordingly
- Entitativity: groupyness/cohesiveness/similarity
- Lickel et al
oIntimacy groups, task, social categories, loose association
- Why join groups?
oProximity
oAccomplish goals/tasks
oAvoid loneliness
oEmotional support
oUncertainty reduction
oTerror management theory
- Social ostracism: exclusion from group by common consent
oWilliams: cyber ball – ball tossing paradigm
- Productivity
oSocial facilitation: perform better when others are present
Dominant response
oSocial inhibition: detriment in performance when others are present
oDrive theory: Zajonc
Physical presence of others leads to arousal – motivate performance of
dominant response
Facilitates for skilled, impairs for unskilled
oEvaluation apprehension model
Arousal – inc drive for social facilitation (think others will judge)
oDistraction conflict theory
Paying attention to task and others
Conflict – arousal – inc drive and social facilitation
oSelf discrepancy theory (Higgins)
When self aware – comparisons between ideal and actual self
Improvement on easy tasks, poor on hard tasks
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
oSocial loafing
Reduction in individual effort when working on collective task
Coordination loss: loss of productivity – hard to coordinate people
Motivation loss: loss due to dec in individuals motivation
Performance dec as group size increases
Why?
Output equity: you think others wont work hard
Evaluation apprehension: don’t want to be wrong
Matching to standard
Diffusion of responsibility
Collective effort model (CEM) Karau and Williams
Individual efforts and outcomes weaker when in group
In group amount of effort mightn’t have an effect – mightn’t get
rewards
People work hard when
oBelieve it will lead to better performance
oBetter performance will be recognized
oRewards are valued
osocial compensation
inc effort to compensate for others lack of effort
factors to reduce social loafing
inc individual identifiabibility
Inc value of task
Make contributions unique
Inc group cohesiveness
Cultural factors – less loafing in collectivistic cultures
Inc identification with the group
- Group decision making
oGroupthink
Group beliefs override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Highly cohesive: bad decisions made
Why?
Excessive cohesiveness
High stress
High task complexity
Isolation of group from dissenting views
Directive leader
Symptoms
Increased conformity
Close-mindedness
Overestimation of groups competence
Feelings of invulnerability/unanimity
Tendency to ignore info contrary to groups position
Pressure to bring dissidents back into line with group
Eg challenge shuttle disaster, bay of pigs invasion
How to prevent
Avoid isolation of group
Avoid being too directive
be impartial
encourage critical evaluation
occasionally subdivide the group, then reunite and air differences
welcome critiques from outside experts and associates
call a second-chance meeting
ogroup brainstorming
face-to-face does not generate more ideas than indivudlas
larger groups less efficient than smaller
why less effective?
Production blocking
Evaluation apprehension
Social loafing
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Group: two or more people with common definition and behave accordingly. Lickel et al: intimacy groups, task, social categories, loose association. Why join groups: proximity, accomplish goals/tasks, avoid loneliness, emotional support, uncertainty reduction, terror management theory. Social ostracism: exclusion from group by common consent: williams: cyber ball ball tossing paradigm. Productivity: social facilitation: perform better when others are present. Dominant response: social inhibition: detriment in performance when others are present, drive theory: zajonc. Physical presence of others leads to arousal motivate performance of dominant response. Facilitates for skilled, impairs for unskilled: evaluation apprehension model. Arousal inc drive for social facilitation (think others will judge: distraction conflict theory. Conflict arousal inc drive and social facilitation: self discrepancy theory (higgins) When self aware comparisons between ideal and actual self. Improvement on easy tasks, poor on hard tasks: social loafing. Reduction in individual effort when working on collective task. Coordination loss: loss of productivity hard to coordinate people.
