PSYC 2120 Lecture Notes - Social Loafing, Deindividuation, Group Cohesiveness
15 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
A group consists of two or more people who interact with each other and are interdependent, in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other. Groups have a number of benefits; in fact, there may be an innate need to belong that drives us to establish bonds with other people. Groups tend to consist of members who are similar to one another, in part because groups have social norms that people are expected to obey. Groups have well defined social roles, shared expectations about how people are supposed to behave. The roles that people assume in groups, and the expectations that come with those roles, are powerful determinants of people"s feelings and bahaviours in groups. Group cohesiveness, qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members, is another important property of groups that influence the group"s performance. Simply being in the presence of other people has a number of interesting effects.
