PSYCH 2C03 Chapter 8: ch 8
8 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
A collection of 3 or more people who interact with one another and are interdependent, in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to rely on one another. Tend to be alike in age, sex, beliefs and opinions. Shared expectations by group members about how particular people in the group are supposed to behave. Can be taken to the extreme: i. e. zimbardo"s prison experiment, where subjects played prison guard" roles almost too well, and the experiment was ended early because they abused the prisoners. Roles can be unfair as well: i. e. societal roles of genders. Qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking among them. More cohesive a group, the better the members will get along. The tendency for people to do better on simple tasks, but worse on complex tasks, when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated.
