PSY220H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Irving Janis, Fishing Reel, Groupthink
Document Summary
Humans and all large primates live in groups except orangutans. Groups offered ancestors protection from predators, efficiency in gathering food, help with rearing children, and defense against human aggressors: benefits are crucial to survival and we have a psychological need to be with others and belong to groups. Interdependence varies and so do whether or not a collection of people form a group. Social facilitation: initially a term for enhanced performance in the presence of others; now a broader term for the effect positive or negative of the presence of others on performance. Norman triplett examined the effect of other people"s presence on human performance and found that it tended to facilitate human performance. Experiment: 40 children turned a fishing reel as fast as they could on six trials with rest periods in between. 3 trials alone, 3 trials alongside another child: children turned the reel faster when in the presence of another child engaged in the same activity.
