What is a group?
Two or more people who, for longer than a few moments, interact with and influence one another and perceive one another as “us”.
What is social facilitation?
• strengthening of dominant responses owing to the presence of others
Why is our arousal increased in the presence of others?
- Evaluation apprehension
- Driven by distraction
- Mere presence
What kinds of behaviour does social facilitation enhance or impair?
- enhances easy/simple behaviour
* impairs complex/difficult behaviour
What is social loafing?
• tendency for people to exert less effort when they’re pooled than when they are individually accountable
Which scenarios promote social loafing or social facilitation?
PROMOTES SOCIAL LOAFING
• individual efforts pooled + no evaluation
• lack of evaluation apprehension leads to relaxation
PROMOTES SOCIAL FACILITATION:
• individual efforts evaluated increases apprehension/arousal
• belief that their individual effort matters
What were the results of Calhoun’s rat colony crowding study?
• rat colony lives in a quarter acre pen
→ population stabilizes at about 150
• divides pen into 4 sections
→ 2 largest males each claimed one section along with a small harem of females
→ rest of the colony lived in terribly overcrowded conditions
• breakdown in mating and nest building → eating of the young → random an inappropriate aggression → others passive and withdrawn → infant mortality 80% → adults showed marked signs of stress related illness and premature death
What is a primary territory?
• occupant has exclusive control
What is a secondary territory?
• shared with others but there is still exclusionary control
What is a public territory?
• uncontrolled areas used by whoever is first to arrive
Why do people mark out territories?
- sense of security, predictability and control
- sense of importance
- self identity and uniqueness
- protection from those who are feared or disliked
What is deindividuation?
- doing together what we would not do alone
* loss of self awareness and evaluation apprehension when the situation allows one to feel anonymous
What conditions are needed to create a mob mentality?
- deindividuation combined with high states of arousal and a diffusion of responsibility
- disinhibits violent and unacceptable behavior
How do riots occur?
- there must be convergence i.e. a certain type of person who would incite socially unacceptable behaviour
- their actions spread throughout the crowds by means of contagion
- creates a norm of callousness or cynicism; illusion of consensus for violence and extreme acts
What are positive and negative examples of convergence?
POSITIVE • cheering at sporting events • spring break behaviour • Mardi Gras • pop icons
NEGATIVE • riots and mobs • lynchings • wartime atrocities • police beatings • road rage • escape panics
What are symptoms of groupthink?
• overestimating the group’s might and right
→ illusion of invulnerability
→ unquestioned belief in group’s morality
• close-mindedness
→ rationalization
→ stereotyped view of opponent
• pressures toward uniformity → conformity pressure → self-censorship → illusion of unanimity → mindguards
How to prevent groupthink?
- be impartial
- assign a devil’s advocate
- subdivide the group
- invite critiques from outside experts
- call a “second-chance” meeting to air lingering doubts
- enhance group problem-solving
How does one enhance group problem-solving?
- combine group and solitary brainstorming
- have group members interact by writing
- incorporate electronic brainstorming
What is task leadership?
- goal-directed or goal-oriented type of leadership
- good when you need to stay focused on goals and move as a unit toward common objectives
- can be compared to dictatorships
What is social leadership?
- good at getting members of the team excited about their task, increasing energy, inspiring team spirit, and reducing conflict
- democratic type of leadership
- high performing teams
What is transactional leadership?
- also known as managerial leadership
- focuses on the role of supervision, organization and group performance
- promotes compliance of his/her followers through both rewards and punishments
- effective in crisis and emergency situations, as well as for projects that need to be carried out in a specific way
What is transformational leadership?
- inspire positive changes in those who follow
- connecting the follower’s sense of identity and self to the project and the collective identity of the organization
- challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work
What are some findings that evaluation apprehension explains?
- people perform best when co-actor is slightly superior
- arousal lessens when a high-status group is diluted by opinions that don’t matter as much to them
- social-facilitation effects are greatest when others are unfamiliar and hard to keep an eye on
What factors promote deindividuation?
- Group size
- Physical anonymity
- Arousing and distracting activities
