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Summary of lectures Anna Feňko at the University of Twente for the course Social Psychology for Managers
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Gastcollege Anna FenkoDefinition of a group
Two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to
influence each other.
- 2 to 6 members (if groups become too large, it’s hard to interact with all of the group members)
- Members tend to be alike in sex, age, beliefs and opinions
Why do people join groups?
1. Other people can be an important source of information, helping us to make sense of the social world.
2. Groups become an important part of our identity, helping us define who we are.
3. Groups also help establish social norms.
Reasons of group homogenity
1. Most groups tend to attract people who are already similar before they join the group.
2. Groups tend to operate in ways that encourage similarity in the members
Group cohesiveness
Qualities of a group that bind the members together and promotes liking between group members.
The more cohesive a group is, the more its members are likely to:
- Stay in the group
- Take part in group activities
- Try to recruit new like-minded members
PRO: If a group needs to perform as a team, cohesiveness helps providing a better performance.
CON: If group members think that maintaining good relations between them is more important than finding good
solutions to a problem, cohesiveness can get in the way of optimal performance.
Social roles
Shared expectations in a group about how particular people should behave.
CON: People can get so far into a role that their personal identities and personalities get lost
Pagina 1
,Stanford Prison Experiment
- Male volunteers were randomly assigned to play the role of either a prison guard or a prisoner in a two
week experiment
- Researchers had to quit the experiment after 6 days: volunteers got too deeply involved in their role.
- Guards became very abusive: they harassed and humiliated the prisoners; prisoners became very
passive, helpless and withdrawn
Abu Gharib prison abuse
In 2004, it appeared that the American military guard had been abusing the prisoners of an Iraqi prison.
RE ASON: The military guards at Abu Ghraib were under tremendous stress, had received little
supervision, and were asked to set their own rules for interrogation.
Social facilitation
The tendency for people to do better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when they are in the
presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated.
RE ASON: Presence of others increases physiological arousal with such arousal, is easier to do something
simple but harder to do something difficult/learn something new.
- Other people cause us to be alert and vigilant. Causes mild arousal.
- Other people make us apprehensive about how we’re being evaluated. Causes mild arousal.
- Other people (and nonsocial distractions, such as flashing lights) distract us from the task. Divided
attention causes arousal
In social facilitation, the presence of others puts the spotlight on you, making you aroused.
BUT: If being with other people means we can merge into a group, becoming less noticeable than when we are
alone, then we become relaxed. (social loafing)
Social loafing
The tendency for people to do worse on simple tasks but better on complex tasks when they are in the
presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated.
- Stronger in males than in females
- Stronger in Western cultures than in Asian cultures
- Lower in highly cohesive groups
- Lower if poor performance is punished
Deindividuation
The loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can’t be identified (such as when they are in a
crowd), leading to an increase in impulsive and deviant acts. Ex: football hooligans
- Make people feel less responsible for their own way of acting: little chance of being singled out, blamed
- People are more likely to obey group norms
- Not always causes aggressive or antisocial behaviour: depends on group norms
Pagina 2
, Group decisions
Groups will do better than individuals if they rely on the person with the most expertise and are stimulated by each
other’s comments.
PROS:
- Combine individual strengths of the group members.
- Collective understanding of the course of action.
- Greater group commitment.
- A strong sense of team spirit.
CONS:
- Take longer to be finalized since there are many opinions to be considered and valued.
- The responsibility and accountability of the decisions are not equally shared which leads to a split in the
group and hence hampers the overall efficiency of the group.
Process loss
Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving.
CAUSED BY:
- Groups not trying hard enough to find the most competent member.
- Most competent member finds it hard to disagree with everyone else.
- Communication problems
Failure to share unique information
Group members sometimes forget that specific information is known only by some members of the group: they
forget to share this information with the rest of the group.
Groupthink
A kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than
considering the facts in a realistic manner.
Occurs when the group is:
- Highly cohesive
- Isolated from contrary opinions
- Ruled by a directive leader who makes his or her wishes known
Pagina 3
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