This chapter discusses group processes and dynamics. It defines what a group is as a set of individuals who interact over time, share a common identity or goals. People join groups for protection, identity and to accomplish tasks better achieved through cooperation. Groups have various roles that members play. The presence of others can influence individual behavior through social facilitation or social loafing depending on how individual efforts are evaluated and contributions are pooled. Factors like group cohesion and accountability can reduce social loafing. Brainstorming, conflict, and resource dilemmas are discussed in the context of group problem solving and decision making.

1. Chapter 8
Group Processes

2. What makes up a group?

3. What is a Group?
• A set of individuals who have at least one of
the following characteristics:
– Direct interactions with each other over a period
of time
– Joint membership in a social category based on
sex, race, or other attributes
– A shared, common fate, identity, or set of goals

4. Why Join a Group?
• The complexities and ambitions
of human life require that we
work in groups
• Humans have an innate need to
belong to groups
• May not only protect against
physical threat, but also help
gain personal and social identity
• Gossip is Grooming Theory of
Language

5. Group Roles
It is essential to match roles to each member’s
characteristics and skill set – Figure 8.1

6. Individuals in Groups:
The Presence of Others

7. Social Facilitation:
When Others Arouse Us
• How does the presence of others affect our
behavior?
• Triplett’s (1897-1898) fishing reel studies.
• Later research found conflicting findings.
– Sometimes the presence of others enhanced
performance.
– At other times, performance declined.
• What was going on?

8. I need a volunteer to…
shoot some hoops

9. Why Does Social Facilitation Occur?
• Zajonc’s Mere Presence Theory
• Evaluation Apprehension Theory
– It’s not just about presence
– They must be in a position to evaluate
– Blindfold study (Cottrell et al., 1968)

10. Why Does Social
Facilitation Occur? (cont’d)
• Distraction Conflict Theory
– Dividing attention between task, arousal, and
performance
– Maintains there is nothing uniquely social
about “social” facilitation
• Which theory is correct?

11. Will one person clap…

12. Ok…now everyone

13. People will cheer louder when they cheer as part
of a group than when they cheer alone.
Answer: False… Let’s see why!
Putting Common Sense to the Test…
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KpoqynjV1g

14. Social Loafing: When Others Relax Us
• Ringelmann (1880s): Individual output
declines on pooled tasks.
• Social Loafing: A group-produced reduction
in individual output on easy tasks in which
contributions are pooled.

15. Figure 8.4: Social Loafing:
When Many Produce Less
Adapted from Jackson & Williams, 1985; Sanna, 1992.

16. Ever been part of a team that
didn’t work together?

17. Ever been part of a group that
just wasn’t effective?

18. When Is Social-
Loafing Less Likely to Occur
• People believe their own performances can be identified
and thus evaluated, by themselves or by others (e.g., look
around the room and make sure every one is doing this
with us)
• The task is important or meaningful to those performing it
(e.g., …so every one can hear us)
• People believe that their own efforts are necessary for a
successful outcome

19. When Is Social-
Loafing Less Likely to Occur? (cont’d)
• The group expects to be punished for
poor performance
• The group is small
• The group is cohesive
– Cohesiveness – factors that bring a group
closer together (e.g., threat by an outgroup)

20. Why Does Social Loafing Occur?
Collective Effort Model: Individuals try hard on a collective
task when they think their efforts will help them achieve
outcomes they personally value.

21. Collective Effort Model:
It Has to Be Personal

22. Collective Effort Model:
It Has to Be Personal

23. Collective Effort Model:
It Has to Be Personal

24. Collective Effort Model:
It Has to Be Personal

25. Collective Effort Model:
It Has to Be Personal

26. Deindividuation
The loss of a person’s sense of individuality
and the reduction of normal constraints
against deviant behavior.
• A collective phenomenon that only occurs in
the presence of others
• What can lead to deindividuation?

27. Environmental Cues
• Accountability cues
affect the person’s
cost-reward
calculations.
• Attentional cues focus
a person’s attention
away from the self.

28. Two heads are better than one.
Answer: False… Let’s see why!
Putting Common Sense to the Test…

29. Brainstorming
A technique that attempts to increase the
production of creative ideas by encouraging
group members to speak freely without
criticizing their own or others’ contributions.

30. Brainstorming
You are a doctor faced with a patient who has a malignant
tumor in his or her stomach. It is impossible to operate
on the patient, but unless the tumor is destroyed the
patient will die. There is a special type of ray that can be
used to destroy the tumor, as long as the rays reach the
tumor with sufficient intensity. However, at the necessary
intensity, the healthy tissue that the rays pass through
will also be destroyed and the patient will die. At lower
intensities, the rays are harmless but they will not affect
the tumor either. What procedure might the doctor
employ to destroy the tumor with the rays, at the same
time avoiding destroying any healthy tissue? (Duncker,
1945)

31. In groups of three discuss
possible solutions to solve this
problem.
Let’s try another story…

32. Table 8.3: Brainstorming
in Groups: Problems and Solutions

33. Problem Solving by Analogy
A general is attacking a fortress. He can’t send all his
men in together as the roads are mined to explode if
large numbers of men cross them. He therefore splits
his men into small groups and sends them in on
different roads. (Duncker, 1945)

34. Electronic Brainstorming

35. Table 8.3: Why Electronic
Brainstorming is Effective

36. Conflict: Cooperation and
Competition Within Groups

37. Social Dilemmas
Situations in which a self-interested choice by
everyone creates the worst outcome for
everyone
What is good for just you is bad for all.

38. Figure 8.9: The Prisoner’s Dilemma

39. Large groups are more likely than small groups to
exploit a scarce resource that other members
collectively depend on.
Answer: True… Let’s see why!
Putting Common Sense to the Test…

40. Resource Dilemmas
• Social dilemmas concerning how two or
more people share a limited resource.
• Two types of resource dilemmas:
– Commons dilemma
– Public goods dilemma

41. Common Dilemmas
How much would you take of a resource that is not renewable (as
much as you could, as much as everyone else, only as much as you
needed?)

42. Common Dilemmas
How much would you take of a resource that is not renewable (as little
as you needed, as much as everyone else, as much as you could?)

43. Public Goods Dilemmas
How much do you feel obligated to pay into these
things on a daily basis?

44. Ok…Let’s take a 10 minute break
Then back to Chapter 7