Social Psych Ch.8 Group Influence

What is Enitiativity?

--Entity=existence, being --Enitiativity=perception of a group as pure entity, or existence. --Ex: Entitativity is highest for intimacy groups, such as the family, lower for task groups, lower yet for social categories (e.g., people of the same religion), and lowest for transitory groups, such as people waiting at the same bus stop.

What is cohesiveness?

--How well a group gets along; Group cohesiveness (also called group cohesion and social cohesion) arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main components: social relations, task relations, perceived unity, and emotions.

What is group polarization?

-Group produced enhancement of member's preexisting tendencies, a strengthening of the member's average tendency (281) -Group discussion strengthens member's initial inclinations -Ex: democrats and republicans, two groups, can become more and more extreme because you search for people that agree with you, thus building you up and increasing your opinion. You don't need both groups to exist to have extremes-think pro and anti gun groups, they're not pro and anti because they're against each other, it occurs because you build yourself and opinion up within the group. When you disagree in politics, you think that people have all of the same information as you, but really everyone has heard and seen different things regarding the politicians, and they interpret that information in different ways.

Whats the difference between group think and Group Polarization?

-Group think= happens because info is NOT discussed (alternative opinion is not discussed, which leads to group think) -Group Polarization= happens because info is discussed (alternative opinion is discussed which increases people's initial opinions)

What is social facilitation? What are some examples of this/what names are associated with this? (pg 267)

-Original meaning:the tendency of people to preform simple or well-learned tasks better when others are present. -Current meaning: the strengthening of dominant responses in the presence of others. Ex: TRIPLETT in 1889 observed children fishing, and noticed that they would reel faster if in the presence of other children vs. alone. He tested the idea with bikers and noticed that cyclists competing against one another on the same track went faster than when alone and racing against the clock. This is the idea that we work harder when with other people--The mere presence of others causes us to be more aroused, psychologically speaking, so you go faster. -This also shows up in animals, when with others they do more of a behavior, and do it faster. BUT social arousal facilitates dominance responses, which is helpful when doing easy tasks, and hurtful when doing hard tasks. (think of public speaking, when you are speaking to a few people it doesn't feel like a big deal, but when you are speaking to a very large audience, you may choke, or feel nervous. SOCIAL INHIBITION: - When faced with a difficult task, humans learn slower when in the presence of other people. Allport in 1920 noticed that students refuting philosophical arguments in the presence of others were less capable than when alone. Expertise makes people get better at tasks though--if you are an expert at something, you will get better when being watched by others, but the rest of us will get worse. Others Presence causes arousal which strengthens dominant responses, which can enhance easy behavior, and impair difficult behavior.

What is groupthink?

Irving Janis came up with the idea of groupthink. Its really hard to be the one person in the group that says no. The idea that the people in the group "think" the same as each other. -Faulty thinking in highly cohesive groups (members like each other), surpressing dissent in the interest of harmony. Contrary information and divergent opinions are ignored. The decisions cannot be wrong because they are life or death, and members must be completely unanimous (it's more comfortable). It is when concurrence is being seeked so intensely that it overrides realistic thinking. -The groups that are at risk of groupthink are those that; are very cohesive (that like each other), homogenous and isolated, and have a directive and charismatic leader (you want to please this leader).

What are the differences between social loafing and social facilitation?

Others presence ⇨Individual efforts evaluated ⇨ evaluation apprehension ⇨arousal ⇨social facilitation ---------------------- Others presence ⇨ individual efforts pooled and not evaluated ⇨ no evaluation apprehension ⇨ less arousal ⇨ social loafing

What is Social Loafing and what is an example of this? (pg 272) How do you get rid of social loafing?

-Social loafing is the idea that people have the tendency to work less hard and exert less effort when they pool their efforts towards a common goal than when they are individually accountable. -Ex: Blindfolded participants were asked to pull on a rope, and when they believed that other were behind them they pulled less (exerted 1/3 of the pressure) than when they thought they were alone. This was measured by a pressure sensor. -Another example is when participants are asked to make as much noise as possible, while blindfolded, people make 1/3 of the noise when they think they are with people opposed to being on their own, and when asked, they say they made equally as much noise when alone and when in group. -How do you get rid of social loafing? Make individuals accountable. When we become invisible, we will do bad things, (think, Nerve (the movie), KKK, Police, Terrorists, because we cannot be held responsible for our actions). - Does is ALWAYS occur with group efforts? No. It does not occur when the task is challenging, appealing, and involving, when group members are friends, or when there is a large reward at the end.

What happened during the Bay of Pigs invasion?

-The US government trained Cuban exiles to overthrow their communist dictator, Castro. The CIA told President Kennedy that everything would be okay, and that it would run smoothly, and that no one would have to know about the attack. The USA did not want people knowing that they were involved with this, so they told people they were not. SO, in trying to further possibility of people not knowing that this would happen, Kennedy scaled down the attack. The result was that the Cubans knew, and the invaders got completely crushed, and basically all died or were captured within 72 hours. This was terribly embarrassing for the USA because they were said to be doing things secretly, and they were defeated by little Cuba (talk about boosting Castro's ego). This happened because no one considered what could possibly go wrong--when you are in a group setting, and everyone wants it to go right, it's hard to be that one person who says it could go wrong.

When you combine social facilitation and social loafing, you get 𝔻𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕦𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟, what does that mean/ how do they all connect?

-𝔻𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕦𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 is when there is a loss of self awareness and evaluation apprehension, and combined these foster responsiveness to group norms; good or bad. So, it is the combination of social facilitation (arousal) and loafing (diffused responsibility). -social facilitation is when you are aroused in the presence of others, and don't think things through necessarily. -social loafing is when in the presence of others, and you feel like you don't have as much responsibility. COMBINE these, and you have a recipe for disaster... You have people who are aroused, and feel anonymous and therefore not responsible for their actions- causing them to do things that are not good. Examples are the KKK (masks, group), police officers, terrorists. People in covered cars will beep more quickly and often than those in convertibles. -Ex: Kids trick-or-treating, when they come upon a "take one piece", they would take more if in a group, or if they were wearing masks, and would take the most if in group and wearing mask. Participants in a darkened room cheat more often, and wearing sunglasses leads people to act more selfishly in a two person game. - We can counteract 𝔻𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕦𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 by increasing self awareness--the presence of cameras/mirrors, large name tags, individualized clothing, making them know who they are (Think "Nerve" the movie, and how at the end they say if they make the people not anonymous, and put their names out there, they won't do it anymore).

What is Zimbardo's model for deindividuation?

Antecedent conditions (anonymity, diffusion of responsibility, energizing effect of others, stimulus overload) ⇨ Internal state of deindividuation (lessened self observation/evaluation, lessened concern with the evaluations of others, weakening of internal controls, less concern with fear guilt shame) ⇨ behavioral effects (impulsivity, irrationality, emotionality, antisocial activity).

How can one prevent groupthink?

Be impartial, Avoid starting by by having people state their opinions. When saying yes in groups, ask yourself if you are saying yes because you're in agreement, or if it's because you want people to like you. Assign a devil's advocate, and welcome dissent (Joe Biden always plays Devil's advocate for Obama's decisions, he always has to think of the worst possible outcomes/what could happen), this way you can always see the other side, and furthermore, assigning the job of devils advocate allows them to do it for a reason, and not be called out. Subdivide groups, and reunite. Always invite outside expert critiques, come to conclusion and then send to others to be revised (peer review article), address lingering doubts in a second chance meeting, allow people to think about it and change their minds.

What his Social Inhibition?

Social inhibition is a conscious or subconscious avoidance of a situation or social interaction. With a high level of social inhibition, situations are avoided because of the possibility of others disapproving of their feelings or expressions.

What was the conclusion of the US naval command to ignore the warnings of an imminent Japanese of Pearl Harbor?

The USA was busy with Germany, and did not think that the Japanese would attack us, but we were monitoring US ships and planes, and a couple did disappear, but we did not pay attention to this, because we were not expecting it to mean something.

What is evaluation apprehension? (pg 270)

The concern for how others are evaluating us. We feel more self conscious when others are around, and this interferes with our abilities to complete tasks. Also if you are distracted by thinking about what others are thinking, causes you to think about your task, and another thing, causing distraction.

What are some examples of Social Facilitation in the real world?

Think about this-people work better with others when working on easy, memory tasks, but work better alone when working on difficult tasks. -Google offices; open offices, so people can interact with each other. -This explains choking under pressure in sports--you will do better in a pressure situation at an away game, because back home the whole town is counting on you, and people care about you.

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". It's really about affecting the other members, and interacting.

What happened during the launch of the challenger space shuttle?

We decided that we were going to put a schoolteacher in space, and have all of the children of America watching. The first day it is supposed to happen, the weather is no-good, so we reschedule. The next time it's supposed to happen, everything looks good, but we realize that we didn't check some of the equipment in temperatures this low, below 50 degrees. Now you always have to go through a bunch of the different groups and they all have to say it's a go for a plane or a rocket to launch, and the engineers pointed the temperature part out. But everyone else said go ahead, and the whole world was watching, and we had interrupted all of the school children's days and teacher's days to do this, so we launch it. And the rocket explodes during takeoff.

What is an overview of the study of Social Facilitation and what are the results/what do we know now?

early experiments (Triplett) found that performance improves in the presence of others, and others (Allport) found that performance seemed inhibited in the presence of others. So, Robert Zajonc (pronounced Zience) brought these findings together and discovered that "Arousal facilitates dominant responses", because the presence of others is so arousing, that it boosts our behavior on easy tasks, and inhibits us on difficult tasks. So when we are in a crowded area, we are aroused, and this facilitates dominant responses. We are aroused because.... mere presence of people causes arousal, and evaluation apprehension (worrying how others are evaluating us), and distraction (conflict between paying attention and concentrating on a task).