Ch 8 Group Influences March 22 2012 What is a Group Group two or more people who for longer than a few moments interact with and influence one another and perceive one another as an us Conditions need to be met in order to be part of a group o 1 Individuals must usually interact with each other directly or indirectly o 2 Must be interdependent o 3 Relationship must be stable persists over time o 4 Individuals must share at least some goals o 5 Interactions must be structured each member must have a specific role o 6 Individuals must recognize that they are part of a group Why People Join Groups Groups help satisfy important psychological or social needs o Isolation severe punishment Groups help us achieve goals that we could not attain as individuals Group membership often provides knowledge and information that would otherwise not be available to us Groups help meet our need for security Contributes to the establishment of a positive social identity Groups and Task Performance i e Ice skater is preparing for first competition Practiced routines alone several hours each day month after month Big day arrives and ice skater skates into a huge arena filled with biggest crowd they ve ever seen How will they do Social Facilitation Presence of Others Triplett 1898 o Bicycle racing racing alone vs racing together Ride faster when around people improving performance o Wind string on fishing reel as rapidly as possible Wound faster in presence of other children increase performance o Studies attempt to replicate Sometimes improved performance sometimes hindered performance Zajonc o Joined instinctive drive research with what had been studied decided that what was happening was that social arousal facilitates dominant response Dominant response what occurs most often become better with practice easy task tasks Crowding Presence of Others o It should increase performance on easy tasks and decrease performance on difficult i e Athletes are better when they have home field advantage familiar When others are present many perspire more breathe faster tense their muscles more and have higher blood pressure Study showed that when sit close together friendly people liked the other person more and unfriendly people disliked the other person more A good house is a full house people will have a more pleasurable time if there are more people present i e full movie theatre o i e 35 seat class 35 students present warm 100 seat class same 35 students present colder Territoriality In Humans 3 common types of territoriality o 1 Primary territories occupants have exclusive control i e Homes private office car backpack 2 o 2 Secondary territories areas shared with others but over which regular users have considerable control i e My seat in class refrigerator living room o 3 Public territories uncontrolled areas that are used by whoever is first to arrive i e Theatres parks FSU football games Why people want territories o Sense of security o Makes lives more predictable o Makes you seem more important status o Protects people from those whom they fear or dislike o Foster a person s sense of self identity and uniqueness o People are more assertive in their own territories i e home field advantage Social Loafing Social loafing the tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when individuals are accountable Ingham 1974 tug of war study o Made individual think that they were tugging against another team but really just by themselves Pulled 18 harder when knew they were alone Pulled less when they thought others were helping Latane et al 1979 shouting and clapping o Blindfolded have headphones blasting and shouting and clapping o When no sound shouted and clapped loudest Free riders people who benefit from a group but give little in return 3 Reduce social loafing o Individual performance needs to be identifiable o Challenging appealing involving tasks the type where you need a group to achieve the task o Group members are friends or identified part of important group March 26 2012 Activity Research shows 11 common categories What would you do if you knew you would never get caught o 1 Aggression 2 charity 3 academic dishonesty 4 crime 26 5 escapism 6 political activities 7 sexual behavior 8 social disruption 9 interpersonal spying or eavesdropping 11 10 travel 11 miscellaneous 9 responses pro social 36 antisocial harm society 19 non normative violate social Deindividuation loss of self awareness and evaluation apprehension feel like no one else norms 36 neutral Most frequent rob a bank Deindividuation would know What creates this o Group size Larger group more unidentifiable more atrocities committed more Mann 1981 larger crowd more likely to bait jumper encourage person to negative events jump Dark and large crowd more likely Daylight and small crowd less likely Looters mobs etc 4 Your action is not yours it is the group s action what the group does you do do not think about self o Physical anonymity Can lessen inhibitions Uniforms and masks Zimbardo 1979 2002 women in white coats and hoods to deliver shocks to When wearing white coats and hoods held shock button twice as long as women who were identifiable and wearing name tags a woman Internet Car honking study Confederate driver stopped at red light for 12 sec 4x4 trucks honked more often than convertibles 4x4 trucks more difficult to see driver Halloween candy study Alone or in groups Told my kind person to take one candy out of unattended bowl In groups most likely to take most amount of candy If asked name or home address only took one piece Nurse uniforms and shock study Nurse outfit with no identifying info anonymous but not a real nurse shocked less than group with identifying information uniform made them adapt to a group that helps people nurses Conclusion when deindividuate in a group will take on group s norms personality Can lead to positive or negative behavior Self awareness opposite of deindividuation o Less likely to cheat do a better job on task performance 5 Deindividuation and Intimacy Anonymity can release positive as well as negative impulses Study Gergen Gergen Barton 1973 o Ushered into a room that is fully lit or totally dark except for a red light over the door o If you wish can leave at any time o You will be left in the room for not more than an hour with some other people and there are no rules as to what you should do together At the end you will leave the room alone and will
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