Interaction & Performance in Groups
29 important questions on Interaction & Performance in Groups
How does being in a group affect members?
---> Improves performance of accessible (well-learned, well-practiced) behaviors
---> Impairs performance of less accessible behaviours (novel or complex tasks)
What experiments demonstrate that the presence of others improves performance on a variety of simple tasks?
- most people will run slightly faster when others are presence compared to if they are by themself
- improves performance from running to solving easy arithmetic problems (Aiello & Douthitt, 2001; Grant & Dajee, 2003; Geurin, 1986)
p. 398 social textbook
What are the causes of social facilitation?
- Evaluation apprehension: Concern that others may be judging us
- Distraction: Presence of others makes us think about them, monitor their potential reactions, etc = deflecting attention from the task at hand (Aiello & Douthitt, 2001; R.S. Baron, 1986; Guerin, 1986)
---> This occurs even when others cannot observe performance (no evaluation apprehension)
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What experiment demonstrates that even the virtual presence of others causes social facilitation?
Participants completed difficult and easy tasks with a picture of either their favourite TV character or a non-favoured character on a nearby computer screen
---> participants performed better on the easy task when in the presence of the favoured TV character, compared to the non-favoured one
---> because the favoured character seemed more "real" to the participants, it created social facilitation effects
(p. 399 social textbook)
How does distraction create arousal?
= we become agitated and aroused (Green, 1991; Muller, Atzeni, & Butera, 2004)
= like evaluation apprehension, this arousal will typically improve performance on simple tasks, but interfere with difficult tasks
(more info p. 402 social textbook)
What are the 2 types of interdependence in groups?
- Face-to-face groups are task interdependent: Reliant on each other for mastery of material rewards through performance of collective tasks
- Face-to-face groups are socially interdependent: Reliant on each other for feelings of connectedness, respect, and acceptance
What are 2 types of groups?
- Primary or intimacy groups
- Family, circle of close friends
- Most concern for social interdependence
- Secondary or task groups
- Work teams, committees
- Most concern for task interdependence
---> But social interdependence can influence performance
What is group socialization?
---> an ongoing process of mutual evaluation from both the individual member's and the group's perspectives
(p. 404 social textbook)
What are the 5 sections regarding group development?
- Forming: Members and groups mutually evaluate
- Storming: Period of conflict
- Norming: Consensus, cohesion, positive group identity develop
- Performing: Members cooperate to solve problems, make decisions, or produce output
- Adjourning: Dissolution of group
Regarding group development, what is the forming stage?
- Attempt to understand group goals
- Attempt to understand where other individuals stand in the group
- Usually intense focus on leader (Hogg, van Knippenberg, & Rast 2012)
(p. 406 social textbook)
Regarding group development, what is the storming stage?
- Group and individuals attempt to negotiate specific roles
- relationship conflicts arise due to incompatibilities, such as personality differences
- Conflict over group goals, ways to meet them (issues of task interdependence)
- Conflict over competition for influence, attention from leader (issues of social interdependence)
- Conflicts can be valuable if they bring up novel ideas (deWit and others, 2012)
(p. 406-407 social textbook)
Regarding group development, what is the norming stage?
- Disagreements are resolved into consensual norms
- Members feel sense of trust and liking
- Commitment to group is high
Regarding group development, what is the performing stage?
- Exchange of information
- Productive resolution of disagreements
- Continued commitment to group goals
Regarding group development, what is the adjourning stage?
- Group has fulfilled purpose or was set to end at a particular time
- Often marked by period of evaluating work, sharing feelings about group
- Dissolution of group can be stressful if commitment made it important identity for members
What processes can affect group performance?
2. Emotions and moods in group
How can communication affect group performance?
---> a high level of open communication does contribute to an overall group performance (Hyatt & Ruddy, 1997)
- Mastery-focused communication: Task instructions, correction of errors, etc.
- Connectedness-focused communication: Reassurance of positive esteem, relationship maintenance
- High-performance groups do both
(p. 417-418 social textbook)
How can emotions and moods affect group performance?
- The emotional ties that form between group members can help them to develop trust and commitment.
- Individual moods can affect performance through contagion
- Perceivers see groups that share emotions (especially happiness) as being more cohesive than groups whose members display different emotions (Magee & Tiedens, 2006).
(more info + exps p. 420 social textbook - esp Barsade 2002)
What are 5 cures performance loss?
- Organizations seek to give members strong sense of organizational identity and group cohesion
- Cohesion is generally positively related to group performance
- This is partly because good performance creates strong cohesion
- Cohesion can also contribute to performance
- Cohesion fosters cooperation
- Members of cohesive groups more likely to contribute to group activities
- Cohesive groups follow norms
- Those who identify more strongly with group tend to follow norms
- Workgroups may have norms favoring high productivity or low productivity
- Cohesive groups attract and keep valued members
- Cohesion increases liking and satisfaction with group
(more info p. 422-425 social textbook)
What 2 separate types of leaders are there?
- Socio-emotional leader
It is now recognized that one person can serve both functions, or that different people can perform them at different times, etc.
Does leadership depend on the person or the situation?
- Much research aimed to identify unique personal characteristics of effective leaders
- But nature of leaders varies across situations
- Example: military unit versus book discussion group
- Effects of leader behaviours also vary:
- Socio-emotional leader behaviours consistently help with group cohesion and morale
- Task-focused leader behaviours influence task performance in ways that depend on types of groups and situations
What is meant by contingency theories of leadership?
(p. 427 social textbook)
What are contingency theories of leadership?
- Leader effectiveness depends on match between leader behaviors and demands of situation
- Situational control: Ability of leader to structure group performance on particular task
- Effective leadership requires flexible mix of different types of behaviours, depending on situation
Who becomes a leader?
---> Group members who talk a lot
---> Those who nonverbally signal dominance (sitting at head of table, expansive body postures such as sitting with one leg crossed, eye gaze, etc.)
---> Those who embody group’s norms
- Different for different types of groups
(p. 428 - 430 social textbook)
What are leader stereotypes?
- Social characteristics such as gender, age, and race
- Males, tall people, older people tend to be treated as leaders
- Predominance of men as leaders in business, military, and government may both reflect and reinforce this stereotype
- Lab studies of mixed-sex groups of strangers: Men usually emerge as leaders
What experiment shows the effect of race on leadership preference?
Whites fit the "business leader prototype" and white CEOs are rated more favourably than African American CEO's
p. 431 social textbook
Are men more effective leaders or consistent with the stereotype?
- Little difference between women and men as leaders in objective measures of mastery of task performance
- Men generally rated as superior leaders by group members
---> Perhaps because they match leader stereotype
What can be said about transformational leadership?
- Leaders who inspire extreme devotion and emotional identification on the part of their followers, allowing them to have profound effects on their followers
- Inspire devotion and emotional identification
- Religious and political leaders
- Articulate inspiring vision for group and motivate followers toward collective goals
- Leader confidence and communication skills important
- Leaders should also show optimism and caring for members
- Like any form of leadership: Not just based on qualities of the leader, but on match to the situation
- Exert leadership through same means: Inspire members to greater cohesion and toward adopting group goals as their own
(p. 432-433 social textbook)
What is the dark side of leadership?
- Impact of leaders means they can also produce failing performance and destroy group cohesion and member satisfaction
- Even charismatic leaders have used life-changing influence over followers in destructive ways
What effect does power have on groups?
- The ability to provide or withhold rewards or punishments from others
- People can be made to feel more powerful by imagining times in the past in which they have had power, or even by assuming “power poses”
- Feeling powerful makes people focus on task-relevant elements of the environment and pursuit goals more persistently
- participants completed a psychological test that measured leadership abilities
- two conditions: one powerful; the other non-powerful
Results: those in the powerful condition persisted longer in a puzzle task
(p. 434 social textbook)
The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:
- A unique study and practice tool
- Never study anything twice again
- Get the grades you hope for
- 100% sure, 100% understanding
