Unit 2: Social Psychology 2.4 Group Processes

Group Processes & Motivation People’s motivational state is affected by the presence of other people Social facilitation: the presence of other people will improve your performance if you are already good at the task Social inhibition: the presences of others will hurt your performance if you aren’t particularly good at it

Group Processes Social loafing: people give less effort when in a group than when performing alone As the # of people in a group increases, effort exerted by each individual declines More common in individualistic cultures (like the US) than in collectivist cultures (like many Japan)

Group Processes Deindividuation: loss of individual identity in presence of group Occurs in large groups; people act in ways they wouldn’t normally Causes Diffusion of Responsibility – belief you can’t (or won’t) be held personally accountable for your actions Diminished Awareness – shifting attention away from internal thoughts/standards to external environment The greater the sense of anonymity, the more extreme the behavior

Group Processes Groupthink: mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives Everyone in a group wants to agree, so they ignore alternatives (even if the first decision is wrong) Group polarization: own beliefs and idea get stronger when discussing them with likeminded groups - Can create “us” vs. “them” mentalities