Lecture 1- introduction
Groups
- Are you accepted or excluded
- How do we influence each other? Do groups make good or bad decisions and in what
circumstances is this?
- How to identify team players? How to build an effective team that performs well?
- Who makes an effective leader? How do we interact with outgroups?
Eventhough we have common sense and some background knowledge; things are mostly
more complicated than we expect them to be.
True or false?
1. People become more helpful after being excluded partially true because we have
a basic need to belong and we want to reestablish relations. It is not always true
because people can also become aggressive after being excluded
2. Student become more ‘group-seeking’ when under stress true, the functions
group provide come in handy. Groups can provide information and share insights but
also show emotion and support in stressed situations
3. A group of factory workers with strong ties are more productive than a group with
weak ties partially true. Strong ties lead to more productivity only if the cohesive
group has productivity as a norm. If the norm is to relax than the people will not work
hard
4. People perform better in simple and familiar tasks when others are watching them
this is true in simple tasks, if there are other people around you will bike faster
through campus because this is easy. For a hard task you will do less good if you are
watched
5. Within-group conflict typically improves the performance of a group. partially
false, inter-personal conflict (about gender or culture) usually decreases team
performance. If it is about the task or content this is something that improves
performance because you get to hear different perspectives.
6. Negative views of outgroup members will fade if people interact more regularly with
those outgroup members this is important and partially correct looking at
intergroup contact theory saying that the more contact we have the less negative
views we have.
What is a group?
“two or more people who are connected an are inter-dependent in the sense that their needs
and goals cause them to influence each other. “
- At least two people
- Connection between the people
- Connection is socially meaningful
o Two people surfing on internet on different computers on different websites-
> based on the definition above it is not clear whether this is a group since it
are two people and they might be working together so they are inter-
dependent if they just divided the tasks.
, o 11 people playing soccer it is a super group because the goal is highly
interdependent. How they perform and try to succeed and of course they are
more than 2
o 3 people often going out together they don’t work on a task or perform
something but they don’t have to according to the definition. More than 2
people, they know each other, they are interdependent because whether you
have fun or not is depending on how the others treat you. This is for sure a
group
o 610 inhabitants of Tilburg who like playing poker this is a category which is
not a group because there are no meaningful connections. Having the same
hobby and living in the same place does not make you a group.
What is a group?
Characteristics of Groups 10 Characteristics
1) Composition
2) Boundaries
3) Size
4) Interaction
5) Interdependence
6) Structure
7) Goals
8) Origin
9) Unity
10) Entitativity
How can you define a group?
-
How can you describe a group?
- Composition. Who belongs to the group?
- Boundaries. Those who are included in the group are recognized as members and those
who are not part of the group are excluded outsiders. In some cases, these boundaries
are publicly acknowledged (e.g. rock band, baseball team)
and in some cases these are indistinct or known only to the
group members themselves
o Open groups: membership is fluid (voluntarily
come and go without consequences)
o Closed groups: membership roster changes more
slowly. Individuals are more likely to focus on the
collective nature of the group and to identify with
the group
- Type of interaction. What nature does it have, the kind of relationship or task; rather
than interpersonal ties you could have people working together just to get something
done.
- How members are interdependent.
a. unilateral; one leader giving the others all orders
, b. Unequal reciprocal; when there is feedback
c. Sequential; a flat structure where person a
communicates to b and b to c
d. Mutual reciprocal; feedback loops
e. Unequal sequential; more complicated as the number of
members increase
f. Unequal sequential reciprocal; more interdependence as the
number of arrows increase
- Structure
a. Structures- roles
You are expected to act in a certain way. “coherent set of behaviors expected of
people who occupy specific positions.”
b. Structure- norms
There is a set of things members agree on when they are in a group. “consensual
standards that describe what behaviors should (or should not) be performed in
certain contexts.”
- Size
A group’s size influences many of its other features.
- Small group: Will likely have different structures, processes, and patterns of
interaction than a larger one. two-person group is so small that it ceases to exist
when one member leaves, and it can never be broken down into subgroups. The
members of dyads (e.g., best friends, lovers) are sometimes linked by strong
emotional bonds that make their dynamics so intense that they belong in a category
all their own.
- Large groups: Members are connected to one another indirectly rather than directly
may only feel connected to the group as a whole, or to subgroups within the larger
group. Larger groups are more schismatic than smaller ones; they more easily break
up into smaller groups. Larger groups can also have unique qualities, for the
members are rarely connected directly to all other members, subgroups are very
likely to form, and one or more leaders may be needed to organize and guide the
group.
- A group’s size also determines how many social ties—links, relationships,
connections, edges—are needed to join members to each other and to the group.
, The maximum number of ties within a group in which everyone is linked to everyone
else is given by the equation n(n – 1)/2, where n is the number of people in the
group.
As groups increase in size, the number of relationships needed to link each member to
every other member increases. Only one relationship is needed to form a dyad (two
members), but 3, 6, 10, and 15 relations are needed as groups increase in size from
three to six members..
- Unity
- Cohesiveness: qualities of a group that binds members together. This is the actual tie
within the group and how close people are.
The cohesiveness and ties within the group
o Primary: small in size but really close at your heart. E.g. close friends you have
for years but still stay in touch with. You care for each other
o Secondary: you have a lot of interaction but you don’t necessary think they
are close to your identity. Colleagues for example
o Collective: large groups having similar actions but there is normally no
meaningful connection, only at that moment. E.g. people singing together at a
concert
o Categories: little connection between them. E.g. gender identity, being
female is a gender category, being female is not a group but it makes you
have certain feelings. Imagine
having a math exam while
someone comes in saying that
women are less well in math than
men. All women in the class are
then implicated whereas men are
not hit.
- Entitativity: extent to which assemblage of individuals are perceived to be a group. So
not the actual cohesiveness but the perceptions people have about this. Despite the
feeling of the group you must have your own feeling.
- NASA= even though they are wearing the same uniform
people think they have moderate entitativity, they are
just working together, have the same skills set and
collaborate but they do not necessarily have the same tie
- Presidents= they are holding hands but they have
different ideas and don’t have strong ties so the
entitativity is low
- Laughing people= it is almost fake how happy they are
but looking at the picture they seem to be very cohesive,
high in entitativity
Why should we care?
