Test: Social Influence and Group Processes- 1 - Humanities/Arts MCQ

Social facilitation refers to an increase in dominant responses in the presence of others of the same species, leading to improved performance on well-learned/easy tasks and deterioration in performance on poorly learned/difficult tasks

A critical feature of the immediate situation that determines whether bystanders help someone who is in need of help (bystander intervention) is the number of potential helpers who are present. Research on bystander intervention was stimulated by the widely reported murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964. The opposite of bystander intervention (i.e. when bystanders do not come to that person’s help, as in the case of Kitty Genovese) is called bystander apathy.

Milgram (1963) discovered that quite ordinary people taking part in a laboratory experiment were prepared to administer electric shocks (450 volts), which they believed would harm another participant, simply because an experimenter told them to do so. This study showed that apparently ‘pathological’ behaviour may not be due to individual pathology (the participants were ‘normal’) but to particular social circumstances. The situation encouraged extreme obedience.

Social support refers to feeling supported by others, whether in one’s broader social network (which impacts positively on health and stress) or within a small group (which helps one to resist pressures to comply with an outside majority or obey an immoral authority).

Unhappy or ‘distressed’ relationships are characterized by higher rates of negative behaviour, reciprocating with such negative behaviour when the partner behaves negatively towards us. Reciprocation, or retaliation, is the most reliable sign of relationship distress (Fincham, 2003).
Those in unhappy relationships also tend to ignore or cover up differences (Noller & Fitzpatrick, 1990), compare themselves negatively with other couples (Buunk et al., 1990) and perceive their relationship as less equitable than others (van Yperen & Buunk, 1991).

Research on communication networks (Bavelas, 1968; Leavitt, 1951) focuses on centralization as the critical factor. More centralized networks have a hub person or group that regulates communication flow, whereas less centralized networks allow free communication among all roles. Centralized networks work well for simple tasks (they liberate peripheral members to perform their role) but not for more complex tasks – the hub becomes overwhelmed, delays and miscommunications occur, frustration and stress increase, and peripheral members feel loss of autonomy.

The main difference here is between minority influence and conformity. While the former refers to being persuaded by a minority group, conformity can be defined as coming into line with majority attitudes and behaviours.
In principle, conformity can be based on normative influence or informational influence: the former is social influence based on the need to be accepted and approved of by other group members, and the latter social influence is based on acquiring new information from other group members, which is accepted as evidence about reality.

These results suggest that ‘production blocking’ is indeed an important factor explaining the inferiority of interactive brainstorming groups. This suggests that it may be more effective to ask group members to develop their ideas separately, and only then have these ideas expressed, discussed and evaluated in a subsequent joint meeting (see Delbecq, van de Ven & Gustafson, 1975).

Viewing people from different groups as individuals is referred to as decategorization and viewing people from different subgroups (such as Scots and English) as members of a single superordinate group is referred to as recategorization, with both being used to reduce ingroup-outgroup categorizations and thus reducing prejudice toward outgroups. Intergroup contact is another type of prejudice reduction strategy aimed at improving intergroup relations by increasing the amount of contact they have with each other.

All of the above have been identified as motives related to our need for affiliation and to seek out the company of others.