Psych 272

Group Dynamics

I. Introduction

• A. Two thirds of our waking day is spent in groups.

• B. Definition of a Group: Two or more people where some form of social exchange takes place (i.e., mutual social influence).

• e.g., football game, elevator interaction

C. Group Size

• Dyads (2 people)

• Triads (3 people)

• 4 to 6 people

• 7 or more people

• ***

• ***

• ****

• ***

II. History of Group Dynamics• A. The Group Mind

• 1. Freud: The Primal Horde

• 2. Le Bon and Tarde: The Primal Herd

• 3. The Group Mind concept left social psychology flat on its back.

• B. The Bell, Book, and Candle of Group Dynamics

• 1. The Bell: Social Facilitation

• 2. The Book: Management and the Worker

• 3. The Candle: Kurt Lewin

111. Zajonc’s Theory of SocialFacilitation --The Bell

• A. Research investigated the effects of the mere presence of another person on performance.

• B. First experimental study: Triplett (1898), studied speed of children turning a reel alone or along with another P. 2nd P led to faster speed for first P.

• C. Two Types of Effects: Co-action and Audience

1. Audience Effects• a. Travis (1925) - pursuit rotor task,

• Audience > Alone

• b. Pessin (1933) - learning a list of nonsense syllables (e.g. gyx, pix, kip, pln)

• Audience < Alone

• c. Assuming equal difficulty, why the difference in the two studies?

• Answer: ***ng

• e.g., typing, golf

• d. Zajonc’s Theory of Social Facilitation handles this.

• 1) Theory: The mere presence of another person increases arousal level. Arousal level increases the probability that the dominant response will be emitted. For old learning, the dominant response is the correct response. For new learning, the dominant response is likely to be an error.

• 2) This theory is derived from Hull’s Drive x Habit Theory or :

• E = H X D, where E equals reaction potential of a particular response, H = habit strength, and D = drive or arousal level.

• For social facilitation, Hi D would be the presence of another, Low D would be no one present. For old well learned tasks, the correct response would have higher habit strength (H) than the incorrect response. For new, unlearned tasks, H would be higher for errors than the correct response.

• e.g. 1. Old task, Alone

• Correct response, H = 10, D = 5, H X D = 50

• Incorrect response, H = 1, D = 5, H X D = 5

• e.g. 2. Old task, Audience

• Correct Response, H = 10, D = 10, H X D = 100

• Incorrect Response, H = 1, D = 10, H X D = 10

• e.g. 3. New task, Alone• Incorrect response, H = 10, D = 5, H X D = 50• Correct response, H = 1, D = 5, H X D = 5• e.g. 4. New task, Audience• Incorrect Response, H = 10, D = 10, H X D = 100 • Correct Response, H = 1, D = 10, H X D = 10

2. Co-action Effects

• a) Bayer - Chickens Eating, Chicken A eats until full, Chicken B is then introduced, Chicken A eats 75% more food.

• b) Chen - Ants and nest building

• Day 1 Day 3 Day 5

Alone(6hrs)

In pairs(6hrs)

Alone(6hrs)

2. Co-action Effects

• a) Bayer - Chickens Eating, Chicken A eats until full, Chicken B is then introduced, Chicken A eats 75% more food.

• b) Chen - Ants and nest building•

• Result: 2:1 performance per ant on Day 3 only

Day 1 Day 3 Day 5

Alone(6hrs)

In pairs(6hrs)

Alone(6hrs)

• C. Gates and Allee --Cockroaches • D. Swingle - Goldfish (funny story)• IV. Support and Attack• A. Fits Most Studies• B. Other physiological evidence: Crowded mice, monkeys,

have higher levels of hydrocortisone, a measure of arousal• C. Largest Attack: Audience effects are due to evaluation

apprehension and not mere presence. e.g. Henchy and Glass -Expert vs. Non-Expert Audience, Cotrell, Non-blindfolded vs. blindfolded audience

D. Retaliation - Return of the Cockroaches (Zajonc, Heingarter, and Herman)

yahoo!

• E. Conclusions: Mere Presence does work, Evaluation Apprehension may increase effect.

III. Management and the Worker (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939) -- The Book• A. Great, but very thick book ---reads like a mystery.

• B. Researchers used “Scientific Management”

• Inputs Labour Units Outputs

• C. Variables

• 1. Proper lighting

• 2. Rest Pauses

• 3. Shorter or Longer Working Hours

• 4. Incentives

D. Research• 1. Illumination Experiments -- Field (Hawthorne

Plant of Western Electric)

05

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Per

from

ance

Low

Hig

h

Low

Illumination

Performance as a function of Illumination

ExpectedActual

• What was this effect called ?

• ** : First Real Discovery of Demand Characteristics

• 2. Relay Assembly Room Experiment:

THE RELAY ASSEMBLY ROOM EXPERIMENT

13 PERIODS RANGING FROM TWO TO THIRTY WEEKS

PERIOD:I. IN REGULAR DEPARTMENT

11. INTRODUCTION TO TEST ROOM

111. SPECIAL GROUP RATEIV. TWO 5 MINUTE REST PERIODSV. TWO 10 MINUTE REST PERIODS

VI. SIX 5 MINUTE REST PERIODS

VII. 15 MINUTE A.M. AND P.M. REST PERIODS, HALF HOURLUNCH

VIII.SAME AS VII. BUT 4:30 STOP INSTEAD OF 10 HR.DAY (8 TO 6)

IX. SAME AS VII. BUT 4:00 STOP

X. BACK TO VII.

XI. BACK TO VII (BUT SATURDAYS (8-12) OFF)Xll. BACK TO III (NO LUNCH PERIODS OR REST AGAIN)

Xlll.BACK TO III (BUT BRING YOUR LUNCH AND EAT ON THE JOB)

•Relay assembly room results: Disaster•3. More Research: failure

•4. Solution: “Why Don’t We Ask Them?”•a) Interviews: Directive to Client Centered•b) Discovered: “Our Group”, “Us”, “We”

•5. More Research: Success at Last! Discovered the small group and things like “Binging”, Sabotage, Absenteeism as weapons of the small group

• 6. Benefits

• 1. Small Group Processes

• 2. Demand Characteristics

• 3. Coffee Breaks, Lunches

• 4. 40 hr. or less work week

• 5. Personnel Directors

• 6. Human Relations Departments

• 7. IO (Industrial/Organizational Departments

IV. Kurt Lewin --The Candle

• i. Field Theory: B = f(P,E) = Lsp• ii. Father of Group Dynamics and some say,

Social Psychology• A. Most Group Research Traced to Him,

e.g., Festinger, Deutsch, Schachter, Cartwright, Latane’, Sorrentino

• (Cartwright-Atkinson-Raynor-Sorrentino)

• B. Research - two examples• 1. Leaderless Group Discussion• Who uses this today?• Alcoholics Anonymous• Weight Watchers• Internet Chat Groups• 2. Leadership Styles• Democratic - happiest, best quality• Authoritarian - most productive, wildest in absence of authority• Laissez Faire - least productive

V. Summary and Future Research

• 1. Groups are important

• 2. Groups can be studied scientifically

• 3. Group research is again on the rise --particularly when it comes to intergroup relations and intergroup conflict