Psych 272 Group Dynamics

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Psych 272 Group Dynamics
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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

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C. Group Size

• Dyads (2 people)
• Triads (3 people)
• 4 to 6 people
• 7 or more people

• Delicate Balance of Power

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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

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111. Zajoncs 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

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1. Audience Effects

• a. Travis (1925) - pursuit rotor task,
• Audience gt Alone
• b. Pessin (1933) - learning a list of nonsense
  syllables (e.g. gyx, pix, kip, pln)
• Audience lt Alone
• c. Assuming equal difficulty, why the difference
  in the two studies?
• Answer
• e.g., typing, golf

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• d. Zajoncs 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 Hulls 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.

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• 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 100h
• Incorrect Response, H 1, D 10, H X D 10

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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

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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 21 performance per ant

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• 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

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D. Retaliation - Return of the Cockroaches
(Zajonc, Heingarter, and Herman)
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• E. Conclusions Mere Presence does work,
  Evaluation Apprehension may increase effect.

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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

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D. Research

• 1. Illumination Experiments -- Field (Hawthorne
  Plant of Western Electric)

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• What was this effect called ?
• First Real Discovery of
  Demand Characteristics
• 2. Relay Assembly Room Experiment
• Results Disaster

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• 3. More Research failure
• 4. Solution Why Dont 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

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• 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

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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

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

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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