Social Influence and Group Processes

The One Thing

Groups shape individual behaviour through interaction, shared goals, norms, roles, and a sense of belonging. Although groups can promote cooperation, performance, and achievement, they may also produce conformity, social loafing, and group polarisation.

Who and What

• Group: A collection of two or more interacting people who share common goals, interests, or identity and influence one another. Groups generally involve interaction, interdependence, shared goals or interests, and a sense of belonging.
• Primary Group: A small group involving close, personal, and lasting relationships, such as family or close friends.
• Secondary Group: A larger or more formal group formed for a specific purpose, such as a class, club, or workplace team.
• Formal Group: A group created according to defined rules, positions, and objectives.
• Informal Group: A group that develops naturally through friendship, common interests, or personal connections.
• In-group: A group to which a person feels that they belong and with which they identify.
• Out-group: A group to which a person does not belong and which may be viewed as different from the in-group.
• Group Formation: The process through which people come together because of common motives, proximity, similarity, mutual dependence, or shared goals. Important motives include security, status, self-esteem, affiliation, power, and achievement of common goals.
• Group Norms: Shared rules and expectations that guide how group members should think and behave.
• Group Roles: Expected patterns of behaviour associated with a person’s position in a group, such as leader, organiser, or supporter.
• Group Cohesiveness: The degree of attraction, unity, and commitment members feel toward the group.
• Social Influence: The process by which a person’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviour are affected by other people or groups.
• Conformity: Changing one’s behaviour or opinions to match group expectations or norms.
• Social Facilitation: Improved performance on familiar or simple tasks when others are present. The presence of others may reduce performance on difficult or unfamiliar tasks.
• Social Loafing: The tendency of individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone, especially when individual contributions are not identified. A useful representation is:

Individual effort in a group < Individual effort when working alone, when personal contributions are difficult to identify.

• Group Polarisation: The strengthening or extreme movement of a group’s initial attitudes after group discussion. Discussion may produce either a more cautious or a more risky final position.

Causes and Consequences

• Interaction, common motives, proximity, similarity, mutual dependence, and shared goals encourage group formation. Groups also satisfy needs for security, status, self-esteem, affiliation, power, and achievement.

• Shared norms, roles, status, leadership, communication patterns, and cohesiveness structure group behaviour. These processes mean that group behaviour cannot be understood only by studying individuals.

• Group membership can provide belonging and cooperation, but it can also create pressure to conform and encourage favouritism towards the in-group over the out-group.

• The presence of other people can affect performance. Social facilitation may improve performance on familiar or simple tasks, but it may interfere with complex or unfamiliar tasks.

• Social loafing is more likely when group size is large, individual effort cannot be evaluated, the task seems unimportant, or members believe that others will compensate for their reduced effort.

• Social loafing can be reduced by making individual contributions identifiable, keeping groups small, assigning meaningful tasks, increasing group commitment, and providing feedback.

• Group discussion can produce group polarisation because members encounter persuasive arguments, compare their views with those of other members, and may wish to be accepted by the group.

• Group polarisation can increase confidence and extremity, particularly when opposing viewpoints are not considered. Consequently, group discussion does not always produce better decisions.

• Effective group functioning depends on suitable leadership, clear goals, balanced participation, trust, accountability, constructive conflict, cooperation, clear communication, shared responsibility, and respect for different opinions.

What Gets Asked

• Distinguish between primary and secondary groups, formal and informal groups, and in-groups and out-groups.
• Explain why groups form and how interaction, common goals, proximity, similarity, security, affiliation, and status contribute to group formation.
• Explain how norms, roles, leadership, communication, status, and cohesiveness influence group behaviour.
• Evaluate the conditions that produce social loafing and explain methods for reducing it, using the equation Individual effort in a group < Individual effort when working alone.
• Explain why the presence of others may improve performance on familiar tasks but reduce performance on difficult or unfamiliar tasks.
• Explain group polarisation and assess why group discussion may intensify opinions rather than improve decision-making.