PAGE 1 FINALS

PSYCH321 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
MIDTERM
(GROUP INFLUENCE TOPIC TOPIC)

Submitted by

GILLIAN P. OSABEL

May 14, 2024

PAGE 2 PSYCH321 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FINALS

PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL LOAFING IN

ONLINE LEARNING GROUPS: A STUDY OF
PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND U.S. NAVAL WAR
COLLEGE STUDENTS
BY SHERRY L. PIEZON AND WILLIAM D.
FERREE

CONTEXT: METHODOLOGY:

This research closely study and examine the This study involved collecting data through a
social loafing phenomenon in the online web-based survey administered to 227
learning groups, particularly in the context of participants, including both Naval War
how they perceive social loafing and the College students and public university
effects of it in the facet of psychosocial. The students. ​ They employed survey included
researchers compare the Naval War College questions related to self-reported social
students with the public university students loafing, perception of social loafing in others,
when it comes to this discourses. task visibility, contributions, dominance,
distributive justice, and sucker effect. ​
As a way of discerning the objectives of this
research that is mentioned above, the With regards to data analysis, the researchers
researchers collects information from their utilize descriptive statistics and correlations
participants through a web-based survey and were analyzed using the collected
explores topics such as group dynamics, information from the participants.
teamwork, motivation, collaboration, and the
influence of technology on group processes.
Furthermore, this research also aims to
understand the pervasiveness of social loafing
and it’s factors that may influence its
occurrence in online learning environments.
PAGE 3 PSYCH321 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FINALS

PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL LOAFING IN

ONLINE LEARNING GROUPS: A STUDY OF
PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND U.S. NAVAL WAR
COLLEGE STUDENTS
BY SHERRY L. PIEZON AND WILLIAM D.
FERREE

INSTRUMENT:

The research instrument used in this study graduate students that are studying in
is a web-based survey that consist of series online courses at either a major university in
of questions related to numerous the Southeast United States or in one of the
characeriestics of social loafing in online U.S. Naval War College web-enabled
learning groups. ​ The survey assessed courses.
participants' perceptions of social loafing,
task visibility, individual contributions, THEORY:
distributive justice, sucker effect, and
dominance. ​ Participants were also asked to The researchers make use of ‘The
rate their agreement or disagreement with Ringelmann Effect.’ by Engineer Maximilien
statements using a Likert scale. ​ The survey Ringelmann
was administered online at the end of
participants' group projects in their online SAMPLING:
courses. ​
The researcher used a random sampling in

POPULATION: order to draw their participants.

The participants were 227 with 174 male

participants and 53 female participants that
has an age ranged between 20 and 55 years
old undergraduate and
PAGE 4 PSYCH321 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FINALS

PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL LOAFING IN

ONLINE LEARNING GROUPS: A STUDY OF
PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND U.S. NAVAL WAR
COLLEGE STUDENTS
BY SHERRY L. PIEZON AND WILLIAM D.
FERREE

RESULT:

The result of this research showed that even in
online learning, social loafing is still prevalent. It is
actually exist more since in virtual/online learning
there are a lot of barriers such as you are not able
to see each other, you can not possibly check their
work on a real time, you basically can see just the
result and you also don’t know if they really help
or did it themselves or not.
Variable such as Hawthorne effect and Faking
good is also apparent in their study as the
researchers found the percentage is lower in the
self report when it comes to social loafing, the
researchers concluded that it might be because
they know that what they are doing is being
observed by the researchers.
LEARNING INSIGHTS:
Social Loafing or what we usually call it in the
Philippines, “Pabigat” has always been a hot topic
and is prevalent even more, especially in an
academic setting,
social loafers must be the most hated by team
leaders, and as someone who has been appointed
leader in every group activity, homework, and
discussion, I don’t like working with them, and if I
can just avoid them all the times, I will do it in a
heartbeat. The school works can be challenging
but it can become more difficult if you have
socially loafer team members, they are more
draining than the activity, and seeing that they
are more prevalent in an online setup based on
this study feels kind of scary since in RTU we
utilize online classes more.
I was also surprised to read in this paper that
there is a positive correlation between self-
reported social loafing and dominance in online
learning groups. It suggests that when someone
displays a dominant behavior or perhaps when
the team members see that there is someone
hardworking in their team (i.e. leaders), they will
likely increase social loafing. I am half-half about
this result actually. I think it varies for people that
has dominant or hardworking.
PAGE 5 PSYCH321 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL LOAFING IN
ONLINE LEARNING GROUPS: A STUDY OF
PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND U.S. NAVAL WAR
COLLEGE STUDENTS
BY SHERRY L. PIEZON AND WILLIAM D.
FERREE
I can confidently says that I exude dominance
especially with group projects, I think its also
because I am always the leader, I had to stay level-
headed and command respect from my team
members. Though I have worked with social loafers
before, I never let them just loaf around. I use my
dominancy to command them to move, disseminate
the task equally, and ensure that all of them are
working their part by monitoring their work all the
time. I also don’t make jokes and always make my
voice sound serious whenever I meet my team
members for group projects or activities for them to
know that I will not tolerate them loafing around.
But I also encountered a leader before once when I
was a group member, she’s hardworking and really
smart. However, a lot of our members took
advantage of that traits of her, they began loafing
around, and instead of addressing it to the group,
she just resort in making their part to compensate
for their absence. I lose my motivation that time that
I also notice that the quality of my work become
poor, and I am almost loafing around as well.
FINALS
It’s not like I am making myself high because of this
comparison, I am not perfect as well, and I also
shortfall in other aspects as a leader. That’s why, I
learned from this study that in order for social loafers
to be reduce or to lessen the tendency of people to
loaf around is to put them in a group wherein will
not tolerate them and will really push them to work.
POSSIBLE RESEARCH EXPLORATION:
I think it is good to have an experiment about the
leadership style. Just like what I have mentioned
above. It’ll be more helpful for people–leaders to
know what suits their social loafers the most when it
comes to leadership style. An experiment that will
investigate the relationship of permissive leadership
style to the social loafers, and the relationship of
authoritarian/democratic leadership style to the
social loafers as well, and test what style can
increase social loafing behavior more. Moreover, I
think it’s interesting to study the ‘Weaponize
Incompetence’ in connected with the sucker effect
and social loafing.
PAGE 6 PSYCH321 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY FINALS

PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL LOAFING IN

ONLINE LEARNING GROUPS: A STUDY OF
PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND U.S. NAVAL WAR
COLLEGE STUDENTS
BY SHERRY L. PIEZON AND WILLIAM D.
FERREE

REFERENCE:

Piezon, S. L., & Ferree, W. D. (2008). Perceptions of

Social Loafing in Online Learning Groups: A study of
Public University and U.S. Naval War College
students. International Review of Research in Open
and Distance Learning, 9(2).
https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i2.484