Term 2

Learn Psychology with

Vishal Pandey

Chapter 7
Social Influence & Group Processes
 Social Influence & Group Processes
• Groups:
• A group may be defined as an organised system of two or more individuals, who are interacting
and interdependent, who have common motives, have a set of role relationships among its
members, and have norms that regulate the behaviour of its members.

• Crowd
• A collection of people who may be present at a place/situation by chance.

• Teams
• A collection of individuals often have complementary
skills and are committed to common goal or purpose.
 Social Influence & Group Processes
• Difference between Groups & Teams
• In groups, performance is dependent on contributions of individual members. In teams, both
individual contributions and teamwork matter.
• In groups, the leader or whoever is heading the groups hold responsibility for the work. However
in teams, although there is a leader, members hold themselves responsible.

• Audience – Collection of people who have assembled for a special purpose.

• Mob - Homogeneity of thought & behaviour as well as

impulsivity
 Why do People join Groups

• Security
• Status
• Self-esteem
• Satisfaction of one’s psychological & social needs
• Goal achievement
• Provide knowledge & information

GPS - 4
 Group Formation
• Proximity
• Similarity
• Common Motives & Goals

Stages of Group Formation - Tuckman

• Forming Stage
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning
 Group Structures
• Roles
• Roles are socially defined expectations that individuals in a given situation are expected to fulfill.
• Norms
• Norms are expected standards of behaviour and beliefs established, agreed upon, and enforced by
group members.
• They may be considered as group’s ‘unspoken rules’
• Status
• Status refers to the relative social position given to group members by others.
• Ascribed (given may be because of one’s seniority)
• Achieved
• Cohesiveness
• Refers to togetherness, binding, or mutual attraction among group
members.
• Team spirit or ‘we feeling’ or sense of belongingness to the group.
 Type of Groups (SP-IF-IO)
• Primary Group
• Pre-existing formations
• Face to face Interaction
• Members have close physical proximity
• They share warm emotional bonds.
• Major role in developing values and ideals of the individual during early stages of
development.
• Boundaries are less permeable.
• Secondary Group
• Relationships among members re more impersonal,
indirect, and less frequent.
• It is easy to leave and join another group.
 Type of Groups
• Formal Group
• It is based on some specific rules or laws
• Members have definite roles.
• There are set of norms which help in establishing order.

• Informal Group
• No Rules or laws
• There is close relationship among members.

• Ingroup & Outgroup

 Influence of Group on Individual’s behaviour
• Social Facilitation (an individual performing an activity alone in the presence of
others)

• Social Loafing (an individual performing an activity along with the others as part of the
larger group)
• Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task.
• Experiments done by Latene & his associates.
 Why does social loafing occur?

• Group members feel less responsible for the overall task being performed & therefore exert less
effort
• Motivation of members decreases because they realise that their contributions will not be
evaluated on individual basis
• The performance of the group is not to be compared with other groups.
• There is an improper coordination (or not coordination) among members.
• Belonging to the same group is not important for members. It is only an aggregate of individuals.
 Social loafing may be reduced by?

• Making the efforts of each person identifiable.

• Increasing the pressure to work hard (making group members committed to successful taks
performance)
• Increasing the apparent importance or value of a tasks.
• Making people feel that their individual contribution is important.
• Strengthening group cohesiveness which increases the motivation for successful group outcome.
 Group Polarisation
• It has been found that groups are more likely to take extreme decisions that
individuals alone.

• Either leave
• Or Punish

• Group Think – Each member believes that all members agree upon a particular decision or a policy

• Whatever the initial position in the group, this position becomes much
stronger as a result of discussions in the group. This strengthening of the
group’s initial position as a result of group interaction & discussion is referred
to as Group Polarisation.
• Extreme Positions – from very weak to very strong.
• Bandwagon effect.
• Perceive as ingroup.
 Conformity, Compliance & Obedience
• Social Influence
• Process of Social Influence
• Conformity
• Compliance
• Obedience

• Conformity – behaving according to the group members, person who don’t conform (deviants or non-
conformists)

• Kelman – three forms of Social influence

• Compliance – There are external conditions that force the individual to accept the influence
of the significant other. Or . Behaving in a particular way in response to a request made by
someone.
• Compliance can also takes place even without a norm.
• Identification – refers to influence process based on agreement-seeking or identity-seeking
• Internalisation – is a process based on information-seeking
• Obedience – A behaviour is a response to a person in authority.
 Conformity, Compliance & Obedience
• All three indicate the influence of others on an individual’s behaviour.

• Obedience is the most direct & explicit form of social influence, whereas compliance is less direct than
obedience because someone has requested thus you comply ( here, the probability of refusal is there)
Conformity is the most indirect form (you are conforming because you don’t want to deviate from the
norm)
 Conformity
• Why such a tendency appears to be natural or spontaneous

1. Norms represent a set of unwritten & informal rules of behaviour

2. People feel uncomfortable if they are considered ‘different’ from others.
3. The norm is seen as reflecting the views and beliefs of the majority.

• Sherif & Asch – Autokinetic effect & Asch technique

Determinants of Conformity
1. Size of the group
2. Size of the minority
3. Nature of the task
4. Public or Private expression of behaviour
5. Personality
 Compliance
• The foot-in-the-door technique
• The deadline technique
• The door-in-the-face technique
 Obedience
• Why do People obey when they know that their behaviour is harming others?

• Non-responsible action
• Authority
• Gradual increasing authority
• Fast pace events - Riots
 Cooperation & Competition
• Cooperation – when groups work together to achieve shared goals
• Group rewards not individual
• It can be transformed into competition for self interest.

• Competitive goals are set in such a way that each individual can get her/his goal only if others don’t
attain their goals
• Cooperative goals can be achieved only if other members of the group also attain the goal.

Determinants of Cooperation & Competition

• Reward Structure
• Interpersonal Communication
• Reciprocity
 Social Identity
• Self identity is individual and at times we perceive ourselves as a member of group.
• Ingroup & Outgroup through social identity.

Intergroup Conflict : Nature & Causes

• Reasons for Group Conflicts
• Lack of Communication or Faulty communication
• Relative Deprivation
• Belief that one party is better than other
• The other group doesn’t respect our norms
• Desire for retaliation for some harm done in the past
• Biased Perceptions
• In groups, people are more competitive as well as aggressive (Material resources – Territory &
money, Social resources – Respect & esteem
• Perceived inequality
 Intergroup Conflict : Nature & Causes
• Present day society is fraught with various intergroup conflicts. These are related to
caste, class, religion, region, language.

• Gardner Murphy – In the minds of Men

• Structural – Poverty, economic & social stratification, inequality, limited opportunity.

• Group – social identity, resources & unequal power relations
• Individual – beliefs, biased attitudes & personality

• Consequences of intergroup conflicts by Deutsch

• Poor communication happens
• Groups start magnifying their differences
• Each side tries to increase its own power & legitimacy.
• Once conflict starts, several other factors lead to escalation of conflict.
 Conflict Resolution Strategies
• Introduction to superordinate goals
• Altering perceptions
• Increasing intergroup contacts
• Redrawing group boundaries
• Negotiations
• Structural solutions
• Equality
• Need
• Equity
• Respect for other group’s norms.