Johnson and Johnson (1987) defined a group, as two or more individuals in face-to-face contact, were each member is aware of their membership within the group, aware of others who belong to the group and also aware of their optimistic interdependence as they endeavor to accomplish shared goals. This essay will present evidence to explain Jake’s behavior within the group by using Social Psychology with reference to the concept of social loafing.
Social Loafing is a term coined by Latane, Williams and Harking (1979), which refers to the decrease in an individual’s effort when working within a group compared to when they are working alone. They conducted research and found that when individuals were requested to work together in order to produce high noise levels, there was a 29% reduction in individual effort in groups that contained two people, 49% in groups that contained four people and, 60% groups that contained 6 people.(Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979).
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Social loafing can result in negative consequences for individuals within a group and also for the group as a collective.
When viewed as weak contributors to the group this can affect the groups dynamic and cause problems within it sometimes resulting in resentment and conflict. For example, if only four of the six group members are contributing to a task it can result in a divided in the group. This divide is know as the “in group” and “out group’ and as a result causing emotional tension and less productivity (Latane, 1979). The larger the group the more likely it will be that social loafing will occur. Loafing can be instigated or reinforced by the nonexistence of an individual assessment caused by the environment (Price & Harrison, 2006). This transpires as working in a group environment results in a decrease of self-awareness (Mullen, 1983). For example when effort of sales are measured within a group, and individual is more likely to loaf than if they were measured
individually. Green (1995) offered four main explanations for social loafing. Firstly ‘Free-riding’ which is an individual’s reduction in effort when members assume that others in the group will solve the issue or problem at hand. Ringelmann,(1913) explored peoples efficiency in performing tasks in various group sizes. He found that the more people in a rope pulling task group the less effort members put into pulling the rope. In other words the larger the group the less force exerted per individual. Secondly Equalisation of perceived output. This refers to individuals feeling that if their fellow group members may become free riders then their individual response to this may be to loaf in order to bring equality to the situation. They may think that if other members are not contributing then why should they. Thirdly ‘evaluation apprehension’, refers to the occurrence of feelings of anxiousness about being negatively viewed or not viewed positively by other group members. Lastly matching to standard this refers to an individual’s apprehension over the possibility of being evaluated by the experimenter. As a result loafing may occur because individuals do not have performance standard clear enough to match. If group members are afforded with clear expectations and standards then social loafing within the group will reduce. Tripplett (1898) conducted a study where school children were asked to wind fishing roads alone or in pairs. He found that when in pairs some children were faster at winding the roads, he concluded that this was due to facilitation of competitive instincts in the presence of others. On the other hand some of the other children’s performance was hindered due to overstimulation.
Ringelmann effect is where the productivity of a players performance can be lowered by as much as 50 percent Given the group becomes bigger. This is because they believe that others will compensate for you and also that your effort will make little difference to the team. In basketball it is noticeable when somebody's performance decreases as their team mates are covering and helping them more on defence. Social loafing is where members of a group do not put in 100% in a group or team. this will be because of some of situations which include loss of self belief and being anxious. once more in basketball you could inform someone who is social loafing as their defence as they may be continuously desiring help
My analysis is on the film The Goonies. While I view the movie and determine the various norms, behaviors, roles and interaction between group members, as well as individuals the examination within the realm of film can present many of the same components. Thus, our group selected this movie to analyze based on its formation of a cohesive problem-solving group full of unforgettable characters. The Goonies portray many different theories and aspects of small group communication.
In this level, we are switching from individual behavior to group behavior. A group is define as two or more individual, interacting and interdependent who are initially coming together to achieve particular objectives (Stephen P.Robbins, Timothy A.Judge, 2014). There are two types of group which are formal group and informal group (Stephen P.Robbins, Timothy A.Judge, 2014). Group can bring a lot of advantages to all the group members. For instance, work as a group is able to generate positive synergy through coordinated effort that allows organization to increase performance.
Engleberg, Isa N. and Dianna R. Wynn. Working in Groups. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Topics explored with this group included; conversational skills, internet safety, bullying, conflict resolution, social media, and personal appearance. Accordingly, I was able to gain insight on how to plan activities tailored to the needs of the group as well as obtain tips on conducting groups effectively. Additionally, I was able to get a sense of the group dynamics, attain knowledge on the stages of a group through observing all the individuals belonging to the group, their uniqueness and how their personality impacted the group itself. Individuals were able to join the group at different stages hence; the forming stage was repeated each time a new member was recruited. This also provided me with the opportunity of gaining first-hand experience of the interaction on the basic dynamics on group stages of forming, norming, storming and
Social Loafing is an important concept that can be identifiable in our day to day lives such as through school work, household chores, employment and even sporting activities. The current research investigated the effect of social loafing on collective and coactive conditions through an experiment which asked participants to complete a brainstorming task asking them to list as many ways to use a pencil as they could. The results indicated that social loafing was non-significant in both collective and coactive conditions. However, group work improved the amount of answers the participants had. The results have important effects for reducing or eliminating social loafing to ensure that the participants are accountable for their own activities regardless if in an individual setting or group. Karau & Williams (1993) formed the conceptual idea that participants performing a group task would identify aspects of social loafing and thus having group cohesiveness would eliminate participant loafing. Shepperd, Stephen, Wright and Rex (1989) also established the social loafing concept to be related to impression management. Impression management being a goal directed conscious or unconscious process in which participants attempt to influence the perception of others (Stephen, Wright and Rex, 1989). In another theoretical concept of social loafing, Kerr (1983) demonstrated the free rider effect by addressing the role of the “sucker” in experiment groups. In stating this, it is evident that the many concepts surrounding social loafing derive from the same fundamentals. Though there are conflicting views within social loafing, results from this experiment do not show a significant difference of social loafing between collective groups and coact...
A. Preventing "Groupthink" Psychology Today. 20 Apr. 2011. The. Psychology Today.
Leaders will often separate in-group and out-group members based on similarities of the group member and the leader. Other characteristics that can play into it are age, gender, or even a member’s personality. A member can be granted in-group status if the leader thinks the member is competent and is going above and beyond to perform the job functions. As mentioned the two groups that members can fall into are in-group and out-group. In-group members are those that share similarities with the leader. Those similarities can be personality, work ethic, common interests, or even alma maters. In-group members often go above and beyond their job description and the leader does more for these members. In-group members will have their opinions and work ideas looked at in higher regard than out-group members. In-group members typically have higher job satisfaction within the group and are less likely to experience turnover. In-group members are often promoted within the organization f...
According to Toseland and Rivas (2005), group dynamics are “the forces that result from the interactions of group members” (p. 64). These forces refer to either the negative or positive influences towards meeting members’ socioemotional needs as well as goal attainment within a group (Toseland & Rivas, 2005), like within my class work group experience. Some of dynamics that continue to emerge and develop in my group is the effective interaction patterns and strong group cohesion, which has generated positive outcomes and group achievement thus far.
Stewart, G., Manz, C., & Sims, H., (1999). Teamwork and Group Dynamics. New York: Wiley. pp. 70- 125.
Dynamics are the forces at play that influence the behavior of a group. The feelings of inclusion or exclusion and who is responsible for what or how happy they are with it are some of the dynamics. How the meeting place or office is laid out, openly or as cubicles can affect how a team communicates. The enabling of hidden or side communication verses open group communication can adversely affect a team and the attitude. Rewards and recognition for great ideas and jobs well done should be given fairly and equally. No one should seem to be getting more privileges than others in a team. This could harbor feelings of resentment with the other members of that team. The way in which a team goes about solving problems, company policies or, the "status quo" can also affect the performance of a team (Team 2013).
Social Loafing is something everyone has experienced. Most likely if you do not like group work this is one of the main reasons why. Cherry explains social loafing as an event when members of a group have less input per person in a group than they would if they were working by themselves. (Cherry). This challenges the widespread belief that the net output of a group is more than that of an individual and therefore a group will be more productive. In 1913 a researcher named Ringelmann designed an experiment involving rope pulling to test the effect of social loafing. His experiment found that when an individual was placed in a group his or her effort was less than their individual effort. This effect continued to increase as the group size increased. Originally, there was a debate over whether the loss resulted from social loafing or loss of coordination as the group size increased. Latan, William, and Harkins (1979) conducted research that deceived participants into thinking they were working with a group and proved the decrease in effort was from social loafing not coordination loss (Latan, William, & Harkins, 1979).
our thought process, and how we contribute to the process of group work. This involves a
A group can be define as ‘any number of people who (1) interact with one another; (2) are psychologically aware of one another and (3) perceive themselves to be a group’ (Mullins, L, 2007, p.299). Certain task can only be performed by combined effort of a group. Organisation can use groups to carry out projects, which will help to achieve its overall aim. However, for the group to be successful they must understand what is expected of them and have the right skill to complete the task. . (Mullins, L, 2006)
Several experiments and researches have been conducted that have focused on how people behave in groups. The findings have revealed that groups affect peoples’ attitudes, behavior and perceptions. Groups are essential for personal life, as well as in work life.