Group Behavior

Kurt Lewin Field Theory ●Kurt Lewin ●Field Theory ●Interdependence ○Task ■Positive ■Negative-competition ○Fate-Jews position

Group Decision Making ●Most major decisions are made in groups. ●People assume that individuals make riskier decisions; Risky Shift. ●A tendency for individuals to become more extreme; Polarization. ●Why does this happen? ●“Two heads are better than one”/ Effectiveness of the group ●Social Loafing ● ●Groupthinking

Hawthorne Effect ●Hawthorne Effect ○ ●Based on a famous experiment ●Can also explain the Placebo Effect v=yfRVCaA5o18

Quick Concepts ●Great Person Theory ●Deindividualization ●

Vocabulary/ Terms ●-Great Person Theory: A person with leadership qualities relies on the right situation to become great, other wise they will just stay a leader. Ex) Martin Luther King Jr. ●-Interdependent: Mutually dependent; depending on each other. ○Task Interdependent: A task or a common goal creates a group’s motivation to rely on each other and move forward toward that goal. ■Positive: Success (or failure) of one person can bring success (or failure) to the whole group. ●Risky Shift: Greater willingness to take risks in decision making in a group than independent individuals. ● Polarization: Shift in attitude by members of a group toward more extreme positions than the ones held before the group discussion. ●Field Theory: A group comes into a psychological sense not because their members are similar to one another (however it can be), rather they exist when the people realize their success depends on the fate of the group ●Social Loafing: The tendency of people to exert less effort on a task when working in a group verses working individually. ●Hawthorne Effect: The principle that people will alter their behavior because of superiors attention and not necessarily because of any treatment. ●Group Thinking: Strong pressure (can be based on social status or intelligence level) that prevents people in a group from expressing critical ideas.

Citations ➢ "The Placebo Effect: What Is It?" WebMD. WebMD. Web. 17 Nov management/what-is-the-placebo-effect ➢ "Kurt Lewin." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Nov Web. 17 Nov ➢ "The Hawthorne Effect." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 3 Nov Web. 17 Nov ➢ "Hawthorne Studies." Experiments. Web. 17 Nov ➢ "Kurt Lewin: Groups, Experiential Learning and Action Research." Infedorg. Web. 17 Nov ➢ Morris, Charles G., and Albert A. Maisto. Psychology: An Introduction. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, P Print.