Fundamentals of Groups 2
Introduction
In this week's readings, the book of Social Psychology discusses social influence and the
three processes, group processes, and how performance and conflict happen when working in a
group. Social influences that move us are not funny but potentially hazardous to our health.
(Chadee, 2021) There are many different types of influences that affect people and come in
different ways, shapes, and sizes. Chapter 7 of Social Psychology discusses Social Influence as
“Automatic” and the three processes; conformity, compliance, and obedience. In Chapter 8,
Group Process is discussed and what a group is and why to join a group. There is discussion also
about how individuals in groups are affected, problems and solutions to group performance, and
how conflict happens in groups.
The other readings discuss exploring social identity and the ‘Black Sheep Effect” and The
myth of conformity on adolescents and abstention from unhealthy drinking behaviors. The
authors of Social Identity and the “ Black Sheep Effect” paper set out to explore the degree of
how student athletes and non-athletes show favoritism and out-group bias. In the myth of
conformity paper, there is discussion how adolescents are influenced by peer groups and how
adolescents are affected by the friendships they have.
Body
Social Influence
Social Influence refers to the ways that people are affected by the real and imagined
pressures of others. (Chadee, 2021) There are three forms that look at that influence and that put
pressure on an individual. The first form is conformity which means the tendency to change our
perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with social or group norms.
Fundamentals of Groups 3
(Chadee, 2021) People who are conformist tend to look at how they are unique, different, or
follow what others say or do. People have mixed feelings about conformity because they feel it
necessary to maintain communities and be at peace. When people are part of the conformity
group, it can tend to be harmful to the individual because they are trying to fit in the group that
they are part of. There are two different reasons people conform, one informational and
normative. The informational influence is the influence that produces conformity when a person
believes others are correct in their judgements. (Chadee, 2021) This is when the individual has
the desire to be right and make good judgments of what is going on in the world around them.
The individual also wants to assume when others agree on something, they must be right.
(Chadee, 2021) Normative influence is an influence that produces conformity when a person
fears the negative social consequences of appearing deviant. (Chadee. 2021) This is also a fear of
ostracism, individuals do not want to be rejected, neglected, or ignored. An individual will do
their best to fit in the group, by participating in the activities that the group they are with, even
though they really don’t want to so they have no fear.
Compliance
Compliance is changes in behavior that are elicited by direct requests. (Chadee, 2021)
Compliance is situations that call for help, and pop-up ads are used to lure people in.
Psychological traps are set to get individuals to do the requests and it is very difficult for people
to get out of these traps. Tactics go by various colorful names, including the lure, the 1-in5 prize
technique, the dump-and chase technique, the disrupt-then-reframe technique, and the driving
Fundamentals of Groups 3
toward a goal technique. (Chadee, 2021) Being mindless with compliance is a way people use a
simple phrase requesting to use something because the person is in a hurry to complete a task.
The norm of reciprocity is how an individual treats others. We treat others as they treat us and on
the negative side of this norm an individual goes against another individual causing harm. On the
positive side of this norm, an individual feels that when someone has helped them, they should
repay them by helping them. The norm of reciprocity contributes to the predictability and
fairness of social interaction. (Chadee, 2021) Settings traps is another strategy that is used in
compliance and when doing this individuals that use this use a method using two or more
requests. The foot-in-the- door technique is a two-step compliance technique in which an
influencer sets the stage for the real request by first getting a person to comply with a much
smaller request.(Chadee, 2021) An example of this, would be a sales person going out to homes
and stating, “I will give you a free first aid kit, if I can share information on fire safety.” The
individual then agrees to let this person come to their home and share information, not knowing
that they are going to also talk about the safety of the smoke detectors in their home and show
them different ones to get them to purchase the ones they are selling. There are two more
two-step compliance techniques, low-balling and door-in-the-face techniques. Lowballing is
when there is when the influencer secures an agreement with a request but then increases the size
of the request by revealing hidden cost. (Chadee, 2021) Door-in-the-face technique is when an
influencer places the real request with one that is so large that it is rejected. (Chadee, 2021)
Individuals are faced with these techniques each and everyday of their lives and when making a
decision on what to do, it is very hard and not easy to get out of. When an influencer begins with
Fundamentals of Groups 4
an inflated request, then decreases its apparent size by offering a discount or bonus is called
that’s-not-all technique. (Chadee,2021) All of these techniques are two-step processes and
involve a request from one size to another and manipulate individuals into how they feel they
should commit, obligate themselves to the request.
Obedience
Obedience is a behavior change produced by the commands of authority. (Chadee, 2021)
People tend to react to authority and how easily they can be led by authority. As we all are taught
from birth, it is important that we have respect for an individual who is in the authoritative
position. There are times when individuals that are in an authoritative position tend to become
where they order people around all the time and people look more like servants instead of
employees. There is the obedient participant who listens to the authoritative person and does
what they are supposed to do no matter what they feel like, such as wanting to stop working on a
project. An individual’s characteristics make a difference depending on what situation they are in
and how they react. Some individuals will be more obedient than others because of the situation
that they are in. Another personality characteristic may make someone vulnerable or resistant to
destructive obedience. (Chadee. 2021) The authority figure depends on how a person looks in the
position and plays a major role in how an individual will be obedient. The victim is an individual
who is being obedient or resisting to follow what they are told to do. The procedure is how the
individual accepts being constantly told what to do and how they react to being obedient. The
theory that social influence depends on the strength, immediacy, and number of source persons
relative to target persons is the social impact theory. (Chadee, 2021) The strength is the source
Fundamentals of Groups 5
that shows the stronger the source, the greater the influence and people will more than likely
make judgments of others. Immediacy refers to a source’s proximity in time and space to the
target. (Chadee,2021) When the number of sources increases, the influence of individuals also
increases. Social influence more than likely will occur when an individual is in a certain
situation.
Groups
What is a group and why would an individual join a group? A group is a set of
individuals who interact overtime and have shared fate, goals, and identity. (Chadee, 2021) An
individual joins a group because they want to feel that they belong and have a meaning and
purpose to feel their self-worth. When an individual does not feel they belong or have a
meaningful purpose, they feel rejected from a group and this causes a painful experience in their
life. When an individual has joined and become part of a group they have to adjust and see how
socializing in the group works. Three things that are important for newcomers to learn are the
roles they are expected to play in the group, what the norms of the group are, and how cohesive
the group is. (Chadee,2021) When individuals are in groups they are in the presence of others.
Three important effects that the presence of others can have on individuals are social facilitation,
social loafing, and deindividuation. (Chadee,2021) Social facilitation affects others on how they
perform on a task, and with having others around, an individual will have a hard time completing
a task. Social loafing affects an individual completing a task because they feel when they are
asked to do something, it should be done as a group not individually. Deindividuation is when
Fundamentals of Groups 6
the loss of a person’s sense of individuality, the reduction of normal constraints against defiant
behavior, and occurs in the presence of others. In group performance there are problems that
happen and solutions that help with how the groups perform. The losses in group performance is
how reduction of the group affects how productive the group is completing the process. When a
group increases their performance they show process gain by doing better than an individual in
the group. Brainstorming is a technique that attempts to increase the production of creative ideas
by encouraging group members to speak freely without criticizing their own or others’
contributions. (Chadee, 2021) In a group, there is also conflict, which shows how groups work
together or compete against each other. There are different types of dilemmas that come when
working in groups which are social dilemma, prisoner’s dilemma, and resource dilemma. Social
dilemma is when an individual has the notion to pursue their self-interest and sometimes it can
be destructive to others. The prisoner’s dilemma is when one party must make either cooperative
or competitive moves in relation to another party. (Chadee, 2021) When an individual chooses a
competitive way, it is because it is their interests. Resource dilemmas affect individuals because
they choose to only share information with only two or more people. There are two types of
resource dilemmas; common dilemma and public good dilemma. When people react to dilemmas
they feel that they are exposed to others. People tend to expose others so that they have that
feeling of how their outcome is better than others. When working in a group, it is best to share
the responsibilities and share all information equally.
Fundamentals of Groups 7
Conclusion
In these chapters, there is discussion about how social influence affects an individual.
Social influence affects people by being pressured or how they feel someone has views of
themselves. How people react to another person, how the behaviors show from that person
because of how they are looked at and made to feel. Social influence and being accepted into a
group is how a person accepts being a part of something they enjoy and having that feeling of
belonging. It is so important that an individual feels accepted. In social groups, all individuals
should be a part of that group by being included in what is going on. All individuals of a group
should share all information with everyone that is in the group. This will help keep complications
and problems from coming about within the group. Inclusion is very important to a person
throughout their life.
Fundamentals of Groups 8
References
Kassin, S., Fein, S, & Markus, H. R. (2021). Social Psychology, 11th edition.
(pp. 264-351) Cengage Learning, Inc.
Hewley, L. R, Hosch, H. M., Bovaird, J. A., (2014). Exploring Social Identity Theory and the
“Black Sheep Affect” Among College Student-athletes and Non-athletes. Journal of Sport
Behavior; 37(1), 56-76. www.proquest.com
Rees, C., Wallace, D. (2014). The myth of conformity: Adolescents and abstention from
unhealthy drinking behaviors. Social Science & Medicine; Vol. 125, 151-162
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.040
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